Polar Alignment

Newbie question, I cannot quite see Polaris from where i would like to
use my (future) scope. Can see clear to the east and NW and south but
not north due to trees (can see about 50 deg and up).

Is there some way to align a scope on a GEM with GOTO and GPS without
seeing Polaris? It seems like it should be relatively simple to get
close given GPS and ability to align with other known stars and then
use drift method to come even closer.

While it is possible to align without seeing polaris it certainly is not as simple.
The "drift method" is tricky and takes quite a while (each check takes a few
minutes and many adjustments and checks are needed).

The good news is great alignment is not needed for anything but long
exposure photographic work. I own a 10" Meade LX-200 f6.3 and need to
roll it out and re-align it each time I use it. I replaced the cheap bubble level
that came on the mount with a higher quality pair of 3" carpenter levels and pay
close attention to setting the magnetic compass to corrected north. Once
it is dark and I actually turn the scop on it is usually very close to aligned
from the start, and "synching" on the first bright star makes it exact for any star
in the same quadrant of the sky as the sync star. If I slew all the way across
the sky it may end up off by about 1/2 a field of view (with a 26mm eyepiece)
but is very easy to center the new target and press sync again.

I use to spend about 30 minutes getting a "perfect" alignment at the start of
each night but once I got the mount dialed in (latitude and true north) I found
that a detailed alignment was not really needed for regular observing. What
IS needed is learning the sky well enough to be able to pick out a few bright
stars by name so you can check the alignment against them and re-sync if
necessary. By the way, watch out for daylight savings time, for the first year
I owned the scope I was baffled every 6 months when I suddenly could not
seem to align correctly (I use a laptop, The Sky Software, and a serial link).
Of course after a while I would remember to correct the relevant clocks so
the correct sidereal time was displayed and everything would make sense again.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:38:44 -0700, chansky wrote:

Newbie question, I cannot quite see Polaris from where i would like to
use my (future) scope. Can see clear to the east and NW and south but
not north due to trees (can see about 50 deg and up).

Is there some way to align a scope on a GEM with GOTO and GPS without
seeing Polaris? It seems like it should be relatively simple to get
close given GPS and ability to align with other known stars and then
use drift method to come even closer.

---
Gregory Phillips Seattle, Washington, USA

While it is possible to align without seeing polaris it certainly is not as simple.
The "drift method" is tricky and takes quite a while (each check takes a few
minutes and many adjustments and checks are needed).

The good news is great alignment is not needed for anything but long
exposure photographic work. I own a 10" Meade LX-200 f6.3 and need to
roll it out and re-align it each time I use it. I replaced the cheap bubble level
that came on the mount with a higher quality pair of 3" carpenter levels and pay
close attention to setting the magnetic compass to corrected north. Once
it is dark and I actually turn the scop on it is usually very close to aligned
from the start, and "synching" on the first bright star makes it exact for any star
in the same quadrant of the sky as the sync star. If I slew all the way across
the sky it may end up off by about 1/2 a field of view (with a 26mm eyepiece)
but is very easy to center the new target and press sync again.

I use to spend about 30 minutes getting a "perfect" alignment at the start of
each night but once I got the mount dialed in (latitude and true north) I found
that a detailed alignment was not really needed for regular observing. What
IS needed is learning the sky well enough to be able to pick out a few bright
stars by name so you can check the alignment against them and re-sync if
necessary. By the way, watch out for daylight savings time, for the first year
I owned the scope I was baffled every 6 months when I suddenly could not
seem to align correctly (I use a laptop, The Sky Software, and a serial link).
Of course after a while I would remember to correct the relevant clocks so
the correct sidereal time was displayed and everything would make sense again.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:38:44 -0700, chansky wrote:

Newbie question, I cannot quite see Polaris from where i would like to
use my (future) scope. Can see clear to the east and NW and south but
not north due to trees (can see about 50 deg and up).

Is there some way to align a scope on a GEM with GOTO and GPS without
seeing Polaris? It seems like it should be relatively simple to get
close given GPS and ability to align with other known stars and then
use drift method to come even closer.

---
Gregory Phillips Seattle, Washington, USA

Thanks (I changed my name/address as it is probably coincidence but I
already seem to be getting more spam). Do you use a wedge on your
Meade? Or do you align it using it in Alt-Az mode? Is it really
possible to polar align without seeing Polaris? I plan on doing
astrophotog at some point but certainly not most of the time.


In article , Gregory
Phillips wrote:

While it is possible to align without seeing polaris it certainly is not as
simple.
The "drift method" is tricky and takes quite a while (each check takes a few
minutes and many adjustments and checks are needed).

The good news is great alignment is not needed for anything but long
exposure photographic work. I own a 10" Meade LX-200 f6.3 and need to
roll it out and re-align it each time I use it. I replaced the cheap bubble
level
that came on the mount with a higher quality pair of 3" carpenter levels and
pay
close attention to setting the magnetic compass to corrected north. Once
it is dark and I actually turn the scop on it is usually very close to aligned
from the start, and "synching" on the first bright star makes it exact for
any star
in the same quadrant of the sky as the sync star. If I slew all the way
across
the sky it may end up off by about 1/2 a field of view (with a 26mm eyepiece)
but is very easy to center the new target and press sync again.

I use to spend about 30 minutes getting a "perfect" alignment at the start of
each night but once I got the mount dialed in (latitude and true north) I
found
that a detailed alignment was not really needed for regular observing. What
IS needed is learning the sky well enough to be able to pick out a few bright
stars by name so you can check the alignment against them and re-sync if
necessary. By the way, watch out for daylight savings time, for the first
year
I owned the scope I was baffled every 6 months when I suddenly could not
seem to align correctly (I use a laptop, The Sky Software, and a serial
link).
Of course after a while I would remember to correct the relevant clocks so
the correct sidereal time was displayed and everything would make sense again.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:38:44 -0700, chansky wrote:

Newbie question, I cannot quite see Polaris from where i would like to
use my (future) scope. Can see clear to the east and NW and south but
not north due to trees (can see about 50 deg and up).

Is there some way to align a scope on a GEM with GOTO and GPS without
seeing Polaris? It seems like it should be relatively simple to get
close given GPS and ability to align with other known stars and then
use drift method to come even closer.

---
Gregory Phillips Seattle, Washington, USA

Thanks (I changed my name/address as it is probably coincidence but I
already seem to be getting more spam). Do you use a wedge on your
Meade? Or do you align it using it in Alt-Az mode? Is it really
possible to polar align without seeing Polaris? I plan on doing
astrophotog at some point but certainly not most of the time.


In article , Gregory
Phillips wrote:

While it is possible to align without seeing polaris it certainly is not as
simple.
The "drift method" is tricky and takes quite a while (each check takes a few
minutes and many adjustments and checks are needed).

The good news is great alignment is not needed for anything but long
exposure photographic work. I own a 10" Meade LX-200 f6.3 and need to
roll it out and re-align it each time I use it. I replaced the cheap bubble
level
that came on the mount with a higher quality pair of 3" carpenter levels and
pay
close attention to setting the magnetic compass to corrected north. Once
it is dark and I actually turn the scop on it is usually very close to aligned
from the start, and "synching" on the first bright star makes it exact for
any star
in the same quadrant of the sky as the sync star. If I slew all the way
across
the sky it may end up off by about 1/2 a field of view (with a 26mm eyepiece)
but is very easy to center the new target and press sync again.

I use to spend about 30 minutes getting a "perfect" alignment at the start of
each night but once I got the mount dialed in (latitude and true north) I
found
that a detailed alignment was not really needed for regular observing. What
IS needed is learning the sky well enough to be able to pick out a few bright
stars by name so you can check the alignment against them and re-sync if
necessary. By the way, watch out for daylight savings time, for the first
year
I owned the scope I was baffled every 6 months when I suddenly could not
seem to align correctly (I use a laptop, The Sky Software, and a serial
link).
Of course after a while I would remember to correct the relevant clocks so
the correct sidereal time was displayed and everything would make sense again.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:38:44 -0700, chansky wrote:

Newbie question, I cannot quite see Polaris from where i would like to
use my (future) scope. Can see clear to the east and NW and south but
not north due to trees (can see about 50 deg and up).

Is there some way to align a scope on a GEM with GOTO and GPS without
seeing Polaris? It seems like it should be relatively simple to get
close given GPS and ability to align with other known stars and then
use drift method to come even closer.

---
Gregory Phillips Seattle, Washington, USA

I use a wedge (a Meade "super wedge"). A wedge is definitely the way to
go, it allows aligning one of the mount axis with earths spin axis. Therefore
to track a star only one motor needs to run (the other motor is only used when
moving to a different object). This means the various errors introduced
by non-perfect drive components are only introduced once instead of
for each motor.

Note that with a wedge all that is needed for alignment is to adjust the
wedge tilt to the latitude and to aim the wedge axis at true north. Once
well adjusted all that is needed to re-position the tripod correctly each night
is a good level and a good compass.

All that said, you will want access to most of the sky at some point to
look at whatever object you have decided to track down. So maybe you
should think about how you could gain access to a larger area of the
sky instead of how to align without polaris.

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 13:59:50 -0800, hacky wrote:

Thanks (I changed my name/address as it is probably coincidence but I
already seem to be getting more spam). Do you use a wedge on your
Meade? Or do you align it using it in Alt-Az mode? Is it really
possible to polar align without seeing Polaris? I plan on doing
astrophotog at some point but certainly not most of the time.


In article , Gregory
Phillips wrote:

While it is possible to align without seeing polaris it certainly is not as
simple.
The "drift method" is tricky and takes quite a while (each check takes a few
minutes and many adjustments and checks are needed).

The good news is great alignment is not needed for anything but long
exposure photographic work. I own a 10" Meade LX-200 f6.3 and need to
roll it out and re-align it each time I use it. I replaced the cheap bubble
level
that came on the mount with a higher quality pair of 3" carpenter levels and
pay
close attention to setting the magnetic compass to corrected north. Once
it is dark and I actually turn the scop on it is usually very close to aligned
from the start, and "synching" on the first bright star makes it exact for
any star
in the same quadrant of the sky as the sync star. If I slew all the way
across
the sky it may end up off by about 1/2 a field of view (with a 26mm eyepiece)
but is very easy to center the new target and press sync again.

I use to spend about 30 minutes getting a "perfect" alignment at the start of
each night but once I got the mount dialed in (latitude and true north) I
found
that a detailed alignment was not really needed for regular observing. What
IS needed is learning the sky well enough to be able to pick out a few bright
stars by name so you can check the alignment against them and re-sync if
necessary. By the way, watch out for daylight savings time, for the first
year
I owned the scope I was baffled every 6 months when I suddenly could not
seem to align correctly (I use a laptop, The Sky Software, and a serial
link).
Of course after a while I would remember to correct the relevant clocks so
the correct sidereal time was displayed and everything would make sense again.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:38:44 -0700, chansky wrote:

Newbie question, I cannot quite see Polaris from where i would like to
use my (future) scope. Can see clear to the east and NW and south but
not north due to trees (can see about 50 deg and up).

Is there some way to align a scope on a GEM with GOTO and GPS without
seeing Polaris? It seems like it should be relatively simple to get
close given GPS and ability to align with other known stars and then
use drift method to come even closer.

---
Gregory Phillips Seattle, Washington, USA

---
Gregory Phillips Seattle, Washington, USA

I use a wedge (a Meade "super wedge"). A wedge is definitely the way to
go, it allows aligning one of the mount axis with earths spin axis. Therefore
to track a star only one motor needs to run (the other motor is only used when
moving to a different object). This means the various errors introduced
by non-perfect drive components are only introduced once instead of
for each motor.

Note that with a wedge all that is needed for alignment is to adjust the
wedge tilt to the latitude and to aim the wedge axis at true north. Once
well adjusted all that is needed to re-position the tripod correctly each night
is a good level and a good compass.

All that said, you will want access to most of the sky at some point to
look at whatever object you have decided to track down. So maybe you
should think about how you could gain access to a larger area of the
sky instead of how to align without polaris.

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 13:59:50 -0800, hacky wrote:

Thanks (I changed my name/address as it is probably coincidence but I
already seem to be getting more spam). Do you use a wedge on your
Meade? Or do you align it using it in Alt-Az mode? Is it really
possible to polar align without seeing Polaris? I plan on doing
astrophotog at some point but certainly not most of the time.


In article , Gregory
Phillips wrote:

While it is possible to align without seeing polaris it certainly is not as
simple.
The "drift method" is tricky and takes quite a while (each check takes a few
minutes and many adjustments and checks are needed).

The good news is great alignment is not needed for anything but long
exposure photographic work. I own a 10" Meade LX-200 f6.3 and need to
roll it out and re-align it each time I use it. I replaced the cheap bubble
level
that came on the mount with a higher quality pair of 3" carpenter levels and
pay
close attention to setting the magnetic compass to corrected north. Once
it is dark and I actually turn the scop on it is usually very close to aligned
from the start, and "synching" on the first bright star makes it exact for
any star
in the same quadrant of the sky as the sync star. If I slew all the way
across
the sky it may end up off by about 1/2 a field of view (with a 26mm eyepiece)
but is very easy to center the new target and press sync again.

I use to spend about 30 minutes getting a "perfect" alignment at the start of
each night but once I got the mount dialed in (latitude and true north) I
found
that a detailed alignment was not really needed for regular observing. What
IS needed is learning the sky well enough to be able to pick out a few bright
stars by name so you can check the alignment against them and re-sync if
necessary. By the way, watch out for daylight savings time, for the first
year
I owned the scope I was baffled every 6 months when I suddenly could not
seem to align correctly (I use a laptop, The Sky Software, and a serial
link).
Of course after a while I would remember to correct the relevant clocks so
the correct sidereal time was displayed and everything would make sense again.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:38:44 -0700, chansky wrote:

Newbie question, I cannot quite see Polaris from where i would like to
use my (future) scope. Can see clear to the east and NW and south but
not north due to trees (can see about 50 deg and up).

Is there some way to align a scope on a GEM with GOTO and GPS without
seeing Polaris? It seems like it should be relatively simple to get
close given GPS and ability to align with other known stars and then
use drift method to come even closer.

---
Gregory Phillips Seattle, Washington, USA

---
Gregory Phillips Seattle, Washington, USA