Hi,
I have a Sky-watcher P 130/650 Starquest and have a problem with Polar Aligning it, I’m living in Sri Lanka.
As it is said, the Telescope should be aligned with Polaris. The problem is, Polaris is only 7° above the horizon here! This can’t be aligned. When I do so, the counterweight knocks the tripod. What should I do for this? I’ve asked this earlier on another forum.
Hoping for help!
Thank you.
Nikolai
Can you turn the mount on the tripod 180 degrees so the counterweight is between two legs instead of it being right on top of one leg ?
Yes I can, but then I can’t move the scope to sides. Polar aligning for 7 degrees is just like keeping the scope horizontal. I’ll post some photos soon.
Thanks for helping!
Nikolai.
Sorry for being late, I wasn’t able to grab a photo of the tripod. I will post it so soon!
Thanks,
Nikolai.
Nikolai,
I looked at a product picture on-line and I can envision your dilemma.
Do you have enough room for a second weight, or a much heavier weight that you can locate closer to the scope? One other solution is to cut the tripod where the weight hits and install a couple of U-brackets on that leg so that the weight no longer makes contact.
Good luck,
Bob
Hi @Starrancher and @millerrobe !
This is a picture of when I polar align my scope. You can see the counterweight hangs down so low and the scope stays nearly perfect horizontal.
Cheers,
Nikolai
Nikolai,
The solution might be so simple I’m embarrassed not to have thought of it sooner.
Move the scope as close as you can to north like in your picture.
Mark the position of the counterweight. Now remove the weight. Don’t worry – as long as your balance rod is pointed nearly straight down the scope won’t go anywhere.
Move the RA axis that final bit so now you’re pointed north. Do what ever adjustments are necessary with the elevation and azimuth to get Polaris in your viewfinder.
Now move the RA just enough to get the counterweight back on and you should be good to go.
You’ll have most of the glorious southern atmosphere at your viewing pleasure. Let me know how it goes.
Bob
Back when I first set these up on the concrete pool deck I did polar alignment on both . I took a felt marking pen and put a mark on the concrete at the outside of the three tripod legs of each scope . After that , I’d just set the tripods up on thise marks every time I set up and I could track objects for hours throughout the night with very little if no drift whatsoever . I could set up my scopes , get them tracking say Jupiter though my refractor and M42 though my Schmidt Newtonian center of the eyepiece . I could go inside , have dinner , watch a movie and 2 hours later go back out and the objects would still be center field of view in the eye pieces . If there was any drift at all , it wasn’t much and then I could just adjust the objects back to the center . I did this for years until I moved and then just did the same thing on a new piece of concrete . I never polar aligned every night . Just once and done . It’s certainly plenty good for visual observation . Only when I took them out to star parties or other locations would I need to polar align . So if you have a regular spot to observe from you shouldn’t need to polar align every time you set up . A fat magic marker is your friend . The marks will fade over time so just refresh those marks as needed . I always try to only view objects at 30 degrees above the horizon too as somewhat inferior images looking through so much atmosphere lower than that isn’t optimum anyway so you should never have a problem with anything running into the tripod legs … So get polar alignment once , mark where the feet go and set the tripod on those marks as close as you can every time for subsequent viewing sessions . My stuff set up really fast every time after doing that . It saved lots of time and frustration night after night .
