How to Calibrate the Reticle in Your Polar Alignment Scope - Orion Telescopes

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[@jeddymo7052]

Excellent. Celestron should have used you to proofread their instructions for their polar alignment scope. The key word here is "halfway" and you cannot say this word enough times in your video. Celestron's instructions would have you move the target fully back to the cross hairs, and if you do this (like I did before just stumbling into the solution) you will just move the error from one side to the other forever.

[@jasonmcintosh2632]

I love watching Ken's videos. Something about him that makes me feel like I'm welcome and I can do it all... :)

[@bopapa_1979]

Agreed. 100%. The guy is a national treasure.

[@rickbattle5706]

Excellent info, great details. Thanks, much appreciated.

[@AstroDragon33]

Would really help to explain the halfway point, for those who cant imagine this in their head. Great vid

[@cigarnationwarriors]

Very helpful to get the most out of my new HEQ5 mount.

[@MrAlexGruitt86]

Thank you for the video, I’m wondering, is this needed if one is doing wide angle Astro with a polar alignment app?

[@AndyinMokum]

If you very carefully remove the grub screws one at a time with a 1.5mm allen key. You can replace them with 10mm M3 finger screws. Do this with all three grub screws. Aligning the reticle is now really easy to do because you can gently tighten and loosen two of the thumb screws simultaneously. There's no more fiddling around with allen keys. The thumb screws are dirt cheap on ebay.
*Note* : When removing the grub screws, it's best to have the one being removed at the 12 O'clock position. This way gravity will hold the reticle in its track.

[@gothicm3rcy426]

I did this but found they loosen more quickly

[@XPFTP]

youtube needs to stop there bs. its gettin old.

[@book3100]

Perfect. I have an older model of eq mount with polar scope... I figured it'd be something like this, but you saved me from a lot of figuring on my own. Thanks!

[@dodgeguy232]

@orion I have the Orion® SkyView™ Deluxe Equatorial Mount #9400 that came with the Orion 8" Newtonian OTA. I just bought this scope (used) and learning how to use it. But for my mount, the reticle is NOT constructed like this mount. I cannot find any videos that show how to calibrate this reticle. When I rotate the RA the view is not perfectly centered. My polar scope and reticle do not have any set screws like they show in this video. The only videos I can see are for this EQ-G or the PRO version. Help, anyone?!

[@Nottsboy24]

#4th like....great video :)

[@HollomanUFOLanding]

Good explanation, well done

[@strght_flxing]

Thanks for the video! It took me a while to figure out how to align the polar scope. I was getting frustrated when it would get unaligned when I would rotate.

[@williamwesley5078]

Wow, I've watched alor of videos for calibrating, I totally understand it now. I'm gonna calibrate my star adventurer, thx for vid

[@gothicm3rcy426]

great tutorial.... using the horizontal method and not vertical works so much easier for me with my cgem ii

[@OmariNedal]

Hi Ken could you direct me to the other clip explaining the alignment procedure for the polar scope to locate Polaris star please 🙏

[@nickb7977]

Does the polar scope have to be in a specific position (rotation) inside the mount before I begin?

[@bhattvd1]

Excellent! Very well explained. Thanks.

[@floatingaxe3466]

This is an excellent presentation and explanation.

[@condensermike]

HI Ken, are you able to completely unscrew the polar scope, remove it, and replace it with one for the Southern Hemisphere? Thanks!

[@oriontelescopes]

Hi, polar alignment scopes we currently sell include Octans in the reticle pattern for use in the Southern Hemisphere, but they can be unscrewed and replaced with a model that has this if required.

[@les9030]

Thanks! That helped clarify a lot!

[@ohwell2790]

If the scope is centering the north star one night how do you compensate for precession of earths rotation that describes a circle of 1.6 degrees. Some have a circle and on that circle is a small circle that the north star should be in for any give time. Just rotate the mount so the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia are in position and then align the mount so that the north star is in the small circle. Of course the scope needs to be centered with the rotation of the mount before hand.

[@gothicm3rcy426]

you dont centre the cross to the star as the star isnt exactly at the pole. on the recticle theres a circle surrounding it with a oolaris point... line up the constellation and youll be fine

[@asssassin4024]

Does this Mount come with a goto System

[@vuongnayima8300]

What if the reticle itself is misaligned? Meaning it is rotated from factory and the 12 o'clock is off by 15 degrees or more. How do we rotate the reticle?

[@dkechag1979]

You just rotate the RA axis so that it is "upright". If you have an iPhone or iPad, the app Polar Scope Align Pro also has a "Rotated Reticle View" function which allows you to leave the reticle rotated and still align accurately on it.

[@gothicm3rcy426]

you can loosen the thread ever so slightly.
you will need to anyway to line up the constellation orientation

[@carlstreet7095]

What if the image you see moves around? I have the crosshairs centered on my target, but the target moves around a point when I rotate the counterweight shaft?

[@astrophotographer2899]

same here do u have a solution ?

[@gothicm3rcy426]

reember the crosshair doesnt point at polaris.... polaris isnt exactly at the pole.

[@jeffdunne8468]

Hi Ken How would this procedure work with the polar scope on my Sirius pro mount? Thanks for your reply. Clear skies! Jeff

[@oriontelescopes]

Hi Jeff! The process is basically the same, but since the polar scope of the Sirius Pro is not directly in the center of the RA axis, it would be best to choose a target that’s as far away as possible to avoid any parallax since the polar scope is off to the side of the mount. If you don’t have any distant targets available, you could always do it on Polaris itself, it’s just that we like to perform this calibration in the daylight so we can see the allen wrench in case we drop it!
If you have any other questions or need some additional assistance, feel free to reach out to us!
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[@ohwell2790]

@@oriontelescopes replace the allen screws with ones that are used to tighten your eyepieces far easier, same thread

[@thatgoose2639]

Orthogonal

[@scarpography]

This shit was a goddamn pain to do, thanks man you've been very clear 👍