This was /incredibly/ helpful for me. I own the exact same telescope and am looking at buying the exact same mount. This video made me confident to order this mount. Thank you so much!
Now I know how much I didn't know - a very helpful place to be! Thank you for this - will look forward to testing it dry tomorrow and in anger on Thursday night with a forecast of clearer skies! Thank you!!
many thanks for your explanation! I was short before to go to an psychologist after I bought EQ5 synscan upgard set. Five days and nights I worked verry hard with out succes! After watching your video - at one afternon - my BalkonStargat funktionend including stellarium guiding. Thanks so manny! f.wallex Ries Baden-Baden
Its amazing how complicated they used to make these. All I do now is set my scope to the marks, polar align, roughly. Turn it on, do 2 star alignment, 3 calibration stars, all star polar alignment, quick 5 min drift test and I am done and imaging. No more of this precalculating, the mount does it for me. I have a Celestron CGEM, or EQ6, Great video, when I was learning this complicated method this video didn't exist. Ty for posting one for those trying to learn this method.
I still do a polar scope align as close as I can on my HEQ5, before aligning with the ASIRAIR. Maybe it's a bad habit from using the Star adventurer 2i for a while.
@@NJ_Galactic I have both, the eq5 and the SA 2i and neither of them have this specific polar scope view/diagram. They have more like the 'clock' on the app 'Polar Align' which he shows here. However, I just set up, try and ensure the number 6 is in the 6 o'clock position and then use the knobs to get the pole star in the position on the 'clock' in the polar scope, lining up with the position shown on the app. I've never used the hour angle thing on the shaft. Am I doing this correctly? I don't fully follow this guy when he's saying "get polaris in the circle then turn the hour angle and get it in the circle again". With a 420mm or 600mm FL scope (no guiding) I can get between 1 min and sometimes, up to 2 mins exposures without any star trailing (or very very little) and, with an 8 inch SCT at F6.3 (so about 1250mm FL) I can do between 30s and 45s exposures. I do think I may not be getting precise alignment however because, 1) I have the EQ5 on a todmorden 'pier' but still need to adjust it slightly because the bubble level is not quite centred and 2) I just have a suspicion I may not be doing the PA properly. Any advice/clarification you have, which may help, is appreciated.
The mount of my first telescope has unfortunately failed me, so now i am planning on buying either this one, or something similar. Thanks for this vid!
+Maurits de Boer Same! I had an EQ2 but the aluminium frame wasn't stable and the mount was way too shaky and couldn't get locked in position. And so i've ordered a Bresser Exos-2
Latest EQ5 mount is slightly different in that the reticule no longer has the small circle for Polaris. Instead it has two concentric circles for different epochs, and hour divisions around the circle "clockface" for getting the RA setting correct.
@@matthewhart4952 When the mount is in the home position you just need to place Polaris in the same position as shown in the polar align app on your phone. No movement of the mount is needed.
Basically it's the position you need to put your scope in when you have finished the polar alignment routine, Follow what Dave says in the video, at one point he suggests marking the home position on the mount with a marker, this makes life much easier and is a great idea. Hope this helps.
great video, wish i had found this last night tho. wouldnt of spent 2 hours trying to align my mount :( oh well wait another year for a clean night lol
Hello mate. Can I ask what you mean by home position? Once I have done the routines. You then put the scope in the home pistion. Is this just basically leveling the weight bar inline with the North facing tripod leg?
Hi, no sorry just the EQ5 pro and the Mak 127 as in the video, however I got some great results with planets. The Mak is a fantastic little scope I can't recommend it enough.
hello , i am new to this i just wanted to know why is alignment necessary , and which books or apps to refer to help to find planets and the galaxy , thank you very much :)
Just a quick question when you have your polar scope pointing straight down for Polaris I notice your counter weight bar is straight down inline with the rear leg of the tripod but with mine the weight bar is of to the right by about 15 degrees will this make any difference not sure as this is my first scope
Can I ask a small question! I have been looking into this mount and was wonder what is the tracking like? Is it accurate? I am wanting something to mount my 6 Inch RC astrograph Its a 152mm Mirror with a focal length of 1370mm. There was not real information on their website so since you own one, have you had any issues with your mount?
Brilliant clarity. Thanks. Ive just bought a second-hand Skywatcher 200p with EQ5. The polar scope is optional? Clearly I'll get one but what is the procedure without it? Thanks
without a polar alignment scope, you just use a compass to let the part, where the scope would be put into, look to the north pole. You have to do this anyway if you watch from a place where you can't see the northern sky.
hi I have just got one of these but please on thing I don't understand with the polar alignment is why you 1st set the circle pointing down? can't you just look through and set it to where polaris is ?
Hi there, thanks...this was very helpful. One thing I dont understand...when you start polar alignment, you say to make sure that the small circle is facing down. Although my mount is arranged and looks like yours, the position of the little circle is not facing down, it's more like 10.00pm. I would have to move RA adjust a lot to get it facing down and the counterweight shaft would be pointing upwards. Am I missing something here?
With all due respect as there is allot of useful information in this video so thanks.....but! The hole time all I could think about was the guy being Allan Partridge with Lynn mowing the lawn in the back ground haha
does the mount have to be fully polar aligned before i can mark the polar home position with a sharpie ? or do i just level the mount then use the spirit level then mark it ? or should i not mark the mount ?
Just picked up one of these today, bit of a daft question......but what is the point of the spreader? I have assembled my stand and mount, yet to fit the tube to it though. Its been 20 years since I last assembled a telescope!
Ah right, I see - more to prevent the legs from being pushed in accidentally I guess as they "lock" on full spread. I can see me referring to this video a fair bit over the next few weeks! Was hoping to get it up and running but the weather has been so naff its still at the same stage I got to the other day.
Hi i lost my tripod bolt/rod for my EQ5 when i was moving. I'm looking into replacing it with a M10 threaded rod 330mm with some M10 washers and M10 star screws. I'm ;ppling into the measurments how far is the thread neede dto go into the EQ5 mount to wel fasten it. i'm thinking into 3d printing some M10 long 50mm threaded nuts to give some space between the tripod base and the star screws
hello adrian. i brought the eq5 pro couple of days ago and was following your set up. i got to the part where in the scope on the mount the little circle should be at the bottom but its not. mine is to the right. how do i get it so its showing to the bottom? sorry for the stupid q regards lee
LAshotts Hi, it may be that you need to calibrate the polar scope first, I have added a link below from another user that goes though how to do this. ua-cam.com/video/5djq2C4PeFI/v-deo.html
@Milena Millie D-a Sorry for multiple times answering something wrong. Now I got it! So first you align to Polaris using the polar scope. You can either use the scale on the scope itself (date and time) or let an app calculate the time that includes an offset for the date. Today many people don't even use a scale anymore, it is called the Kochab method. I for example don't have any scales on my polar scope. Only the RA. scale. After polar alignment, you put your mount in the "polar home position" - DEC 90° and RA letting the mass look downwards. Northern hemisphere = lower scale. I think the screenshot from the app was made to a different time (around 5h later); that would explain the different values.
@Milena Millie D-a Oh and here upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Ra_and_dec_on_celestial_sphere.png you see where 0h right ascension is. This point always changes its position depending on date and time (earth rotation and movement around the sun). This is why you need to adjust the RA scale using a value that includes date and time offset which you can get from an app. If you once got this position right you can use the RA motor to hold it.
@Milena Millie D-a Here a translated excerpt from a German manual that seems to make sense: "Exact alignment at the celestial pole for the Northern hemisphere: 1. swivel your mount around the R.A. axis to the index marker for the meridian offset with the pointer for the date scale (Fig. h-4). Clamping the R.A. axis. 2. rotate the ring with the date / meridian offset Scale until the index marker for the meridian offset is set to shows your calculated zero point ( e.g. 3°W ). 3. release the R.A. clamping lever and swivel the Mount until the pointer for the date scale points to the current date. Clamp the R.A. axis. 4 Loosen the clamping screw and rotate the R.A. Pitch circle to the current time (standard time not Summertime !) The upper scale is valid for the northern Hemisphere, the lower one for the Southern Hemisphere. Secure the R.A. pitch circle with the clamping screw. 5 Release the R.A. clamping lever and swivel the Mount until the R.A. pitch circle mark is zero. shows. The crosshair is now in the correct position. Center the Polaris with the pole height adjustment screws and the azimuth adjustment screws in the small circle on the circle around the crosshairs of the polarscope. The exact orientation at the celestial pole is now completed. This means that you should be able to Minutes your mount on the true northern have aligned with the celestial pole" Btw meridian offset means if you are in a city where your logitude is for example 3° different from the one used for the time you need to do an offset of 3°.
@Milena Millie D-a No problem As far as I understand, it is also important to know that the hour angle is like the right ascension, but for your current position. So every star that is fixed (aka not moving relative to other objects in space) will have a declination that never changes, but an hour angle that changes because of the rotation of earth. If you have a right ascension value, it never changes because it's independent from your current location. What is shown in this video is how to do it with the hour angle on the RA scale; that means that 0h hour angle always points to the south. If you want the right ascension value on your RA scale you need to point your telescope to a specific object from which you know the right ascension, then set the scale to this right ascension and always keep the tracking motors on. And btw "Oh" what I wrote in two comments before should really mean "Ooooohh" and not 0 hours ;)
Freddiy Fredericks LOL! Trick is, to set-up the scope before the "cold dark night!", when the light is out and the sun is still up! Specially big, heavy scopes! Optics has to be thermally equalized, which takes time. Planning, planning, eh?
I am struggling to locate Polaris. My mount is level and altitude is set the EQ5 is facing north just can not find Polaris I am looking for it at night. Can anybody help me out.
Lol dud you,ve got your spreader on upside down.trun it around.i myself use the Meade Lx 85goto its the same as your just a different company name on it.
This was /incredibly/ helpful for me. I own the exact same telescope and am looking at buying the exact same mount. This video made me confident to order this mount. Thank you so much!
Now I know how much I didn't know - a very helpful place to be! Thank you for this - will look forward to testing it dry tomorrow and in anger on Thursday night with a forecast of clearer skies! Thank you!!
many thanks for your explanation!
I was short before to go to an psychologist after I bought EQ5 synscan upgard set.
Five days and nights I worked verry hard with out succes!
After watching your video - at one afternon - my BalkonStargat funktionend including stellarium guiding.
Thanks so manny!
f.wallex Ries
Baden-Baden
Wow, very thorough and really useful for a newbie :-)
Helped me to get polar aligned for the first time. Thanks.
Thank you so much for explaining this so well, just bought a heq5 mount and will be referring to these instructions...cheers!!
Its amazing how complicated they used to make these. All I do now is set my scope to the marks, polar align, roughly. Turn it on, do 2 star alignment, 3 calibration stars, all star polar alignment, quick 5 min drift test and I am done and imaging. No more of this precalculating, the mount does it for me. I have a Celestron CGEM, or EQ6, Great video, when I was learning this complicated method this video didn't exist. Ty for posting one for those trying to learn this method.
I still do a polar scope align as close as I can on my HEQ5, before aligning with the ASIRAIR. Maybe it's a bad habit from using the Star adventurer 2i for a while.
@@NJ_Galactic I have both, the eq5 and the SA 2i and neither of them have this specific polar scope view/diagram. They have more like the 'clock' on the app 'Polar Align' which he shows here. However, I just set up, try and ensure the number 6 is in the 6 o'clock position and then use the knobs to get the pole star in the position on the 'clock' in the polar scope, lining up with the position shown on the app. I've never used the hour angle thing on the shaft. Am I doing this correctly? I don't fully follow this guy when he's saying "get polaris in the circle then turn the hour angle and get it in the circle again". With a 420mm or 600mm FL scope (no guiding) I can get between 1 min and sometimes, up to 2 mins exposures without any star trailing (or very very little) and, with an 8 inch SCT at F6.3 (so about 1250mm FL) I can do between 30s and 45s exposures.
I do think I may not be getting precise alignment however because, 1) I have the EQ5 on a todmorden 'pier' but still need to adjust it slightly because the bubble level is not quite centred and 2) I just have a suspicion I may not be doing the PA properly. Any advice/clarification you have, which may help, is appreciated.
Clear. Visual. Very appreciated ! Thanks a lot.
Just been listening to this very good vid on the load speakers. The wife that I was listening to a gardening program. Quality.!
A wonderful Explication. Thx So Much! Cheers from Mexico
Thanks for this. Enjoyed soundtrack from your Mrs mowing the grass too :-)
It was Peter Gabriel doing his "I Know What I Like in Your Wardrobe."
cheers dude, perfect explanation for the fine tuning,
BRILLIANT I am just starting out into AP and planning to buy an EQ5!😀
Excellent the Skywalker EQ5 Mount.
Thanks for video. This has helped me a lot.
Very helpful video. Thanks a lot!
Getting this mount this week ty for the info good video it helps. Lul love the lawn mower in background.
this was brilliant, helped me alot.
Wow. Thank you for all the info
The mount of my first telescope has unfortunately failed me, so now i am planning on buying either this one, or something similar.
Thanks for this vid!
+Maurits de Boer Same!
I had an EQ2 but the aluminium frame wasn't stable and the mount was way too shaky and couldn't get locked in position.
And so i've ordered a Bresser Exos-2
Nice video! really usefull for a beginner.
very good video and very usefull .thanks
Very helpful, thankyou.
when the grass needs cutting, it has to be done hehehe
this helped a lot! thanx
Latest EQ5 mount is slightly different in that the reticule no longer has the small circle for Polaris. Instead it has two concentric circles for different epochs, and hour divisions around the circle "clockface" for getting the RA setting correct.
Is there a resource to explain how to use it?
@@matthewhart4952 When the mount is in the home position you just need to place Polaris in the same position as shown in the polar align app on your phone. No movement of the mount is needed.
"Now take the dew collecting contraption and prepare to harvest water!"
best on yt only you forgot to tell about set one leg direct to north or miss it. my pole scope was bad on place so stars was drifting. thank you !
Basically it's the position you need to put your scope in when you have finished the polar alignment routine, Follow what Dave says in the video, at one point he suggests marking the home position on the mount with a marker, this makes life much easier and is a great idea. Hope this helps.
would be better without the lawn mower ;-)
very helpful, thanks
Thank you so much!
Great glad liked it
All we need is a tractor in the field harvesting. Still a good video.
Excellent instructions. I recently bought a cg5-gt, will these directions apply?
Hi, that's the combination in the video as it happens. Not sure what the max FOV is to be honest but its a great little scope.
great video, wish i had found this last night tho. wouldnt of spent 2 hours trying to align my mount :( oh well wait another year for a clean night lol
Thank you.
Hello mate.
Can I ask what you mean by home position? Once I have done the routines. You then put the scope in the home pistion. Is this just basically leveling the weight bar inline with the North facing tripod leg?
Hi, no sorry just the EQ5 pro and the Mak 127 as in the video, however I got some great results with planets. The Mak is a fantastic little scope I can't recommend it enough.
Wow throwback to the iPhone 4/4S it's been this long?
Lawn mower, kids, aeroplane... otherwise a good explanation.
hello , i am new to this i just wanted to know why is alignment necessary , and which books or apps to refer to help to find planets and the galaxy , thank you very much :)
I use the 12V in my car, Dave in the video lent (on long term) an extension and I use my scope near my drive in my back yard
Hi, when the battery charge of the Eq5 mount is black its "pro" and when its white "normal" ?
Just a quick question when you have your polar scope pointing straight down for Polaris I notice your counter weight bar is straight down inline with the rear leg of the tripod but with mine the weight bar is of to the right by about 15 degrees will this make any difference not sure as this is my first scope
Can I ask a small question! I have been looking into this mount and was wonder what is the tracking like? Is it accurate? I am wanting something to mount my 6 Inch RC astrograph Its a 152mm Mirror with a focal length of 1370mm. There was not real information on their website so since you own one, have you had any issues with your mount?
is this a good beginner mount? I am getting it with the bresser GO TO system
i always balance mine with the camera and weights added as these could knock it off polaris or accidently nudge the mount whilst fitting.
Great video. I was able to follow ok right up until about 6:00.
Me too! Why 22.35?
Brilliant clarity. Thanks. Ive just bought a second-hand Skywatcher 200p with EQ5. The polar scope is optional? Clearly I'll get one but what is the procedure without it? Thanks
without a polar alignment scope, you just use a compass to let the part, where the scope would be put into, look to the north pole.
You have to do this anyway if you watch from a place where you can't see the northern sky.
hi 3:57 how do i get the circle pointing down? mine is sett at about 8 hours the only way i can move it is by moving the right ascensionc?
I have the same mount as you and I am curious to know how you power the mount when you are not near a plug?
man, this is complicated stuff :O*
hi I have just got one of these but please on thing I don't understand with the polar alignment is why you 1st set the circle pointing down? can't you just look through and set it to where polaris is ?
So taking the HA and applying it to the PA clock will get you to the exact location ie the middle of the hole on the rectile
Hi there, thanks...this was very helpful. One thing I dont understand...when you start polar alignment, you say to make sure that the small circle is facing down. Although my mount is arranged and looks like yours, the position of the little circle is not facing down, it's more like 10.00pm. I would have to move RA adjust a lot to get it facing down and the counterweight shaft would be pointing upwards. Am I missing something here?
Hi, Yes, you need to calibrate it first i thnk this is a video that shows you have to do it Callibrating The Polar Finderscope
With all due respect as there is allot of useful information in this video so thanks.....but! The hole time all I could think about was the guy being Allan Partridge with Lynn mowing the lawn in the back ground haha
does the mount have to be fully polar aligned before i can mark the polar home position with a sharpie ? or do i just level the mount then use the spirit level then mark it ?
or should i not mark the mount ?
Just picked up one of these today, bit of a daft question......but what is the point of the spreader? I have assembled my stand and mount, yet to fit the tube to it though. Its been 20 years since I last assembled a telescope!
It looks just like my Meade Lx85 goto mount tripod
You seem to imply the reticule need to be pointing up and down - 0 at top 6 at bottom? How do you adjust this? I've been asking people for weeks.
Ade, just wanted verification that the legs on this scope do extend down for leveling before I buy, many thanks for posting.
Hi, yes they sure do
what is the Reflector largest tube this mount can take?
The spreader just makes the tripod more stable
Ah right, I see - more to prevent the legs from being pushed in accidentally I guess as they "lock" on full spread.
I can see me referring to this video a fair bit over the next few weeks! Was hoping to get it up and running but the weather has been so naff its still at the same stage I got to the other day.
cool.....
HI ! you say in the northern hemisphere it is the lower R.A. scale. I think is the upper scale. Isn´t it ? (Min 6:05 ...)
what make is the mount and goto computer
how did you use the tracking function ?
My scope doesn't have the small circle so what do I do?
You must alignment polariscope with reticule before doing anything.
trying to get polaris aligned,you say get it centred in the tiny bubble,i cant see no tiny bubble in my view finder
at 7.40 is what I don't understand where does the 6 come into play because your moving the polaris position can anyone answer this please
How do you polar align when you can't see Polaris. My house covers Polaris so is there any other way of doing this
Hi i lost my tripod bolt/rod for my EQ5 when i was moving. I'm looking into replacing it with a M10 threaded rod 330mm with some M10 washers and M10 star screws. I'm ;ppling into the measurments how far is the thread neede dto go into the EQ5 mount to wel fasten it. i'm thinking into 3d printing some M10 long 50mm threaded nuts to give some space between the tripod base and the star screws
M12 not M10
but how do you align to polaris, when its daylight ?
hello adrian. i brought the eq5 pro couple of days ago and was following your set up. i got to the part where in the scope on the mount the little circle should be at the bottom but its not. mine is to the right. how do i get it so its showing to the bottom? sorry for the stupid q regards lee
LAshotts
Hi, it may be that you need to calibrate the polar scope first, I have added a link below from another user that goes though how to do this.
ua-cam.com/video/5djq2C4PeFI/v-deo.html
thank you adrian.
I'm missing something here........where did 22:35 come from? I do not see it on the app screen he was looking at?
I have the same issue! I’m confused by this.
Same question.
me aswell
Just bought eq 5 pro. Have 12v power supply. Plugged it in and it began to whistle ...zzzzzz whatever you want to call it. Is this norma ?
does the Skywatcher EQ5 come with a polar scope?
Yes
Lol .. you got clean sky in UK
I wanted to get this mount but the amount of work involved is a bit too much.
It is astonishing that in England one can see the North Star in the bright sky. I'm really having trouble finding him. Maybe that's just me.
eh ?
Can you clear something up? You say the hour angle is 22:35 but when you show the screen of the app it says the HA is 03:40. So whats going on?
@Milena Millie D-a Sorry for multiple times answering something wrong. Now I got it!
So first you align to Polaris using the polar scope. You can either use the scale on the scope itself (date and time) or let an app calculate the time that includes an offset for the date. Today many people don't even use a scale anymore, it is called the Kochab method. I for example don't have any scales on my polar scope. Only the RA. scale. After polar alignment, you put your mount in the "polar home position" - DEC 90° and RA letting the mass look downwards. Northern hemisphere = lower scale. I think the screenshot from the app was made to a different time (around 5h later); that would explain the different values.
@Milena Millie D-a Oh and here upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Ra_and_dec_on_celestial_sphere.png you see where 0h right ascension is. This point always changes its position depending on date and time (earth rotation and movement around the sun). This is why you need to adjust the RA scale using a value that includes date and time offset which you can get from an app. If you once got this position right you can use the RA motor to hold it.
Oh and in the HEQ-5 and EQ-6 manual they say it is the upper scale for northern hemisphere... Better look in your manual
@Milena Millie D-a Here a translated excerpt from a German manual that seems to make sense:
"Exact alignment at the celestial pole for the
Northern hemisphere:
1. swivel your mount around the R.A. axis to
the index marker for the meridian offset with the pointer
for the date scale (Fig. h-4). Clamping
the R.A. axis.
2. rotate the ring with the date / meridian offset
Scale until the index marker for the meridian offset is set to
shows your calculated zero point ( e.g. 3°W ).
3. release the R.A. clamping lever and swivel the
Mount until the pointer for the date scale points to the
current date. Clamp the R.A. axis.
4 Loosen the clamping screw and rotate the
R.A. Pitch circle to the current time (standard time not
Summertime !) The upper scale is valid for the northern
Hemisphere, the lower one for the Southern Hemisphere.
Secure the R.A. pitch circle with the clamping screw.
5 Release the R.A. clamping lever and swivel the
Mount until the R.A. pitch circle mark is zero.
shows. The crosshair is now in the correct position.
Center the Polaris with the pole height adjustment screws and the azimuth adjustment screws in the
small circle on the circle around the crosshairs of the polarscope.
The exact orientation at the celestial pole is now
completed. This means that you should be able to
Minutes your mount on the true northern
have aligned with the celestial pole"
Btw meridian offset means if you are in a city where your logitude is for example 3° different from the one used for the time you need to do an offset of 3°.
@Milena Millie D-a No problem
As far as I understand, it is also important to know that the hour angle is like the right ascension, but for your current position. So every star that is fixed (aka not moving relative to other objects in space) will have a declination that never changes, but an hour angle that changes because of the rotation of earth. If you have a right ascension value, it never changes because it's independent from your current location.
What is shown in this video is how to do it with the hour angle on the RA scale; that means that 0h hour angle always points to the south. If you want the right ascension value on your RA scale you need to point your telescope to a specific object from which you know the right ascension, then set the scale to this right ascension and always keep the tracking motors on.
And btw "Oh" what I wrote in two comments before should really mean "Ooooohh" and not 0 hours ;)
Hi is this mount good for astrophotography
for astrophotography you will need a computerised mount , so anything synscan or goto is good for astrophotography (:
Yes pretty much the same layout
I was going to take up astronomy, I have now realized my brain is not fit for this.
It takes 80% imagination, because sky objects don't look the way in the magazines!
Like woman! (o:
Ha. Setting up this stuff seams quite complicated to do on a cold dark night.
Like any thing else, practice, practice!
Yes, very true. One of the few thing I do well is quit.
Freddiy Fredericks LOL! Trick is, to set-up the scope before the "cold dark night!", when the light is out and the sun is still up!
Specially big, heavy scopes! Optics has to be thermally equalized, which takes time.
Planning, planning, eh?
I did not understand the part where you aligned Polaris - can you explain it any more in depth?
You should level the tripod before putting the mount on
I am struggling to locate Polaris. My mount is level and altitude is set the EQ5 is facing north just can not find Polaris I am looking for it at night. Can anybody help me out.
With my Nexstar telescope I am out and ready to view in under 3 minutes.
Polaris is The North Star.
Lol dud you,ve got your spreader on upside down.trun it around.i myself use the Meade Lx 85goto its the same as your just a different company name on it.
why 22 - 35?
Adrian, where is your accent from in the UK? My buddy has your exact dialect. I mean exactly!!!
It was manual focus on a DSLR camera so a bit of a pain, plus I am not a camera man. Why can you do better?
HI THIS MAY SEEM LIKE A DAFT QUESTION BUT I TAKE IT YOU CAN ONLY POLAR ALIGN WHEN YIOU CAN SEE POLARIS
Correct 👍
You cant, you have to be able to see it to do it ;-(
What if you are in the Southern Hemisphere? :(
Polar aline AFTER you add weight, because it will throw it off !!
weight and telescope before aligning would be the best, right?