Polar Alignment in the Southern Hemisphere from a Light Polluted Location. - Forums

Topic starter

Feb 29, 2016

I am looking for a little assistance when it comes to achieving an accurate polar alignment of my Sky Watcher Star Adventurer mount.

From my backyard I have one location only where I have an unrestricted view of polar sth. The difficulty for me lies in the fact that the southern direction (all directions really) is quite light polluted (red zone). This makes it very hard to see the stars in Octans that I should be lining up with my polar scope.

My current method is to align to 179deg south and adjust the mount to the correct azimuth. From there I have been using the drift align function in Backyard EOS.
And here is where I am getting a little lost. I have read articles on drift aligning, but all these have been northern hemisphere centric. I am having difficulties working out what direction I need to tweak the mount as it relates to the observed error in drift, in the southern hemisphere.

If anyone can point me to a good resource that can help explain it to me, or if someone out there can give me some tips on this, I would be very appreciative.

I can get very close but not anywhere near close enough to pull of a 2 minute sub @ 420mm.
About the best I have achieved is 30 seconds, and even then the stars a trailing a little...

Well written Respectful Engaging

KuriousGeorge

Feb 29, 2016 · Edited: Feb 29, 2016

Usually trial and error for that. Just take notes on which direction you needed to turn the screw(s) to minimize the slope.

I like PHD2's drift alignment. Also see if your mount has PEC.

Mark Spruce

Jun 3, 2016 · Edited: Jun 3, 2016

I bought a QHY Polemaster which, with the latest version supports both hemispheres. It's got a really sensitive camera and I have been getting or close to 30 arc second alignments within 4-5 minutes of setting up. It also allows me to PA before it gets dark. If you want even more accuracy you then it gives you a bit more time to drift align as well, which should be easier as you know that you will be very close to right, however unless you are doing really long subs its probably unnecessary. I know its quite pricey but for the time saving its given me and the ease of set-up it has been worth every penny.

Helpful

planethunter

Jun 3, 2016

I did a lot of experimentation with the drift method for polar alignment. I was able to get unguided subs around 2-3 min on a regular basis. One of the best explanations I found was here Drift. I found that to get the best results I needed to use an illuminated reticle eyepiece. And the magnification needed to be around 250x when performing the drift alignment.

Well written Helpful Concise

Stefannebula

Jun 10, 2016 · Edited: Jun 10, 2016

I have to agree with toxophilus, I also live in light polluted southern hemisphere and bought a QHYCCD Polemaster. As painful as it is forking out the $$$ It's by far one of the best thing's i've bought for my setup. Otherwise PHD2 Drift Aligning would be the next easiest option

Concise Supportive

Craig Rodgers

Jun 10, 2016

Call me lazy, but drift alignment drove me mad, I also opted for a polemaster, 5min alignment vs 30mins or more…Looks like there is at least one polemaster adapter for the Star Adventurer too.

http://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/accessories/adapters/polemaster-adapter-for-star-adventurer/

Flint

Topic starter

Jun 11, 2016

Thanks very much for the replies and advice.

The polemaster certainly looks like the solution to my woes.
Now to add it into my upgrade presentation to SWMBO

samuelpkco

Sep 22, 2016

Flint wrote:
"And here is where I am getting a little lost. I have read articles on drift aligning, but all these have been northern hemisphere centric. I am having difficulties working out what direction I need to tweak the mount as it relates to the observed error in drift, in the southern hemisphere.

If anyone can point me to a good resource that can help explain it to me, or if someone out there can give me some tips on this, I would be very appreciative."

Just see this thread today and sorry about responding to a few month old post.
I am in the Southern Hemisphere too, with SCP blocked from sight. So drift is the only way to polar align.
Same set of rules applicable to BOTH hemispheres as follow:-

1) Eastern horizon star drifts TOWARDS THE POLE = mount altitude TOO HIGH.
2) Meridian star drifts TOWARDS THE POLE = mount azimuth TOO WEST.
( ease of remembering - PHW pole high west ) ;)

clear skies,
Samuel

Helpful Concise Supportive

Slawomir

Sep 23, 2016

I think you might be asking too much of Star Adventurer; unguided imaging at 420mm would certainly lead to star elongation even with 30 second subs with this mount. I think this mount will track well enough within 50-80mm range for 1 to 2 min subs max when properly polar aligned. Here is a bit of info on that: http://philhart.com/content/star-adventurer-review

Well written Helpful Insightful Concise

bluknt

Oct 8, 2019

you could use one of the apps on your phone PS Align Pro. very good

Waldo Rieloff

Oct 9, 2019

Dear Flint, greenting from Chile. I have a pole master. That make my observatios so easy. I share a video explain how to use that.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=polemaster+southern+hemisphere

Best regard and clean sky...

Carastro

Oct 9, 2019

Another + 1 for Polemaster.
It must be really tricky polar aligning in the Southern hemisphere at the best of times.

In the past I always did it the old fashioned way (I'm in the Northern hemisphere) by looking through the polarscope and using polarfinder to PA, but it's not the most comfortable job in the world, just don't know why the Mount manufacturers can't provide a diagonal to the polarscope.

Anyway, after a knee fracture and pin and plate it's no longer really possible for me to kneel easily, so I bought Polemaster on recommendation. It's a brilliant bit of kit I thoroughly recommend it.

Carole

Helpful Engaging Supportive

Related discussions

ASI1600MC software

Could someone please point me in the right direction on what software I should download. I tried firecap but not sure if downloaded correctly. I was able to play around with the dummy profile but could not get the camera to work in real time. Any hel...

Not relevant - addresses polar alignment, not software installation/camera setup.

Oct 6, 2016

Help with Long Exposure

Hi everybody, I’m newbie. This is my first shoot of Trifid Nebula (five minutes exposure). I have a Schmidt Cassegrain 8 Advanced VX Equatorial Mount and a DSLR Canon 6D. I tried very hard to Polar Algin, to Calibrate, and everything else that is in ...

Polar alignment techniques applicable to improving your tracking problems.

Sep 9, 2017

RA guiding: one sided corrections

Greetings. I'm hoping someone can tell me if I have polar alignment problem or something else. My RA corrections are always in one direction. I know for DEC this can be a good thing. But in RA, close to 99 of 100 corrections are all in the same d...

Discusses polar alignment issues and RA corrections, directly relevant to alignment problems.

Sep 21, 2016