SharpCap Forums

So I just used Sharpcap for polar alignment, achieved "Excellent", looked through the polarscope on my HEQ5 Pro - No Polaris?

Is the polarscope misaligned?

Or something else?

Tia

Martin

Hi Martin,

it's perfectly possible for a polarscope to be misaligned - I remember aligning my polarscope when I first got my NEQ6 - something along the lines of getting it pointing near to the horizon, center something distant in the cross hairs and then rotate the RA axis and check the same thing keeps centered.

On the other side of the coin, it's possible to get wrong results from SharpCap - most commonly if something bends/moves/flexes as you rotate the mount - see the troubleshooting guidelines for lots of discussion of what can go wrong and what to do about it.

https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.0/#Troubl ... 0Alignment


cheers,

Robin

Thanks for your reply Robin. I've previously aligned the polarscope using the procedure you describe. After good polar alignment with Sharpcap I'd have thought that Polaris would be visible within the Polarscope FoV - which is several degrees I think?

I guess i need to check the polarscope reticle alignment somehow.

Regards

Martin

Hi,

one thing to do is to see which polar alignment option (polarscope, sharpcap) gives less drift during imaging - that's the real test anyway. If SharpCap is giving drift then you probably have flex/movement of the guidescope or similar. If SharpCap's alignment seems to give good tracking then the polarscope is the chief suspect.

cheers,

Robin

Thanks again Robin

I'll check next time it's clear

Regards

Martin