NexStar Polar Align w/ASPA

[@jamespavlock9615]

I just bought a Celestron AVX mount and 8 inch scope. It came with an added Celestron polar alignment scope. I've been watching videos on polar alignment, hand controller star and polar alignments and reading as much as I can. It's a little confusing. I came across this video on Cloudy Nights, and it's the absolute best I've seen! It answered several of my nagging questions, including doubts about the design of how the mount attaches to the tripod and the azimuth screws. Good job! Watching it again.

[@H00tel]

I have had only 3 nights where I was able to use ASPA on my AVX and you were right that the alignment gets better after multiple times. But I still end up a tad off. Then I realized the ground I was on wasn't really level. So having leveled my mount, now I am just about +/- 3 arc seconds off. This video was very helpful in confirming what I have been learning. Thank you.

[@Koinonos7]

Thanks to this video my first experience with my new C1400 CGEM DX was a snap because of your video. I must have watched this video at least 10-12 times to memorize the workflow and when it showed up I was able to have it up and running in under 2 hours. I just wanted to make sure you knew that your video was one of the keys to my success. Thanks for taking the time to share your information and passion for the hobby to make it easier for the rest of us. Kind Regards and Clear Skies, Koinonos Richland, WA

[@wwgeb]

Shane Creamer I appreciate that. Thanks.

[@hettie102]

Hi wwgeb, your videos are brilliant and have helped me come a long with with my telescope, however i do have a question, i have a nexstar 4se and a nexstar 5se, despite being properly polar aligned with correct anti backlash settings,the tracking is just not good enough for anything longer than a minute, (thats if im lucky) im very frustrated as i have found out that the aux port can't even take an autoguider, is there anyway i can autoguide my nexstar 4/5se mounts? Thanks tom

[@wwgeb]

It really isn't possible to do DSO (deep sky object) imaging with the SE mounts. As I have read on the Cloudy Nights forums the 6/8 SE mount will accept autoguider input but the motors aren't smooth enough and you still can't do very good DSO imaging. You CAN do planetary imaging though. I have taken nice photos of Jupiter and Saturn with my 5SE and the NexImage 5 camera. I notice that my friends and family are equally impressed with a picture of a planet as they are with a picture of a galaxy.

[@hettie102]

wwgeb Thanks for replying so quickly, i have taken some pictures of mars saturn and jupiter and i am pretty happy with the results, i guess the 4/5 se scopes are basically just planetary scopes. keep making these great videos! :)

[@Sirge57]

Excellent explanation of polar alignment. I can't thank you enough. While I was able to get a rough alignment, I never could eliminate drift enough to take long exposure shots. With the help of this video I think I will be able to solve that drift problem.

[@WarmWeatherGuy]

If you have a view of the northern sky I would recommend a Polemaster. It will get you aligned much sooner so you can get more time to capture images. www.highpointscientific.com/qhy-polemaster-electronic-polar-finder-scope

[@Sirge57]

I will have to look into that. Not a big fan of the polarscope.

[@Koinonos7]

Wonderful video, as someone moving from a fork mounted to my first GEM mount this video explained everything the Celestron manual didn't. Highly recommended to share this on your favorite Astronomy forum for new users.

[@beakersa]

Commented already on one of your other videos, but again just want to say how awesome these are and how much you have helped me get to grasps with this stuff. Thanks again.

[@willissutherland8516]

I agree with you Iain

[@TimTools99]

I bought a polar scope and did my polar alignment with just the mount. Great suggestion. I did my 2-star align then a calibration star but did not go back and use the hand controller to select Polar Align. I bet that will help next time. Thanks a lot for the lesson.

[@bobseibel3526]

I have two questions. In the dark, how do you visualize Polaris through the polar scope? Second, once your hand controller gives you your polar alignment, why can’t you manually adjust the alt/az controls to bring those figures to zero error? Thanks!

[@wwgeb]

I shine a flashlight into the eyepiece to illuminate the reticles. So my eye and a flashlight are right together looking into it. ASPA has you move the alt/az controls to bring those figures to zero error. Unfortunately it is not accurate enough so I end up doing it multiple times. The hand controller can only "know" the error after doing an alignment. Once you fiddle with the alt/az things change and the computer doesn't know how good a job you did. I got tired of using ASPA. I would spend an extra hour just doing polar align. I now use PoleMaster to get the mount polar aligned before even turning on the hand controller. optcorp.com/products/qhy-polemaster

[@blueobject]

No that is a great tutorial - thanks! I need to try all this now.

[@Mike-lh4wn]

I also use a red dot finder to line up with stars more easily, since they are often outside of my FOV.

[@HollomanUFOLanding]

Thanks, very helpful. You have a wonderful spirit / energy.

[@MatthewHKnight]

You know the funny thing is I did a Polar Alignment using deneb as the first callibatered star then used Altair as the second callibatered star then I did the Polar Alignment using Altair as the Polar Alignment star and with a bit of work I got the alt/azm down to all 00's I was pretty shocked the cool thing is you can go back and try to Polar align if you have errors without having to start all over. I imaged the dumbbell on the 24th I did 20x60 second light exposures and 20 darks and 35 bias frames came out nice for unguided. I did M13 last night/morning.

[@Anvilcjl]

If you put your counterweight on before doing elevation, it will go down and not just up, without pulling on the weight rod. Also, like to point out, be careful about screwing the elevation lock too tight, the metal it goes into is a bit soft.

[@rwallace612]

Great video! I have an old celestron GT mount with the older nexstar hand controller. I mounted it on a wedge. If I get the nexstar+ controller, could I do ASPA on my mount setup? I have a hard time polar aligning my mount because I cannot easily see polaris where I live. So this would be a huge help!

[@johngraboski]

You are a very patient person for going through all that. I got the AVX with Starsense but am having problems with the upper/dec arm malfunctioning... so much for smooth sailing... Anyway, nice video. You have a very good way of explaining the process. Thanks! John

[@wwgeb]

John Graboski I see you have a video showing the problem. You might want to post on a Cloudy Nights forum a link to your video and ask if anyone has seen this before. They have a Celestron NexStar forum and also a Mounts forum. I don't know which would be best. www.cloudynights.com/index/

[@johngraboski]

wwgeb Hi Partner! This has been an ongoing problem for me. Yes, I've got a thread posted already. I'll have to review all the posts from other posters as well but it really does not look good for me. I'm contacting a Celestron dealer here in Frankfurt for a repair. I got the darn thing used but in "excellent" condition months ago and the seller did try to help by replacing the mainboard but the problem persists. :( I hope he will consider refunding a portion of the price but I am not getting my hopes high. Thanks for your time and caring, John

[@shaynut05]

This was the most helpful video I've found. Thanks for taking the time to make the video.

[@martinpickard6043]

Best description of ASPA on the web. Thank You.

[@josephimbesi5584]

Thank you so much for putting in all this effort to help us get accurate aligns. And indeed all your videos on astrophotography etc. I'm now going to get the Cgx mount which is just coming out. Cheers .

[@dhellis1959]

Thank you. That was very informative and easy to watch. I just recently acquired a CGEM DX without the tripod.

[@nicklloyd9165]

thanks for this video. I can't see Polaris from my observatory and your advice will help me get a better polar alignment!

[@CountrySixStringer]

I found that if you tighten the bottom secure knob last, you won't move the adjustments you made while polar alignment. To me, it's not a bad design.

[@ohwell2790]

But, first the polar scope needs to be aligned. At that in its self introduces error because the eye is used to look at a distant spot to align the scope. So, it may get a scope in the ball park. That is where the star alignment come in. If the home position is accurate the telescope itself can be used and makes this much easier to find the north star. And this method is fine for visual observing the moon and planets.

[@jodyschultz5870]

This was the perfect video for a noob like me. I am thinking "Can I get an eyepiece with a crosshair?" Yes. Then I am thinking "What about the error that is introduced by differing scope diameters?" You explain it's called cone error and the computer compensates. Boom! Now I feel confident I can do this. Thank you so much.

[@wwgeb]

Astronomyshed made a video that helped me understand cone error. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZLXlYSihdVlaLs

[@MatthewHKnight]

When you get to the part where you do the polar align using the azimuth and latitude knobs if you get the star center but it's not perfectly center and still have error can do the go-to back to the star and try again or does this require starting over from scratch I was off by 00 00 01 and 00 00 02 I hate using a DSLR with a SCT I gotta use a SCT adapter for the DSLR but I gotta use the adapter for the SCT to have a eyepiece in I am waiting on my adapter for my Astro-tech AT72EDII to be delivered but anywho was curious as to what you do it the error isn't all 0's I have a illuminated eyepiece I believe it is a 12.5mm I was using a 40mm didn't feel like using the 12.5mm eyepiece likely will next time

[@WarmWeatherGuy]

00 00 02 is the same as 00 00 00 in the sense that it is your hand controller telling you that you did a perfect job. It is not to be believed. Shut off the power and do the 2+4 alignment again. Then have it display the error. That error will be something closer to 00 15 00 which is more realistic. I hate ASPA. I got the polemaster and like it a lot. It does require a good view around Polaris but it shaves off an hour of alignment each night. ASPA takes well over an hour and you lose all that time when you could be imaging. www.highpointscientific.com/qhy-polemaster-electronic-polar-finder-scope

[@MatthewHKnight]

Steve I notice you mention rotating the R.A until the image inside the polar scope I guess matches one part I am not clear on is is the mount supposed to go back to being center after that or is the mount supposed to stay facing the direction the image is inside the polar scope. I always thought you needed to loose or tighten the polar scope until the polar scope matched the image in the sky, only weird thing about loosing or tightening the polar scope is it will either be wiggle or too tight. I got my AVX being delivered on Tuesday the 5th of March so this is going to be a interesting night not only having to deal with maybe clouds but having to remember the polar alignment again.

[@WarmWeatherGuy]

My video assumes that you have already installed the polar align scope (PAS) and aligned it properly. The video is on how to align the mount to the North Celestial Pole. To do this you need to rotate the cartoon image so that the Big Dipper / Cassiopeia are aligned so that the tiny circle for Polaris is oriented properly. On the CGEM you have to rotate the RA axis to make the cartoon image rotate. On my G11 I can just rotate the PAS without having to move the RA axis. The actual position of the RA axis is irrelevant. Once your PAS is installed it should not wiggle. The only thing you loosen will be the az/el portion of your mount so you can get Polaris in the tiny circle. This is something you do one time per evening. The installation of the PAS is something you only do one time ever. KZbinr AstronomyShed made a video on how to install / align the PAS. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eISXZKl-lNh3mMk

[@brandonrunyon]

This video was very helpful and well presented.

[@jimmyfavereau]

nice presentation , thanks :D

[@ColdWarWarriors]

Sounds like a pain inthe ass, i will give the eq mount a miss and stick with my cpc alt az 3 star align. Thank for the vid you really explained whats required.

[@WarmWeatherGuy]

Yes it is a huge PITA. I finally bought a polemaster www.highpointscientific.com/qhy-polemaster-electronic-polar-finder-scope Now it takes 15 minutes to polar align versus over an hour with the ASPA. On the CPC try the Auto Two Star align. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4OlYqGdo7umrbs wwg

[@frankmadrid8402]

No body talk about traking objects in that sky

[@gianniformica8235]

This is required viewing for anyone getting into Astroimaging.

[@tma5239]

If wwgeb is around I would like to see him do that with a QHY Polemaster polar alignment camera.

[@tarasrabarskyi8118]

wwgeb: you mentioned the cone error that the telescope may have. How would it affect the ASPA process? Should the scope be corrected for the cone error first? Thanks!

[@wwgeb]

I believe the cone error should have no effect on polar alignment. If I remember correctly the CGEM hand controller computes the cone error and will display it under some menu. I am not a fan of ASPA. Since I started using PoleMaster I won't ever use ASPA again. I wasted nearly an hour getting polar aligned each night using ASPA, an hour I could have been imaging. KZbinr AstronomyShed made this video that helped me to understand cone error. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZLXlYSihdVlaLs

[@laser31415]

Hate my CGEM. It goes 40 DEG too far East. I've got in on a concrete pier so I Know its polar aligned. If I manually put it on a star, it will keep it in the eyepiece for 25 minutes easily. But the software will not put anything within 40 DEG of the eyepiece. Wrong part of the sky completely. I've had it hit the pier it was so far off even. Fought this mount for over a year. Gave up, going back to my Meade LX50, still works right after 20 years. Still haven't been able to sell it on Ebay.

[@WarmWeatherGuy]

eBay is not a good place to sell telescope mounts. Try Cloudy Nights classifieds or AstroMart.

[@laser31415]

Tried Cloudy Nights first. At $1500 for the CGEM + 9.25" SCT + tripod. No takers.

[@luapynneb3069]

Hi Lewis I have a CGEM and i was getting the problems like you describe at first. At times i felt like smashing the mount into little pieces it was so frustrating. but then someone told me the info below and even talked me through it and bingo all was spot-on since. After 2 star align and 2 cal-stars it tracks for many hours and puts even the smallest objects in the center FOV. 1- If its always going to far east every time that tells me that the mount is ok, basically because your getting the same result every time. 2- have you set up your time -site correctly (this was my problem!!) ? 3- You can add all this info manually longitude/latitude timezone and time, you can google search for all this info and after entering it the controller will remember it, the controller also has a inbuilt clock if you turn on/off then you never need to enter any of that info again. 4- Once its all set up the other good thing about this mount on a permanent pier is you can use the Last align setting to your advantage as well. If you need any more info or help please just ask, i will even give you my email address if you need further help to fully set it up so you won't HATE the mount, with its extras this mount should be the opposite, and actually make setting up a breeze. Thx Paul (UK)

[@MatthewHKnight]

Elevation knob isn't that supposed to be done before the alignment the Elevation knob is the latitude correct? One thing I am confused on is the azimuth knobs, if The big dipper is at the 1 o'clock position and the R.A is rotated to that direction are you supposed to use the Elevation knob and azimuth knobs to get Polaris into the o or is only the azimuth knobs used to put Polaris into the o.

[@WarmWeatherGuy]

Yes the elevation knob is latitude but we need to be more accurate than just setting it to your latitude. That only gets you in the ball park. The bubble level may not be perfect and certainly the latitude indicator is rather crude. You move both elevation and azimuth to get Polaris into the o. --wwgeb

[@MatthewHKnight]

@@WarmWeatherGuy Thanks, for getting back to me, Hope all is well with you!

[@DesislavLesov]

Watching these videos will get me broke! I love all of them (Just subscribed)! They are super educational and they just keep fueling my passion for astronomy/astrophotography. I'm just barely scratching the surface of what my NexStar 6SE can do and you're really helping me get better at it!

[@wwgeb]

+Desislav Lesov Cloudy Nights has a forum for Solar System Imaging & Processing. There you will find these 3 long running threads which show what is possible with a 6" or smaller scope. All you need is a webcam. www.cloudynights.com/topic/398608-small-bore-challenge-jupiter-w-6-or-less/ www.cloudynights.com/topic/499413-small-bore-challenge-the-moon-w-6-or-less/ www.cloudynights.com/topic/499251-small-bore-challenge-saturn-w-6-or-less/ If you're signed in you can just scroll down and see all the pictures. Otherwise I believe you have to click on the links for each picture. Enjoy your 6SE. That is a very good telescope.

[@DesislavLesov]

+wwgeb I actually have all the adapters and so on for my Nikon D5100 DSLR camera. Thank you for the links though! I just need to pick up some more accessories for the 6SE. So far it has been fantastic!

[@wwgeb]

+Desislav Lesov I have a video on using a DSLR for planetary imaging though it is mostly to try to talk you out of it. If you would like to try then I would take a look at this Guide to DSLR Planetary Imaging. www.astropix.com/gdpi/index.html If you're thinking about deep sky imaging then I would visit this forum on Cloudy Nights. www.cloudynights.com/forum/80-beginning-and-intermediate-imaging/

[@JohnS916]

I still have a CGEM, but don't use it anymore since buying the iOptron ZEQ25GT. It is equipped with an illuminated polar scope that takes 5 to 7 minutes to conduct an accurate polar alignment. The mount/tripod only weighs 27 lbs total and is ideal for transportation to dark sky locations or moving it in and out of the house. Not so with the CGEM, being 68 lbs total. There is a 13 lb difference in payload, but I image with two smaller refractors and the ZEQ25 handles them easily. One OTA with imaging gear weighs 20 lbs and the ZEQ25 still handles it even though the weight may be over the limit for imaging. I rarely could find a southern sky star over a major light dome, thus making the ASPA routine impractical with the CGEM. Their non illuminated polar scope has a poor design, having to flop the mount head over in RA to even look through it and you also have to make sure and align the mount axis with it for accuracy as well. With the "Z" design mount you don't have to flop the mount over in RA, the polar scope is illuminated (big plus) and best of all it's accurate enough where I get 8 to 10 minute exposures with round stars every time. In my location with the heavy light pollution, 10 minute exposures is about the practical limit for imaging anyway, I just have to take more of them depending on the target. Now that iOptron has just released the new CEM60 with a 60 lb payload, it will be next on my mount list if I want to image with a larger scope in the future. They even have an optional upgrade CEM60EC, having high precision endcoders for very accurate tracking. However, its out of reach on my budget and the base CEM60 is an excellent performer from what I have heard so far. The CGEM is simply outclassed by the iOptron product at this time. I like my CGEM for it's payload capacity, otherwise their polar alignment routine is cumbersome and very time consuming as the very good video clearly shows.

[@photogazer]

Good description of the alignment procedure. The only issue I have is with the use of the green laser alignment. We have enough light pollution without adding to it with unnecessary green lasers for alignment. A TelRad, Rigel, or red dot finder does extremely well, unless you want the "look at me" effect for your ego.

[@willissutherland8516]

Thank you Sir for your slow detailed explanation is exactly what a Newbie Needed...

[@RandallKayfes]

Fantastic presentation well written and you solved the lack of ASPA documentation problem for me! I just transferred my new to me tripodless CGEM DX onto my CGE tripod. My CGE mount lost the DEC Motor which Celestron refuses to sell anymore. Anyway the CGE did not have a through the mount polar alignment scope, and CGEM DX came with one. This video made it so clear I watched it twice and was ready to go. Thank you again and four years later your video is still a jewel of KZbin!

[@tommyharbofriis]

Tja, havens done astro for many years, just cut the avx, and having a small view and north block i hope ASPA can help me to minimize drift. Thx for the good video.

[@MikeCrabtree]

Excellent video. I will be using this as a reference for future use. Learnt some key things that will definitely help with Polar Alignment.

[@tma5239]

If wwgeb is around I would like to see him do that with a QHY Polemaster polar alignment camera.

[@Alexander84001]

Thank you for video

[@jmdean680]

Thank you for your video, it is much easier to understand polar alignment now.

[@will2see]

It says you got 0.0 error because you really didn't do any polar alignment.

[@MatthewHKnight]

Trying to figure out why without the Celestron advanced VX mount I have to rotate the OTA because when the mount is in the home position the polar scope hole is covered by something inside the hole unless I rotate the OTA left or right then the hole is covered a bit confusing. Nunki was a bad star for me to use this morning maybe because the Moon was washing out the star but when I got to the part you move the mount in altazumth and Altitude I'd lose that star and have to turn the mount off and redo the two star alignment over again luckily another star was coming up from the East managed to get the polar alignment some what good my error was 1 for Alt and 2 for azm

[@wwgeb]

Congratulations on your new AVX mount. I never liked ASPA. I finally got a PoleMaster and like it a lot. For PoleMaster to work you need to have a view of Polaris and the surrounding area. SharpCap has a similar feature which can save you some money. The polar scope has you looking through a hole in the shaft. The shaft has to be rotated to allow you to look through that hole.

[@GaryMCurran]

I'm using the AVX with the ASPA routine. I find that I don't have to recycle the power and do the standard two star alignment before I go to the next star, if I want to do multiple stars in the ASPA routine. I just slew to my next star, and then press Align/Polar Align and start over again. My tracking doesn't seem to be bothered by this. Do you really need to restart the computer each time you to the ASPA routine? Just curious if anyone has tried it this way before?

[@wwgeb]

Gary C That is an interesting question of whether or not you can improve polar alignment by doing ASPA multiple times without shutting down first. I don't know the answer. I do know that after doing ASPA the hand controller reports zero error which is not true. I shut down and do the 2+4 star alignment so I can get a more accurate report of the polar alignment error. I will have to try what you said to see what happens. I have been doing planetary imaging which doesn't require as much accuracy as deep sky photography so I haven't used ASPA in years.

[@markc7889]

Hi, I called Celestron technical support about the issue---if I need to shut down the mount after ASPA. I was told that it is not necessary to turn off the power after ASPA. I just need to go back to the initial two stars used for initial two stars alignment and realign them. This seems to be working for me.

[@idiotsnightmare]

Nice. I've watched a bunch of your videos and find that your presentations are highly informative and very clear. Thank you very much.

[@nitehawk86]

Got to love those orange ADM knobs. Just got my set for my AVX.

[@TGF120]

You have a good future in KZbin if you start investing in it. Just saying man.

[@andreguimaraes96]

Thank you 🖖🏼

[@desmondanderson6383]

great video,you make it look so easy,as you do with all your other presentations,thanks lot

[@ayanhanna7409]

We need more videos

[@cellfonelive]

Very good presentation! Thank you for sharing!

[@eaglelandedjupiter]

Very good help

[@mojojojo7923]

Excellent !

[@jdonald24]

You say turn it off and just do aspa again? you lose initial alignment. Explain how you redo aspa again?

[@wwgeb]

Jeff Donaldson After turning it off you have to start all over and do the 2 + 4 star alignment again. Then you check your polar alignment. If you are happy with the reported polar alignment then you are done. Otherwise you have to do ASPA again, shut down, and do the 2 + 4 alignment again. For planetary imaging I use the polar alignment scope and that is usually good enough. I do ASPA only for deep sky imaging. If you don't have a polar alignment scope or a view of Polaris then you may have to do ASPA for everything.

[@jdonald24]

I lunar align. Polar align (aspa) and platesolve the rest. I am going to try redoing aspa and see.

[@wandaconde3696]

Thanks for such an excellent tutorial!

[@DawgcityClev]

So basically, I'll be fiddling around with my new Celestron C6R AVX a good 20 minutes before I can even view or image? *sigh* What have I gotten myself into? LOL

[@wwgeb]

That is how long it takes for the clouds to roll in. Seriously though, a steady goto mount is wonderful. I have heard lots of good things about the AVX mount.

[@Anvilcjl]

You only have to fiddle that long for imaging. For visual I can set my whole scope up in about 8 to 12 minutes, including doing some calibration stars. For imaging, I've added some pads in my yard with some notches, and I leave the mount set up in the garage and haul it out as one piece. That way, the alignment is pretty close to what it needs to be at startup.

[@DawgcityClev]

Anvilcjl I've had the AVX since Jan. now and it's great. The only thing I haven't figured is the PEC feature for Drift Align. Other than that I have great imaging sessions with it using a guide scope.

[@Anvilcjl]

Paa Hawkins Yea, I've tried to get my alignment best I can, but it's never good enough to do more than a minute or two. Even if the alignment is perfect there is issues with the gears...a guidescope takes care of all that I think. Usually sky glow or light pollution takes over if the images go too long, and a guidescope usually can keep things aligned for long enough to to do a 5 or even 10 minute exposure.

[@DawgcityClev]

yes it does. I've gotten 6 minute exposures with my guidescope and that's without having tried much longer due to lack of patience at the moment. lol

[@abduallahahmad1692]

I have 8SE, CGEM DX & CGM dovetail, I try to attach the new dovetail to my OTA, but I can't find any matched holes so I could align dovetail on OTA. No Idea how I'm supposed to mount the dovetail to the OTA 😩

[@wwgeb]

Abduallah Ahmad I upgraded my CGEM with this dual sized saddle from ADM Accessories admaccessories.com/DV_Series_Saddles.htm which allows me to attach OTAs with either size dovetail. It also has easier to grip knobs. Cloudy Nights has a NexStar forum www.cloudynights.com/forum/90-celestron-nexstar/ where people might be able to tell you how to attach your new dovetail to your 8SE OTA.

[@bratcafe5632]

I just got an AVX mount and am trying a first polar alignment. I am trying to follow your directions, but certain points were not made clear in that you did not show how to navigate to the next step being discussed on the handset 1) Up to 8:48 was great, but then you began explaining to do an "All-Star" Polar alignment, but did not explain how to use the handset to do the entire procedure. The last place you left off showing navigation on the handset, it was showing the error....but no explanation as how to get from there to the "All-Star" Polar Alignment, or to complete the procedure. You eventually said you chose Antares, but did not show what buttons to press to get to the "GoTo" to do it. Please be specific, and explain which buttons being pressed to get to each step.

[@wwgeb]

Bunny Duck I used an older hand controller in this video. Celestron has since come out with the NexStar Plus hand controller and the buttons are different on it. In place of the Undo button the Plus controller has a Back button. Pushing that several times will ensure you're at the top of the menu tree. From there you push the Align button. This takes you into the Align menu which has Polar Align which has options to display or perform polar alignment. As for the goto I press the List button and scroll to the Named Stars menu. I see that the new hand controller has a Stars button so I'm guessing that gets you there with less effort. You scroll through the list of stars, select the one you want, and press Enter. I found it helpful to take the manual with me so I can refer to the map of the menu trees. It is frustrating looking for something in that maze of options without a map. The AVX seems like a really nice mount. I would have gotten it if it was available when I got my mount. Clear skies.

[@brandonsc.dmath5538]

Thank you very much for the great lesson! Worked liked a charm! I don't read instructions for some stubborn reason, so on my first night, eager to get started with my first mount the DX . I screwed in the polar scope and center Polaris (without factoring in the constellations on the scope) My setup is stationery, so regrettably I ever thought twice about it. In my pee sized brain it was aligned and never going to be move intentionally, so why would I? Ha. I have been struggling to get a decent picture over 30 seconds for, wait for it, two months! lol Thanks to you I just got my first real shot with no trails @ 120 seconds! That's WAY more the 30 in my book. I'm not heart broken in not setting up right all that time (more funny at this point), its a lot to absorb and gave me time to learn the mount and sky. Question; theoretically, if I did exactly as you did in this video and there was no wind, no guide etc; what can I expect the maximum seconds tacking with no egg shaped stars to be with the CGEM DX?

[@wwgeb]

If you mount your camera so that North is up (or South) then any star streaking up/down is due to not being polar aligned and any star streaking left/right is due to periodic error. The CGEM has an 8 minute period. It might be correct for 4 minutes, run fast for 2 minutes, and then run slow for 2 minutes. If it did that then you might by chance luck into that 4 minute window when it runs at the right speed. Spend some time at the Beginning and Intermediate Imaging forum on Cloudy Nights. www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/5989053/Main/5982943 An autoguider should be on your Christmas list.

[@gvvq-pi5ml]

Hi Steve, tell me is there much advantage in a 120mm refractor over say a 70mm refractor, is the image bigger and brighter on the 120, and easier to follow planets across the sky...Fred,

[@wwgeb]

The image will be brighter and you can see more detail with a larger scope. The size though is determined by the power and you can have a range of different powers with both scopes. As you increase the power the image becomes blurry and the bigger scope will allow more power before this happens. The ease of following the planets across the sky is mostly determined by the mount.

[@jcj-ik8lc]

I've seen that video ten times and still enjoy it for its clarity. A big thanks.

[@rcpsmatt]

What kind of adjustments are needed after ASPA to keep the GOTO alignment? If you have the scope aligned and then adjust the actual mount with the alt and az screws, won't the GOTO alignment be off a bit?

[@wwgeb]

I'm not sure. I always shut down and do the 2+4 alignment stars again. I suspect it is smart enough to update itself though but it can't know how well you did your job of moving the alt and az to center the star. I would think that gotos would not be as good after ASPA but you may not notice.

[@3C273]

I wonder if you have used starsense with equatorial mount. I purchased a C8 and had the starsense from my previous scope. Basically, when you use starsense for the first time, you have to calibrate the starsense so it knows where the centre of the scope is. But at this time, the scope is not polar aligned. What I did was first calibrate the starsense, with inaccurate polar alignment of course and then restarted the mount and went through the polar align procedure. I did this twice and centered the star using alt-az screws. But still there was appreciable error in the polar alignment (3 degree N, 6 degree east). I gathered it might be because the starsense calibration was done on an inaccurate polar alignment. But its a chicken and egg story it seems. You cant calibrate properly without the scope being polar aligned properly, and you cant do polar alignment without calibrating the starsense so the targets come right in the centre when you are aligning the goto. Any ideas how to get over this problem?

[@wwgeb]

Amit Sharma I have never used the starsense. 3 and 6 degrees sounds really bad. I use the polar align scope and get within a degree before doing an ASPA. I have had a large error when using my NexStar 5SE in the equatorial configuration and ASPA kept me overshooting back and forth several times. Finally I only moved half as far as it told me to move and then the iterations converged. Maybe the starsense will work if you are closer to start with.

[@3C273]

wwgeb Thanks a lot... maybe the right thing to do is first polar align using finderscope and then configure the starsense, so it takes over from next time. Problem is when i set the latitude to the 51 degrees of london, the altitude knob of avx is so long, it prevents me from getting close to the polar scope to view through. Also, the polar scope is a bit wierd, when i can see the markings, i can't focus to infinity and when i focus to infinity, the markings on the polar scope are blurred. It maybe because the reticle had fallen off while i was configuring this.

[@carper1325]

cornwall uk ..celestron 9.25 vx mount .................hi steve firstly thanx for producing some great informative videos in an easy to understand format ... i am getting back into astro imaging planets . not the best time at present . can u give me some help. i have a limited fov from my site due to trees and a few roof tops. i am new to the equitorial mount . some times i can set up first go other times i lose the plot and it takes an age leaving me frustrated as the weather changes so fast here..... i havnt got a permanent setup although i am thinking of leaving tripod and mount in situ and just take ota in doors ,,, and cover the tripod etc with weatherproof cover .. firstly do you think a celestron starsense would make life easier for me to set up scope .... also after an initial polar align (not ever done one before not yet got a polar scope) do u think i could get away with removing scope and refitting as and whan i go out to view or image ... colin

[@wwgeb]

carper1325 I have no experience with the StarSense but I would save my money for other accessories. For planetary imaging you don't need perfect polar alignment. If you could mark on the ground where the tripod legs were the last time that might help. Polar alignment is for the mount so yes, you can swap OTAs and still be aligned. When making your 2 minute avi of a planet, if you're not perfectly aligned, the planet will drift north or south. I just set my slew rate to a slow rate (1 or 2) and then I'm careful to always go in just the one direction. I don't want to overshoot because the hysteresis means it will take me several seconds to get back. Check out the Cloudy Nights forums. They have one on Mounts and one for Celestron NexStar.

[@acuchi]

Awesome video. Thanks

[@jameswebb8162]

Sweet, just purchased my celestron 8” AVX with polar scope and can’t wait to try it!! Thanks for the info!! Are you available to answer questions??

[@wwgeb]

I remember spending nearly 2 hours each time to get a good polar alignment using ASPA. Then I got the PoleMaster and it is much quicker (maybe 15 minutes) and more accurate. I prefer to have more time capturing photons than aligning the mount. The polar alignment scope is very fast and accurate enough for planetary imaging to make animations that have no field rotation. Your C8 on AVX is ideal for planetary imaging. planetaryimagingtutorials.com/

[@jaycolon4772]

Hi, first thank you so much for taking the time to explain the polar alignment. I have a second hand CGEM and was struggling to understand ASPA and polar alignment due to the fact I can't physically see Polaris from my driveway which were I do my viewings. I was able to finally understand ASPA and tried three times yesterday to practice. One thing i noticed is that my GOTO's are not in the center of the eyepiece after the ASPA. It gets them in the FOV of the eyepiece and tracks them well but eventually they start to drift out of the eyepiece view after a long time. I turned off the mount and re did the 2 star alignment with 4 starts after the 1st ASPA and still is off the center. Do I need to do another ASPA and use the azi/alt knobs to adjust? or Only if the hand controller says the alignment is off? If it says 00 00' 00" then I'm good?

[@wwgeb]

+Juan Colon I use my polar alignment scope (I can see Polaris) so when I do ASPA there is usually only a small amount of adjustment. I have a NexStar 5SE where I don't use Polaris and I've had to make large adjustments with it. Afterwards I turn it off and start over. After aligning the next time (after doing ASPA) I check to see what my polar alignment error is. I found that it was just as big the second time. Then I would keep repeating and it would keep giving me the same error (in magnitude, but the sign of the error would flip). To fix that I would only move half way to the star. Once you get the error down it will converge but if it is really big it will bounce back and forth. Having bad polar alignment shouldn't affect how accurate your GOTOs are. I usually notice that when doing the 2+4 alignment that the accuracy keeps getting better until the last couple stars are very close. Then all my GOTOs are very good. How you perceive that depends on your FOV though. I use a 20mm eyepiece with crosshairs. Not aligning with crosshairs or aligning on the wrong star can affect your GOTOs. When tracking, the CGEM only moves in RA. The Dec motor doesn't run. If you have bad polar alignment the GOTO should get you right to your target. Then, if you view it so North is up, you will notice the target drift up or down (which way depends on how your polar alignment is wrong). Any motion left or right is due to periodic error in your RA axis or because you have the wrong tracking rate. It should never say 00° 00' 00" except right after doing ASPA. I suppose one time out of a million you would get it perfect but generally you will have 00° 15' 00" or so after doing ASPA and shutting down and redoing the 2+4 alignment. Don't believe the displayed error right after doing ASPA.

[@nightskyimaging]

Well done! Extremely helpful with m Advanced CGM

[@michael1026h1]

When I power off my mount and turn it back on, should it be pointed towards Polaris before doing two star alignment?

[@wwgeb]

Michael Blake Yes. You need to align the two index marks again. This can be done simply by releasing the clutches and manually moving the scope or by slewing using the motors.

[@AlpineWarren]

Well done - Great explanation!

[@m76r72]

Great tutorial. Just one comment, the manual mentions to unsync after you are done with polar alignment and do another 2 star alignment, I guess we would skip that step if we turn the mount off and start over again, probably safer...

[@wwgeb]

+Marcelo Reginato It has been a while since I used ASPA. I have been doing planetary imaging for the last few years which doesn't require more accuracy than I can get with the polar align scope. For deep sky imaging I usually spent 3 or 4 hours capturing so I didn't want to spend a lot of time figuring out the best way to use ASPA. I never trusted anything the computer said after I moved the mount so yeah, for me, I felt safer just starting from scratch.

[@JasonWingfield]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@eaglelandedjupiter]

very good help me a lot

[@GamjaField]

can I align avx mount without polar align scope?

[@wwgeb]

SeriousFox Yes. You can align without the polar align scope. You would just eyeball it the first time. Your first iteration of ASPA will probably have you making a large correction. That is the main advantage for the polar align scope. It gets you closer to start with before you finish with the ASPA.

[@patrickdecarvalho4754]

Is the tripod elevated above you, or is it really that tall with the legs extended?

[@wwgeb]

Patrick Decarvalho In the video the legs are fully extended and resting on the floor. For normal use I only extend the legs a small amount for stability and so I can use the scope while sitting in a chair.

[@caymanguy123]

nice

[@peterbrown9036]

Great video and really helpful. Could you possibly explain the benefits of polar align as opposed to using an Alt Az mount. I have a Celestron CPC telescope. Would I really benefit from a wedge?

[@wwgeb]

Without being polar aligned you will see things rotate clockwise in the eyepiece. Different parts of the sky will rotate faster than other parts of the sky. Typically you won't notice too much rotation in just a half minute. After several minutes though there will be significant rotation. If you are taking a 5 minute exposure it will be blurred due to the rotation. Thunderf00t made an animation of Jupiter that shows this problem. The animation is in the middle of the video. Free Your Mind! Free Your Mind! He took 10 seconds worth of pictures every 3 minutes using an 11" CPC. Because he didn't have a wedge he had to rotate 160 images by hand in editing software.

[@peterbrown9036]

Thanks for the advice, i think i'll need to invest in a wedge.

[@dennisstgermain442]

excellent presentation.....is anything like this available on the SynScan ??

[@wwgeb]

Check out KZbinr astronomyshed. This video might be what you're looking for: Complete Mount & Scope Setup. PART TWO (Polar Aligning)

[@dennisstgermain442]

wwgeb thank you ......

[@wanderingquestions7501]

very concise.

[@gvvq-pi5ml]

Thanks Steve for the reply, so overall would it be more beneficial to buy a bigger one than a smaller one, I guess you saying it is, not real drawbacks with the bigger one, except it takes up more room..someone gave me a 50mm refractor, it works to a certain degree, you can see Saturn but its the size of a pinhead, if you increase magnification much as you say it gets blurry and a job to keep track of, some people say Go To scopes are not as goos as there made out to be, wonder what you opinion is on that...thanks Fred uk.

[@wwgeb]

50mm is rather small - I would definitely recommend bigger. Goto scopes are the best. I got back into the hobby after I got one. It really helps you to find things. The motor keeps the object centered for hours. If you can swing it I would try for the NexStar 4SE: www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-NexStar-SE-Computerised-Telescope/dp/B000GUFOBO/

[@wwgeb]

wwgeb Video Review of Celestron NexStar 4SE

[@markc7889]

Thank you for the video demo. This video helped me how to do the all star polar alignment. Does cgemii have PRECISE GOTO feature?

[@WarmWeatherGuy]

I believe every NexStar hand controlled mount will have precise goto. - wwgeb

[@markc7889]

WarmWeatherGuy Thank you very much. I have had AVX mount. I have ordered cgem ii Mount that is coming to me.

[@johntringali3217]

Have you ever done a polar align video using the wedge on the standard SE 5 that you have?

[@wwgeb]

John Tringali It is on my list of videos to make but I may never get to it. The next 10 videos will be on planetary imaging (I just uploaded 9 a couple of weeks ago) and at the rate I am going it may be a long time. The manual for the 5SE talks about wedge align but that feature is no longer in the firmware. Instead I do ASPA which is now in the 5SE firmware. You can read how to do ASPA in the CGEM manual. It works the same. There are some peculiarities that I mentioned in this CN post:www.cloudynights.com/topic/468494-nexstar-5se-equatorial-saturn-photo/

[@johntringali3217]

wwgeb Ok, thank you for the reply. Keep up the good work and I look forward to the imaging videos as I am new to the hobby.

[@gunnarjensen5910]

Reccommend the cgem dx or later model cegem II or some other system ??

[@wwgeb]

I had the CGEM (non DX). I added a tripod spreader which made it almost as steady as the DX. Celestron as discontinued the CGEM and they have some new mounts that I am not familiar with. I sold my CGEM and bought a used G11 which I like. Check out the mounts forum on Cloudy Nights. www.cloudynights.com/forum/66-mounts/ There you can find people with experience in all kinds of mounts.

[@gunnarjensen5910]

Thanks..

[@KB2CWN]

Do a regular polar align, then use a guide scope. I think that will bypass all this work. If I had to spend all that time aligning my scope, Id probably never use it! Do an initial Polar Align with the polar scope, connect your guide scope, and have more fun!