Mastering Polar Alignment: Telescope Techniques

telescope techniques
Mastering Polar Alignment

When you set up your telescopes equatorial mount, you need to align it
an illusion its the Earth that turns.

Picture the Earth as a rotating globe at
only well enough to do the job you want. By Alan MacRobert
the center of the celestial sphere, as in the
diagram on the facing page. Because the
ost amateurs use a port- telescope along every few seconds. And world feels motionless as it smoothly carable telescope, whether in most cases, a well-aligned mount is es- ries us along, we perceive the sky turning
they carry it to remote, sential for astronomical photography.
instead, in the opposite direction.
dark-sky hideaways or to
The axis on which the sky seems to roAs performed by many amateurs,
a familiar spot in the backyard. But if polar aligning is too much work. You can tate is simply the axis of the Earth exyour telescope has an equatorial mount- waste a lot of time getting it more pre- tended to infinity. Imagine the Earths
ing, this means you need to realign it on cise than you need for what you intend latitude and longitude lines ballooning
the celestial pole every time you set up. to do. Mastering polar alignment isnt outward and printing themselves onto
Doing so can seem like a lot of work.
just a matter of knowing the techniques. the sky sphere. They become lines of
An equatorial mount has many bene- Its also knowing when not to bother.
declination and right ascension, respecfits. It can easily compensate for the
tively. These serve to locate stars on a cemovement of celestial objects as the The Basics
lestial atlas just like cities on a map.
Earth turns. Its motions show you which The first step in understanding a teleA telescope mounting is called equaways are celestial north-south and east- scope mounting is to understand the mo- torial if one of its two axles can be made
west in your eyepiece view, making it tion of the sky. This motion, of course, is parallel to the Earths axis. When this is
easier to navigate with a sky map.
done, the skys motion can be canWith a motor drive, an equatorial Above: The sky is always turning, so a telescope needs to celed out simply by turning the
mount can make objects stand still turn the opposite way to keep a star in view. Stefan Bin- axle at the same rate as the Earth
in the eyepiece even at high power, newies took this 8-hour exposure of stars circling the ce- but in the opposite direction, eiso you dont have to nudge the lestial pole from below the equator in Namibia.
ther by hand or by a motor drive.
106
September 1997 Sky & Telescope
1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
22h
Polar
axis
To P
olar
is
+60
Ce
les
tia
lE
qu
at
or
18
h
move it and repeat step
6h
1. Leave it out for all
+30
subsequent steps.
Equa
tor
Dont use a diagonal
8h
on the finderscope at
all. It mirror-images the
10h
view, making it nearly imCele
stial
possible to compare the star
Equato
r
0
6
patterns you see with those
0
on a map.
.3 The declination setting circle,
which is graduated in degrees, proba30
bly needs adjustment to make it read
correctly the setting of the mount. Turn
the telescope to 90 declination as indi- no declination setting completely elimicated by the circle. The tube should now nates image drift as you turn the telebe parallel to the polar axis. Clamp the scope in right ascension. This means that
declination axle tight, then rotate the either the optical or the right-ascension
telescope in right ascension while looking axis is not exactly at a right angle to the
through either the main eyepiece or the declination axis.
finder. Any object, whether a star or a
First recheck that the optics are collidistant treetop, should stay centered in mated correctly. Then try adding thin
the view. If it doesnt, move the telescope shims of metal or cardboard to change the
in declination slightly and repeat. When angle the tube makes with its cradle, or
the scope stays aimed at the same object try otherwise tinkering with the mount.
as it spins in right ascension (at least as
If your telescope does not allow for
best you can do), loosen
the declination dial, turn
it to read exactly 90, and
tighten permanently.
Note: If youre sighting
through a fork-mounted
telescope, you can aim at
an object nearby. If you are
using the finder, the object
ought to be at least 600 feet
away. For a telescope on a
German-type mount (standard for equatorial reflectors), sight on something
more than 1,000 feet away.
This may require loosening the latitude adjustment the pivot that
sets the angle the polar
axis makes with the
ground and tilting the One way to set an equatorial mount to your latitude. By movpolar axis so its nearly ing the latitude adjustment, level the tube while the telehorizontal.
scope is locked at a declination of 90 minus your latitude (as
.4 In carrying out step shown by the setting circle) and pointed due north. If a level is
3, you may discover that not available, eyeball judgment will do.
16h
12h
CHUCK BAKER
Preliminaries
The following adjustments need to be
done only once, and they can be carried
out during the day. For rough alignment
only step 5 is required, but many telescope owners will want to work through
the whole series to get everything shipshape. (In these instructions well assume
that collimation, or optical alignment, of
the telescopes lenses and/or mirrors has
already been done.)
1. Aim the finderscope to point in the
same direction as the main telescope.
Center an object at least a quarter mile
away in the telescopes high-power view. A
treetop works fine. Then use the thumbscrews on the finderscope mount to center the object in the finders cross hairs.
.2 If you use a right-angle star diagonal
(eyepiece prism) on the main telescope,
check that it does not shift the direction of
view. Take out the diagonal and center an
object while viewing straight through.
Then insert the diagonal and look again.
The object should still be centered. If its
not, turn the little adjustment screws in
the diagonals back until it is. If the diagonal fails this test and is unadjustable, re-
On the celestial sphere, declination and

right ascension are similar to latitude
and longitude on Earth. If a telescopes polar axis is made parallel to the Earths axis, as
0h
shown, the Earths rotation
can be canceled out by
turning the telescope in
4h
the opposite direction.
The axle of the mounting that points

at the celestial pole is called the polar
axis. Sight along it (as in the diagram at
right), and you should see Polaris, the
North Star. Its also called the right-ascension axis, because turning the telescope on it sweeps the view in right ascension (celestial east-west).
The mounts other motion, perpendicular to the first, swings the telescope
north-south around the declination axis.
To make an equatorial mount work as
intended, you aim its polar axis at the
pole. This needs to be done only roughly
for casual observing. Better alignment
helps in tracking objects carefully at high
power. Still greater precision is needed if
you want to use conventional setting circles to point the telescope at hard-to-find
objects. Astrophotography usually demands the highest precision of all.
A commercially made telescope on an
equatorial mount will come with instructions. Some telescopes have built-in alignment aids, such as a Polaris sighter. Computerized mountings are a whole different
category; they can eliminate the need to
polar-align altogether. Here well discuss
several generic polar-alignment methods,
from quick and rough to very exact.
But first you need to do some preliminary adjustments to your telescope.
Sky & Telescope September 1997
107
this, just carry out step 3 as best you can.

5. The final task is to match the angle of
your polar axis to the latitude where you
live. This adjustment determines how high
the polar axis points above the horizon.
Set up the telescope on a level surface
and turn it in declination so the setting
circle reads 90 minus your latitude. (If
you dont know your latitude, find it on
a map.) For example, if you live at 40
latitude, turn the telescope to 50 declination. Clamp the declination axle tight.
Now turn the telescope in right ascension to make the mounts declination axis
lie as nearly horizontal as you can judge.
(High precision is not required.) Clamp
the right-ascension axle.
With both axles locked in place, put a
carpenters bubble level on the telescopes
tube, loosen the latitude adjustment
(carefully!), move it until the tube is exactly level, and tighten permanently. See
the photograph on the previous page.
The next steps are done outdoors at
the beginning of each observing session.
Advertisement
Rough Polar Alignment

For ordinary visual observing, just plunk
the mount down so the polar axis is
aimed at Polaris as best you can judge by
looking. Thats it! You will probably be no
more than 5 or 10 off. This is good
enough for using the mounts motions to
tell celestial north, south, east, and west in
your field of view, and for following the
skys motion easily with or without a
motor drive. If thats all you want to do,
why make life complicated?
Better Alignment
For a quick improvement, you can choose
one of the following two methods:
A. Swing the telescope to 90 declination and clamp it there. Then turn the
entire mount until Polaris is as nearly
centered in the finder as you can get it.
.B If you dont have setting circles, use
your star charts to find two stars 10 or
more apart that have either the same declination or right ascension. Turning the
scope on only one axle, sweep from one
star to the other while looking though the
finder. Both stars should go through the
finders cross hairs. If they dont, move
the whole mount around until they do.
The telescope should now be aligned
to within a degree or two. A motor drive
will follow an object much longer, and
direction finding in the eyepiece becomes
more precise. You can now locate difficult
objects by the offsetting method: moving
108
September 1997 Sky & Telescope
Fine Alignment
This is the stage of accuracy most amateurs mean when they say a telescope is
aligned. Corrections are made for Polaris not being quite at the pole and for
the telescope not resting on perfectly level
ground. Use either of these two methods:
A. Set the telescope to 90 declination
and clamp it there. Using the chart
below, note where the true celestial pole
lies with respect to Polaris and its surrounding stars. Turn the whole mount
sideways until the finders cross hairs appear either directly above or below this
point among the stars.
Now loosen and tilt the latitude adjustment (or move the tripod legs) to aim
the cross hairs up or down exactly at this
point.
B. This method requires a movable
slip ring right-ascension setting circle,
provided on many telescopes. Align
roughly, then aim at a bright star of
known right ascension fairly near the
equator. Turn the right-ascension circle
(the slip ring) so it reads the correct value
for this star. Using the circles, swing the
telescope to 2 hours 30 minutes, which is
nearly the right ascension of Polaris, and
6
To Big
ers
Dipp ers
t
Poin
Polaris
2000
1950
1900
To Ca
ssiop
eia
h
12h
North
Pole
UMi
Litt
er
ipp
le D
To Veg
18h
The north celestial pole moves slowly against

the starry background from year to year due
to the Earths precession. The current position
of the pole is where to aim when doing fine
alignment of an equatorial mount. A finderscope will take in most of this field.
to +89 14, Polariss declination.

Now move the tripod and the latitude adjustment to center Polaris
in the finders cross hairs. If the
mounting had to be moved a lot,
repeat from the beginning.
The telescope is now aligned to
a fraction of a degree. You may be
able to use the setting circles to
find objects simply by dialing in
their coordinates. A motor drive
will keep the telescope on an object indefinitely, allowing long-exposure photography.
Method B automatically places
the right-ascension circle at the
correct value to start an evenings
observing. If the circle is driven by
a motor drive, it doesnt need to be
touched again. If its undriven,
turn it to the right ascension of
the object youre currently viewing
just before swinging the telescope
to a new reading.
DENNIS DI CICCO
the correct amount of right ascension

and declination to get from an easy-tofind star to the desired object.
Best Possible Alignment

The two methods above are limited
by the accuracy of the setting circles and how well you were able to
do the preliminary steps 1 through 4.
The following method is independent of
these factors. Since it takes some time,
its most appropriate for permanently
mounted telescopes or those that can be
replaced in exactly the same position on
future nights.
First aim the polar axis roughly at Polaris. Now point the telescope at a star
thats somewhat above the celestial equator and nearly due south. Put in a highpower eyepiece. If the eyepiece has cross
hairs, center the star on them. Otherwise
put the star on the north or south edge
of the field and defocus it a little. Turn
on the clock drive, and ignore any eastwest drift.
If the star drifts south in the eyepiece
with time, the polar axis is pointing too
far east. If the star drifts north, the polar
axis is too far west.
Moving the whole mount, shift the
polar axis left or right accordingly until
there is no more north-south drift.
Now aim at a star thats near the celestial equator low in the eastern sky.
If the star drifts south, the polar axis
points too low. If the star drifts north, the
polar axis points too high.
Again, shift the polar axis accordingly.
Now go back and repeat from the beginning, because each adjustment throws the
The polar axis of a German

equatorial mount properly
aligned on the celestial pole.
previous one slightly off. When all northsouth drift is eliminated the telescope is
very accurately aligned, and you can take
long exposures for deep-sky photography.
If your eastern sky is blocked, you can
use a star low in the west and reverse the
words too high and too low in the instructions. If youre in the Earths Southern Hemisphere, reverse the words north
and south.
All these procedures may seem complicated to the uninitiated. Part of becoming initiated is knowing that most of
them can be ignored most of the time.
So theres no reason to be intimidated by
an equatorial mount. You can take full
advantage of the benefits it offers for
whatever level of observing you do.
Further Reading
Understanding Celestial Coordinates.
Sky & Telescope, September 1995, 38; http://
www.skypub.com/backyard/celcoord.html.
Setting Circles: Using Them Right.
Sky & Telescope, September 1990, 246;
http://www.sky pub.com/backyard/
setcircs.html.
Sky & Telescope September 1997
109

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telescope techniques

Mastering Polar Alignment

an illusion its the Earth that turns.

September 1997 Sky & Telescope

1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

On the celestial sphere, declination and

The axle of the mounting that points

1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Sky & Telescope September 1997

this, just carry out step 3 as best you can.

Rough Polar Alignment

September 1997 Sky & Telescope

1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

The north celestial pole moves slowly against

to +89 14, Polariss declination.

the correct amount of right ascension

Best Possible Alignment

The polar axis of a German

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