Practical Astrophotography Volume 1 Issue 1

Page 30

Rotate Declination axis so polar reticle is visible

Remove the Polar Finder cover

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Find Polaris in your polar finder reticle

Rotate the mount in Right Ascension

In order to see through the mount and allow the polar finder to be aligned you need to rotate the declination axis so there is no obstruction.

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After completing the previous steps Polaris should be in the field of view and only minor tweaking to get Polaris aligned correctly in your reticle should be needed.

Use the Polar finder reticle to set Polaris’ location

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Depending on your brand of mount the finder reticle will vary. Use the polar finder application on your phone or computer situate Polaris in the correct location based on the diagram. Use the azimuth adjustment knobs as needed.

30 Practical Astrophotography

On the other end of the mount you need to remove the polar finder cover which will give you access to the use of the polar finder reticle for further aligning of your mount.

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In order to align your scope with NCP or the North Celestial Pole (in the Northern Hemisphere) you will need to rotate the right ascension axis until the view through the finder matches what your App displays

Once you position Polaris to match the diagram in the Polar finder App, you are now set to mount your telescope. This alignment technique will take some time to get acquainted with, but over time you will be able to Polar align your tripod and mount in a matter of minutes. This will get you close enough that when you use an auto-guider your accuracy should be pretty spot on and in turn create less adjustments for the autoguider.


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