Coarse polar alignment without polar alignment scope?

[Brian]

My AVX mount is very hard to guide when there is anything but nearly perfect polar alignment so my alignment ritual takes about an hour. It consists of the following high level steps (I’ll get to the point soon):

1) Lock clutches so that the OTA is roughly parallel with thr RA axis.
2) Point OTA at polaris by turning azimuth and alt. knobs.
3) Do a two star align with no calibration stars.
4) Use the all star align feature to roughly correct the error of pointing directly at polaris and whatever misalignment there was between the RA axis and the OTA.
5) Drift align with PHD2.
6) Redo star alignment, this time with calibration stars since the drift align throws off the first alignment.
7) Begin stargazing!

My new idea is that this: as a last step before cleaning up, point the polar aligned setup at polaris. In doing this I precisely save the relative position of polaris relative to the polar axis so that next time I set up, I can skip steps (3) and (4). Thoughts? Any suggestions for speeding up the procedure?

[JayTee]

Since you are using a computer to use PHD2, you might as well download AstroTortilla or Plate Solve 2 (via Astrophotography Tool). You use these programs to find the exact center of an image you have those programs look at. Once they have determined the exact coords for the center, you can then sync your mount to those coords. No 2 star or calibration stars needed for a goto alignment. It speeds things up noticeably!

Cheers,
JT

[Altocumulus]

Not that I've used the feature, but there is Polar Align in Sharpcap 3...

[bobharmony]

I have a Celestron ASGT, which is the predecessor to the AVX, and I have my process down to 20-30 minutes, and it is done during twilight, so I am not wasting any valuable imaging time:

1) set up the mount pointing roughtly North (since I have done this before, I have marks on the surface where the tripod legs should be).
2) unlock the clutches and line up the home marks on the RA and DEC axes, then lock the clutches.
3) power up the mount, set the date and time and select a "quick align" from the hand controller
4) use PHD2 to slew the scope just west of the meridian at DEC 0 and do drift alignment, azimuth first, then altitude
5) select a fairly bright star near my first target for the night, slew to it (I use Cartes du Ciel for this, but you could use the hand controller)
6) Use Astrotortilla to plate solve, checking the 'sync scope' and 're-slew to target' boxes.
7) while I am there, I focus on the bright star.
8) slew to my target, do another plate solve with AstroTortilla, with sync and re-slew, to center the target
9) Start my imaging session.

It reads pretty complicated, but is simpler in execution. Not having to mess with any of the Hand Controller alignment routines saves a lot of time. I am no expert on all things AP, this is what I have evolved to after doing it for a couple of years. This is pretty much filling in the details JT didn't spell out in his response.

Bob

[Brian]

Thanks for the input. I’ll try astrotortilla next time I’m out. That makes perfect sense.

[Altocumulus]

I have a Celestron ASGT, which is the predecessor to the AVX, and I have my process down to 20-30 minutes, and it is done during twilight, so I am not wasting any valuable imaging time:

1) set up the mount pointing roughtly North (since I have done this before, I have marks on the surface where the tripod legs should be).
2) unlock the clutches and line up the home marks on the RA and DEC axes, then lock the clutches.
3) power up the mount, set the date and time and select a "quick align" from the hand controller
4) use PHD2 to slew the scope just west of the meridian at DEC 0 and do drift alignment, azimuth first, then altitude
5) select a fairly bright star near my first target for the night, slew to it (I use Cartes du Ciel for this, but you could use the hand controller)
6) Use Astrotortilla to plate solve, checking the 'sync scope' and 're-slew to target' boxes.
7) while I am there, I focus on the bright star.
8) slew to my target, do another plate solve with AstroTortilla, with sync and re-slew, to center the target
9) Start my imaging session.

It reads pretty complicated, but is simpler in execution. Not having to mess with any of the Hand Controller alignment routines saves a lot of time. I am no expert on all things AP, this is what I have evolved to after doing it for a couple of years. This is pretty much filling in the details JT didn't spell out in his response.

Bob

Hey Bob .........

Don't you put a telescope on the mount?

[bobharmony]

Hey Bob .........

Don't you put a telescope on the mount?

I knew I was forgetting something...

Bob