Skywatcher Polar Alignment

[Guest dawson]

When setting up, the Skywatcher handset on the mount tells me "Polaris Position in P.Scope = HH:MM" (as per screen shot from the manual below).

 

Now, is the imaginary clock face it's talking about a 12 hour clock face, or a 24 hour clock face?

 

What does the "Hour Angle of Polaris" mean on the next screen of the handset?

 

And one last question:

 

Where is it best to check if the mount is level as I'm not convinced the spreader plate is absolutely parallel with the mount, but there is nowhere flat on the mount to rest a spirit level (see Google image).

 

https://www.all-startelescope.com/sales/images/azeq6mount.jpg

 

Thanks

 

James

 

[Teslar]

James to level the mount you need a small bubble level, ideal one is a boat level, and you level the top face of the tripod before you place the mount onto it

http://www.rapidonline.com/tools-equipment/pocket-boat-level-210mm-300247/

For your other questions there is a thread on SGL where astro baby explains all

Here's a link

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/71898-hour-angle/

Not sure if its allowable to put links into another forum but as this site was originally on SGL I hope it's ok. Admin please remove it if its against the rules

Edited June 9, 2013 by Teslar

[Al.Grant]

James,

 

I'm certainly no expert (so I'll be watching the replies to this closely)  but when polar aligning my HEQ5 I use Polarfinder on my android phone or this PC based Polarfinder.  I'm not sure if the clock is 24 or 12 hr,

 

Both give images similar to this:

 

I then use the setting circles to get the 'polaris circle' in the viewfinder in the position where  polaris should be and finally align the mount so polaris is in that circle.  Not totally convinced I'm going about it in the right way, but it seems to be working 

 

I do check the  HH:MM position given by the handset and it always seems to match up with what I expect from the images.

 

As for leveling the mount, I also wasn't sure about how flat the spreader plate was so have started getting the tripod level before actually attaching the mount head ......  I figure as long as the plate the mounts sits on is level the mount head will be!

 

 

 

Al

[Guest dawson]

That's a pain. I leave the mount head on the tripod and just carry it out as one unit. I've got a spirit level like that (in fact i've got three). I'll just have to start taking the mount head off.

I'll have a read of that SGL forum. Cheers for that.

Al, i've got two apps on my phone which show where Polaris should be, but there are various buttons which appear to mirror image the position and then alter it horizontally too which seems odd. I'd just like a thorough understanding of what the handset telling me. But cheers again.

Right, coffee then SGL.

Thanks both.

James

[Guest dawson]

Teslar, right, while astrobaby doesn't specifically say so, the inference is the polar scope reticule is treated as a 12 hour clock face (despite the setting circles being 24 hours). So that helps.

With regards the hour angle thing, that is all too complicated for my brain, especially as the starting point seems to be 6 o'clock and not 12 o'clock. It does seem however, the hour angle is an alternative way of doing polar alignment, so if i do the first method, i can just ignore his method.

With regards using the setting circles, i'm never convinced i get the small outer circle in the polar scope exactly at 12 o'clock to start with, it could easily be anything between 11.30 and 12.30, so even if i use the setting circles to rotate around the RA to the correct hour for polaris, i could easily be out by up to half an hour anyway. Is there a solution to fix this?

Thank you again both.

James

[Al.Grant]

James,

 

(you have probably already seen this)

Don't know if this will help, but there is a video on youtube (Dion from astronomyshed) that talks through polar alignment of the EQ6 and covers the Synscan handset.  

It also covers the use of PolarAlign for the PC.   If you want to skip through some of the more basic bits then view from around 11:30 into the vid

 

It even made sense to me ............ so it must be easy to understand!

 

When I first got my HEQ5 last month I worked through this series of videos (and Asto Baby's site) as the SW manual wasn't making much sense to me.

[Guest dawson]

Great. Someone on SGL posted a link to one of Dion's videos too and now the HA thing does make more sense.

 

I'm still not sure how to accurately get the smaller Polaris circle at 6 O'clock for the starting position, but I'll have to work around that some how.

 

Thanks.

 

James

[Guest dawson]

Right, I think I've got it sorted in my head now; the HA method seems to be good in theory. Now I just need to put it in practice. Someone on SGL has given me a way of sorting out if the smaller Polaris circle is accurately at 6 O'clock:

 

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/188028-az-eq6/

 

James

[Teslar]

+1 for Alignmaster I used it on my HEQ5 as the setting circles are worse than they are on the NEQ6

Alignmaster gave me the best alignment and gotos I've ever had with that mount

[Perkil8r]

The best way to do it "in the field" is to use the Hour angle. What this means is, the time since Polaris last passed the transit.

 

The transit of polaris is when it is at it's highest point in the sky. To do this correctly, position the small circle in the polar scope reticule at the bottom, lock the clutch and have a look at the RA dial. Move it round so that the "0" mark is on the pointer. Next get the hour angle off the handset and rotate the RA (undo the clutch first!) until the time shown on the handset is lined up on the dial to the pointer. Remembering that in the northern hemisphere the time increases as the mount rotates anti clockwise. Once the time since transit is set your reticule will be in the correct position to line up with Polaris.

[Guest dawson]

Mike, you say the mout ritates anticlockwise, so is that the way to rotate around the RA to get the correct hour?

James

[Perkil8r]

Yes, as in normal direction of RA tracking. There will be 2 sets of marks, use the one that is increasing as you rotate in the normal direction. (some are on top, some the bottom set, I think it depends on the intended market for your mount, be it northern or southern hemisphere.)

[Werisit]

Hi. This is my first post so Hello everybody!

I'm trying to set up my HEQ5 Pro mount and am glad to find advice on your site. I was particularly puzzled about the hour angle thing. It's mostly clarified but on doing a practice set up on the mount, the two methods, ie, "Polaris position in polarscope" (imagining it as a 12 hour clock face), and hour angle seem to give the opposite results. I'm wondering if it's because my polar scope has a corrected view so I need to put the Polaris circle at the top as a starting point.

Thanks in anticipation.

[+RonC]

Try downloading Polar Finder, it will tell you where Polaris is on the circle..

[Guest stash]

FYI - The Windows / Linux is free but the Android app is .68p - if it works on your version of Android. Pity its not part of Stellarium - is it ?

[+RonC]

I use Polar Align all the time now it's spot on, you can always use the Polar alignment on the SynScan once you've done a star alignment sucessfully. I never use any of the dial on the HEQ5 mount and never have!

 

Cheers

Ron

[Brantuk]

Hi Alan and a warm welcome to EMS.

 

Please feel free to leave an intro in the welcome section - it'll get more visibility and folks will drop in and say hi.

 

Hope you enjoy the forum.

[Guest dawson]

Alan

My advice when starting out with polar alignment is to do it all by eye.

When setting up the handset, after you've entered all the data (date, time, coordinates) and entered them correctly (english vs american date format and the coordinates often pose trouble), the first data on the handset suggests where polaris should be in the polar scope (not the hour angle one which is the second second set of data).

I that first data says 18:00 hrs (or 6 o clock) then rotate the RA axis until small polaris circle is sue south on the large outer ring (at the 6 o clock position), or 9 o clock etc. then get polaris in that circle.

Once you've got that hang of that, then have a think about the hour angle set up.

Good luck.

Jd

[Werisit]

Thank Ron. Just downloaded polar finder. I haven't got clear sky here now to test it on but it looks like it's showing what I should see in the polar scope. A couple of questions though.  What is SMGT and SMLT? Do I need to reset it to GMT? Also the longitude resets to 12 degrees East when shut down and re-started. Do you know if it's possible to permanently reset it?

[+RonC]

Where are you seeing 'SMGT & SMLT? On shut down it should retain the settings you put in on start up??

[Werisit]

Thank you James. I'll give that a go for starters. Still waiting for the sky to clear as promised by the forecast!   

[Guest dawson]

It's much easier to show someone in the flesh, even in day light.

Do you have any astro mates near by?

Fingers crossed it clears; i've had too much wine to care.

Jd

[Werisit]

Thank you James. I'll give that a go for starters. Still waiting for the sky to clear as promised by the forecast!   

[Werisit]

Hi Ron,

SMGT and SMLT are the time panels at bottom right.

[+RonC]

On the Synscan controller??

Edited February 15, 2014 by Ron Clarke