Polar Alignment of the LXD55 Mount

NOTE: Do not confuse Autostar Alignment with Polar Alignment. They are not the same thing.

Below I describe two methods to polar align the mount. The first one I call an easy polar alignment and the second is a good old-fashioned drift alignment. The easy alignment is not perfectly accurate but it should do just fine for visual observing. If you plan to take long exposure photos do the drift alignment.

Easy Alignment
This method is simply the ONE STAR alignment of the Autostar unit. This procedure moves the OTA to view Polaris. Once the OTA has stopped slewing, the Autostar handset prompts the user to Adjust the mount to center Polaris in the center of the eyepiece. Once Polaris has been centered the Austostar slews to an alignemt star and finishes the alignment. Please be aware that the method is not accurate enough to do long exposure imaging. It is also the least accurate method of aligning the Autostar for good GOTOs.

Drift Alignment - Use this method if you want to polar align you mount near perfect.  Drift alignment is easier if you use an eyepiece with a crosshair, Barlow it also.  You'll want at least 200x magnification to effectively perform this procedure in a timely manor.  Set your Targets to Astronomical to turn on the RA drive.  Expect to spend a hour or two learning how to do this.  With practice and a bit of luck you'll be able to drift align in 30 to 45 minutes.

Step 1 - Azimuth Alignment.

*Reverse all adjustments and star movement directions for a the Schmidt-Newtonian scopes.

• Find a star along a meridian. It needs to be about 20 degrees above the horizon.
  The meridian the an imaginary line in the sky that connects the north celestial pole to the south celestial pole and runs directly over-head.    
• Orientate the crosshair so the lines run NS and EW. 
  Set Autostar's speed to 4 or so and press the <> movement keys the star should move exactly across the crosshair line without moving off of it.  If it does, rotate the eyepiece until it doesn't.  
• Center the star and wait. 
• *If the star moves north rotate the knobs to adjust the mount toward the east. 
• *If the star moves south rotate the knobs to adjust the mount towards the west.
• Keep doing this until the star no longer moves for 5 minutes.

Step 2 - Altitude Alignment

• Rotate the OTA to find a star in the Eastern sky along the celestial equator. 
• Orientate the crosshair so the lines run NS and EW. 
• Center the star and wait. 
• *If the star moves north lower the altitude of the mount.
• *If the star move south raise the altitude of the mount.
• Center the star in the crosshair and repeat until there is no movement
• If you have to make several adjustments here, perform Step 1 again.

Tips for speeding this process up.

• Practice
• Don't wait for the entire five minutes before you make an adjustment if needed.
• If a star moves in the 1st minute or two, your adjustment should be about 3-4 eyepiece lengths.

The five minute rule really only applies to very long exposures.  From my backyard, I have about 10 minutes before sky glow ruins a photo.  In this case I don't need to be so precise. 3-4 minutes should be fine.  Remember your star movement was at 200x. Your photos will be at prime focus far from 200x magnification. So a little bit of movement won't show up in a 5-10 minute exposure, but will in an exposure of 45 minutes to an hour.