Help with my Polar Aligning Star Tracker please

[LightningInAJar]

TL;DR

Trouble understanding how to use my tracker.

I bought the Star Adventurer 2i and could use some help aligning it. I live in the northern hemisphere. I can find polaris using a free AR star finder app, but can't see it in the sky nor the dipper. Possibly too close to nearest city. Also cloudy kind of a lot in the northern sky.

I would like to take longer exposures of galaxy but primarily had filming eclipses in mind as well as seeing changes in sun spots. I get the impression that with a telephoto lens the rig is setup to shoot in the north sky versus away? I would think my camera would need to be attached parallel to the rotating arm to look at sun, moon, and galaxy?

 

[Drakkith]

I bought the Star Adventurer 2i and could use some help aligning it. I live in the northern hemisphere. I can find polaris using a free AR star finder app, but can't see it in the sky nor the dipper. Possibly too close to nearest city. Also cloudy kind of a lot in the northern sky.

From the diagram it looks like you have a small polar scope that is used to align the mount to the north celestrial pole. I would take your gear out to a nearby spot where the sky is darker and get some practice using the polar scope to find Polaris and the pole. Try visually, then see if you can do it solely using your phone and the scope without having to see Polaris with your naked eye.

I get the impression that with a telephoto lens the rig is setup to shoot in the north sky versus away?

No, you can use it in either hemisphere. It's just somewhat more difficult to align to the south celestial pole.

I would think my camera would need to be attached parallel to the rotating arm to look at sun, moon, and galaxy?

No, the 'arm' rotates to move your FOV in the right ascension direction, and the camera rotates on the end of the 'arm' to move your FOV in the declination direction.

 

[DaveC426913]

Possibly too close to nearest city.
...
I would like to take longer exposures of galaxy

Can't see Polaris for the light pollution but want to shoot galaxies?

I applaud your determination.

 

[davenn]

TL;DR Summary: Trouble understanding how to use my tracker.

I bought the Star Adventurer 2i and could use some help aligning it. I live in the northern hemisphere. I can find polaris using a free AR star finder app, but can't see it in the sky nor the dipper. Possibly too close to nearest city. Also cloudy kind of a lot in the northern sky.


View attachment 361067

hi ya
I have one of these, wonderful unit !
and I live and use it in the southern hemisphere ( Sydney, Australia)

below is an annotated section of your pic .... should be straight forward
feel free to ask Q's

regarding not being able to see much from home, stars wise .... ya just gotta get out of town
doing longer exposure under a light polluted sky isnt going to let you see more objects or see them better

You dont really need one of these for doing the sun or moon as exposures for these need to be very short.
but great for comets and other deep space objects, galaxies, nebula, star clusters etc

Cheers
Dave

 

[davenn]

TL;DR Summary: Trouble understanding how to use my tracker.

I bought the Star Adventurer 2i and could use some help aligning it. I live in the northern hemisphere. I can find polaris using a free AR star finder app, but can't see it in the sky nor the dipper. Possibly too close to nearest city. Also cloudy kind of a lot in the northern sky.

OK, I dont know where you are in the world, but here is a site that you can go anywhere in the world and zoom in to work out where darker sky areas are closer to where you live .....

Dark Site Finder

 

[LightningInAJar]

From the diagram it looks like you have a small polar scope that is used to align the mount to the north celestrial pole. I would take your gear out to a nearby spot where the sky is darker and get some practice using the polar scope to find Polaris and the pole. Try visually, then see if you can do it solely using your phone and the scope without having to see Polaris with your naked eye.


No, you can use it in either hemisphere. It's just somewhat more difficult to align to the south celestial pole.


No, the 'arm' rotates to move your FOV in the right ascension direction, and the camera rotates on the end of the 'arm' to move your FOV in the declination direction.

In the cover diagram it looks like the camera is pointed in same northern direction as the scope that sees north star. I want to look away and a bit up to see most of the sky.

 

[LightningInAJar]

Can't see Polaris for the light pollution but want to shoot galaxies?

I applaud your determination.

I have seen stars with 360 camera doing long exposure and was going to try to filter out more red light when possible.

 

[LightningInAJar]

hi ya
I have one of these, wonderful unit !
and I live and use it in the southern hemisphere ( Sydney, Australia)

below is an annotated section of your pic .... should be straight forward
feel free to ask Q's

regarding not being able to see much from home, stars wise .... ya just gotta get out of town
doing longer exposure under a light polluted sky isnt going to let you see more objects or see them better

You dont really need one of these for doing the sun or moon as exposures for these need to be very short.
but great for comets and other deep space objects, galaxies, nebula, star clusters etc

View attachment 361111

Cheers
Dave

Yes but camera would also be facing north? Sun and moon would be more in the middle of the sky as well as most of the galaxy? I was going to try tracking the moon first since it is closer and I can see its edge if it starts to drift over time in relation to tracking.

 

[LightningInAJar]

hi ya
I have one of these, wonderful unit !
and I live and use it in the southern hemisphere ( Sydney, Australia)

below is an annotated section of your pic .... should be straight forward
feel free to ask Q's

regarding not being able to see much from home, stars wise .... ya just gotta get out of town
doing longer exposure under a light polluted sky isnt going to let you see more objects or see them better

You dont really need one of these for doing the sun or moon as exposures for these need to be very short.
but great for comets and other deep space objects, galaxies, nebula, star clusters etc

View attachment 361111

Cheers
Dave

Looks like camera would need to also face north like in your diagram. Otherwise in the other direction facing roughly 45 degrees towards the ground.

This image from manual seems to show some cylinder on top of rotating arm with a ball joint that a camera is attached to. I don't seem to have these parts with the kit.

Tonight I set latitude pretty closely and lined up scope circle with only star I could see in northern 15% of sky. The star didn't appear yellowish as I've read polaris should be, but it did land in circle where it should of been in its path at that hour.

 

[Drakkith]

In the cover diagram it looks like the camera is pointed in same northern direction as the scope that sees north star. I want to look away and a bit up to see most of the sky.

The camera should be able to pivot left and right in its mount. The Star Adventure 2i is an equatorial mount. Do you know how an equatorial mount works?

 

[LightningInAJar]

The camera should be able to pivot left and right in its mount. The Star Adventure 2i is an equatorial mount. Do you know how an equatorial mount works?

No I don't. I can possibly get the scope facing polaris, but even if the camera can pivot a little it is either facing north or pointing towards the ground at roughly 40 degrees.

 

[Drakkith]

No I don't. I can possibly get the scope facing polaris, but even if the camera can pivot a little it is either facing north or pointing towards the ground at roughly 40 degrees.

Give this video a look:

 

[davenn]

Looks like camera would need to also face north like in your diagram. Otherwise in the other direction facing roughly 45 degrees towards the ground.

No, the camera can be rotated around on this mounting pad so that it can cover any area in the sky

That video Drakkith posted is very good

 

[LightningInAJar]

Give this video a look:

Thanks for the video. I don't think either of these had a scope though. Aligning seems to be the bigger issue for me. I saw the knob near the pad but didn't realized it helped to rotate the camera since I was focused on polar aligning before attaching my camera. In retrospect I should align after even though the bar slightly blocks the view. I took picture 1 for 4mins and 2 for 20mins. Less streaking than I was expecting since I couldn't see polaris. I would like to figure how to align during the day to watch solar spots. And lunar eclipses eventually.

I watched these videos previously. Still worried about bumping mount before hitting go.

 

[Drakkith]

You can try using drift alignment to fine-tune your polar alignment. Even those of us with polar scopes that can see Polaris often use drift alignment before a long session to minimize tracking errors. See here: https://www.explorescientific.com/pages/polar-alignment-using-the-drift-method

As for aligning during the day, I can't really help you with that as I have no expertise in that area. I'm sure a google search should turn up something though.

 

[LightningInAJar]

You can try using drift alignment to fine-tune your polar alignment. Even those of us with polar scopes that can see Polaris often use drift alignment before a long session to minimize tracking errors. See here: https://www.explorescientific.com/pages/polar-alignment-using-the-drift-method

As for aligning during the day, I can't really help you with that as I have no expertise in that area. I'm sure a google search should turn up something though.

Hypothetically has anyone ever created a lens that has a wider angle with a telephoto fused in the middle to help find objects in periphery, and align them in center after finding them for scoping purposes?

 

[Drakkith]

Hypothetically has anyone ever created a lens that has a wider angle with a telephoto fused in the middle to help find objects in periphery, and align them in center after finding them for scoping purposes?

No, as that's not really possible. You'd create a lens with two wildly different focal lengths and the entire image would be a blurry mess. Instead what you can do is mount a smaller telescope with a wider FoV to your main telescope and then put an eyepiece or camera in the smaller scope to essentially do exactly what you're asking about.

 

[davenn]

Thanks for the video. I don't think either of these had a scope though.

HUH ?

I can see a scope on the mount

 

[davenn]

I would like to figure how to align during the day to watch solar spots. And lunar eclipses eventually.

If from home, then that is pretty easy
Do your nighttime polar alignment. Put markers on the ground under each end spike of the
tripod legs. Then you have points on the ground to put the tripod points back onto on a different day.
Make sure the polar axis is pointing in the same direction each time you put the tripod spikes back
onto their ground spots

DO NOT adjust the polar axis alignment offset angle between observation sessions, else you will not
be able to achieve polar alignment again

cheers
Dave