Why Can't it Auto-Polar Align?

Mr_Cellophane

Hey folks..so this is more something that I've been curious about, not really a complaint or anything... But considering the ASIAir can plate solve with ease... Why can't you just line up the telescope so that Polaris is in view,,and then immediately it slew or adjust to make it polar aligned automatically? Considering it does so much math, and detecting during guiding and star detection, and recognizing objects..it seems like it'd be baffingly easy to make auto adjustments to mounts so you don't have to make the adjustments yourself by hand....Am I missing something here?

Swizerlan

Mr_Cellophane Have you ever used an equatorial mount? If you have ever polar aligned it should be obvious the difference between Alt Az and the RA Dec axises.

WalterT

Polar alignment requires the RA axis of your mount to be pointed at the CNP. Since the knob or screw or lever to do that doesn’t have a motor there is no way the AAP or any other commuter can accomplish that.

Although, I have also wondered why there aren’t any consumer level mounts with motorized Alt/AZ adjustment controls.

w7ay

WalterT Although, I have also wondered why there aren’t any consumer level mounts with motorized Alt/AZ adjustment controls.

Walter, check out the Avalon M-zero obs model (M-zero is their low end mount). Motorized polar alignment has been around for a while now.

On top of that, with a motorized field rotator like the Optec Pyxis, you won't even need to have good polar alignment. Guiding simply need to correct for three axes, x and y (like in 2D PHD2), and theta (angle).

IMHO, a permanent pier with a weather proof cover over the mount is a better solution.

Chen

WalterT

w7ay thanks for the info Chen. I looked it up and it looks like a beautiful mount. I’m happy with my GEM45 but there’s nothing wrong with looking at other mounts 😁

Byrdsfan1948

w7ay HAHA Amazing!! Just the other day I was working out a mechanical design for a way to do this with my Ioptron mount!!! Oh well another potential patent filed in the dumpster for me :-)).

Of course what we all really need is something that gives us clear skies. Another night here in New England where all the forecasts for clear skies were wrong!! Somebody needs to tell our forecasters about this marvelous invention that they could try that apparently is far more reliable than their all their fancy radars etc..... A window!!

Swizerlan

Byrdsfan1948 If you truly wanted to achieve this you would need Az on a ring gear driven by a worm with a stepper driver planetary gear. Same would go for azimuth. really you could cut a single gear in half and use it on Alt and Az. You would not need extreme precision on the gear, you could really just machine it using a 3/8-16 thread tap on a lathe instead of an indexing setup.

Mr_Cellophane

Byrdsfan1948 trust me I know the feeling...5 nights of curtains...