Polar Alignment for Southern dwellers.

This is the procedure I adopt for an equatorial mount. I have a CG-5:

1. Place Tripod / Mount / Weights.
2. Ensure "Alignment Peg" is roughly pointed towards Polaris.
3. Sight through the Borehole to check if Polaris is visible and centered.
4. Place Scope on saddle plate. Insert Diagonal and eyepiece.
5. Check 'balance' ( very important ) with 4 in place and adjust weight accordingly till the balance is achieved.
6. Make sure Mount is connected to A/C outlet or Powerpack. Switch on mount.
7. Ensure your Latitude scale is as per your location, i.e, N =. Enter your Latitude and Longitude in the remote. ( If you live in extreme Southerly region, you can use Octantis as your South star ).
8. Enter date / time / Zone into your remote. ( Note: This may be slightly different to other brands or make ).
9. Ensure Finderscope is aligned correctly with the eyepiece of your main scope.
10. Start two star alignment. The first or even second time, the stars will not be in the center of your finderscope. Don't worry, just adjust with controller till you have the star centered in both your finderscope and eyepiece.
11. Do a four star calibration. This will basically ensure objects within your eyepiece do not move for hours and will even provide for steady imaging of Planets / Moon though DSO's may require more stringent polar alignment routine.
12. Post back your viewing session or comment on how you go about your polar alignment routine with your set up. Enjoy.

Polar Alignment for Astrophotography:

There are couple of methods, i.e., Drift Alignment and Iterative Alignment. While I found Iterative Alignment provides good results, I am yet to do a drift alignment. However, this alignment procedure that I follow has given me steady results without Auto guiding.  This is not to say Auto guiding is not necessary. For those living under dark skies or have access to dark skies, a good auto guider can be invaluable, helping you image as long as you like.

For this method of mine however, I am limited by severe city light pollution and therefore, even if I had an auto guider, my images would look washed out after two minutes. No point unless I travel to the outskirts.

So coming back to the subject for a simple Polar Alignment for astrophotography, I follow these steps AFTER completing above mentioned points:-

1.  Look for a star like Antares or Capella. Stars very close to the poles will be instantly rejected by the controller so chose your star based on your current sky map.

2.  Enter the name of the chosen Star into your controller, press ENTER and wait for the scope to slew towards this Star. Invariably, even though you got the calibration stars done in the earlier steps and while for visual that is more than adequate, you will find the Polar alignment routine a bit more stringent. The star in question will not be exactly in the center of your eyepiece. More likely towards the edges.

3.  Scroll down on your controller to "Polar Alignment" and "Align Mount". Press ENTER. Follow instructions to center the star in the Finderscope first and then in your eyepiece. ( I just center it in the eyepiece and press ENTER and then ALIGN ). Most folks tend to use high magnifications for getting the star properly centered or even an illuminated reticle.

4.  After you finished centering in both your Finderscope and Eyepiece, press ENTER. The Scope will slew a bit away from the chosen star. In some cases, you may not even find this star in you Finderscope let alone the eyepiece. Not to worry.

5.  The Controller will now ask you to calibrate the Mount with the Alt / Az knobs manually. Keep your Controller aside. Look through the Finderscope and see if you can spot the Star. Usually it will be there and if your initial alignment was good, the star may just be a wee bit outside the eyepiece. Use the adjustment screws to slew the star towards the center of your Finderscope. Look through the eyepiece and see if the Star is now visible. Try to center it in the middle as much as possible. If the screws do not allow you to center the star, you must then use the hinge wing screw on the back of your mount to "raise or lower" the mount. Make small adjustments till the star is in a position, whereby simply turning the Alt / Az screws should now bring the star towards the center of your eyepiece.

Press ENTER and see if your display reads 00.00 / 00.00.  All done. You can now image for up to a minute with a Refractor or up to 3 minute with a Lens piggy backed. Probably more but I never tried due to severe light pollution. But that hasn't put me off Astrophotography. I still continue to capture photons in my camera and feel happy to see the results, however amateurish they may look. But the joy of having achieved something which the eye cannot see in itself is a simple enough reason to enjoy Astrophotography.

Haseeb Modi.