Polar Alignment Tutorial - Southern Hemisphere

[@PeterZelinka]

I recently found this helpful article from Lincoln Harrison, who actually lives in the Southern Hemisphere. I'd recommend checking it out! www.lincolnharrison.com/blog-index/southern-hemisphere-polar-alignment

[@psychomantis10122]

Thanks for this additional info Peter, but it's not telling us much you haven't already. The issue us southern hemisphere amateurs are having is locating the Sigma Octans stars. If we can't see them (with the naked eye or scope), then any other polar alignment will be an approximation at best. That might be enough for some, depending on their lens and exposure duration. I appreciate your effort though mate.

[@mediapc4361]

He actually has the wrong star circled, not Sigma Octantis. I just sent him an email from his website form to politely let him know.

[@birreboi]

@@psychomantis10122 Months ago having same problem finding SCP. Then I purchased a pair of binoculars and then drew those 2 lines off the cross and pointers that would intercept each other and then down a smidgen, voila, there was the SCP and that 4 star asterism right in the binos. I consulted Stellarium, as Peter does above, so compared and matched the star patterns. Now I just kept that picture in my head (using trees in foreground and marks on ground where scope went). Easy ish, once you get to know that small patch of sky. So binoculars and the wide field of view worked for me.

[@Ebonyqwe]

Lincoln doesn’t add much help to the problem?

[@benjamincasatimcintosh2918]

my brother told me that you can use the crux and hadar-alpha cent to roughly find the southern pole. draw a line trough the crux's mayor axis and then conect hadar and alpha centauri, then at the middle of that line draw a perpendicular, where the two lines meet that would be roughly it

[@christopherboyd6537]

Hope I’m not too late to the party, but it’s way harder to do this in real life. This video is a good overview of *how* to do it, but kind of assumes there are no other stars in the sky. In reality, when you look through the polar scope of the SWSA it’s almost impossible to tell what you’re looking at and whether or not you’ve even got octans in your scope, you need to do a pretty good alignment before you even get octans in your scope. I currently do this by aligning my DSLR lens with my polar scope (in the daytime, focusing on a distant object) and then when I’m in the field, try and find and centre octans with a 50mm DSLR lens (adjusting the SWSA until it’s centred). Once it’s centred in the DSLR preview screen, it should be close to being within the polar scope reticle. Hope that helps.

[@nicolasadriano1303]

Wow tthanks a lot! I just bought an SWSA and my only fear is the polar alignment here in the southern hemisphere. I'll try to do what you said

[@christopherboyd6537]

Adam Beydoun happy to help. I’m wanting a clear night this weekend so I can start trying to ‘drift align’ on the SWSA. Adapting this method: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHuTaWyZZpWWgqM will be interesting to see if I can translate it to the SWSA.p as it doesn’t really have the same controls. But the principle is the same. And if it works, should be able to align without needing a clear line of sight to the south.

[@Dani-lu2up]

Same here with an skytracker pro. It's so hard to do this man

[@blackpanda7612]

Agreed. No matter what dark skies you have in the southern hemisphere, you're not going to see jack squat through the polar scope to do a polar alignment. Its very difficult to see the guide stars. You'd have to be in bortle class 1 or 2 skies to see anything.

[@MrCobber04]

you can use the southern cross and its pointers to find the south celestial pole

[@dmystify1381]

@MrCobber04 i think that is the easiest method.

[@wenjilim6360]

Thanks for pointing out what the stars make up the flat bowls in the reticle. Most tutorial just say match it up without saying what it is. Now that I know one of the stars is Polaris Australis, I can use Star walk to see how the bowl is oriented at the time and location and thus able to orientate the reticle properly. Thanks again

[@alanhartley6452]

Just a note that Stellarium is free to download on PC but $25.99 Australian dollars for outright licence on your mobile, I have paid the fee, I don't have a camera or scope yet but at the moment it will get me use to the app and the night sky. Thanks Peter for your detailed info and I will be looking at the star trackers . Cheers

[@papashirt]

And while you are doing all that ( turning your polarscope according to the position of the asterism) don't forget to keep you mount in home position , rotate the scope only ( not the mount itself )

[@sanjeebguru]

Awesome video, This info will help me even though I am staying in northern hemisphere. I watch all of your videos as a guide for my astro photography learning

[@ReubenMRU]

Thank you Loads!!! Built my barn door tracker with arduino - this will definitely help me to better align it :-)

[@AetheismRules]

Thanks for that ! I will go watch a few people at the astronomy club doing it - I'm sure that I will understand even better.

[@GreggPitts]

Great video! Like you said, there's stuff all videos about polar alignments in the Southern Hemisphere! Although I've had good success holding my phone on the back of the tube with Skymap running and fiddled with the mount adjustments until the SP was in the center of the screen as best I could see.

[@PatrickGuerrisi]

This video is the best one. I have watched a few and just got more confused. Good tip on explaining why there is only 1 star showing on my radicle in the southern hemisphere.. I was like, why arent there 4 stars. Glas for wide angle shots I dont have to be super precise. I would like to eventually get more accurate when I try and use a small telescope or my sigma 100-400 lense on the iOptron Starguider I have

[@etienneswart8700]

Ez peezy nice and easy Thankyou South Africa

[@xmj6830]

Thank you. Very good explanation. Cheers from New Zealand

[@christophejammes2159]

Thank you Peter. Just waiting for clear skies to try !!!

[@prashantnz]

Thanks heaps sir. Very helpful. Can’t appreciate enough. Sir sir.

[@peeb2896]

Nice tutorial and explained just right!

[@Nottsboy24]

Cool video my friend ☺

[@the_astro_garden]

Thank you Peter.

[@shayneoneill1506]

Probably worth noting not all apps (Notably KStars) seem to know what "Polar Australis" is. Its formal name is Sigma Octanis, or σ octanis (Note thats not an O but a lower case Σ , aka Sigma)

[@eduardotieppo2482]

whoops! I asked for it in another video, and here I'm!!!

[@erikmardiste]

thank you so much been struggling to find due south I Brisbane. awesome thanks. can do same for telescope cheers

[@birreboi]

Hmm, through a polarscope, you are really pushing shit uphill to see those four Sigma Octans stars. Ain't quite as easy as mentioned in this video. (I live in Australia and in reasonable dark skies).

[@psychomantis10122]

You are on the money with this comment.

[@grayfoxv]

What method have you found that works best? I also live in Australia!

[@birreboi]

@@grayfoxv Only recently got back into all of this. Currently have been using QHY Polemaster. Not cheap, but works well for me and quickly - after a few practices with it.

[@grayfoxv]

@@birreboi ill look in to it. Cheers

[@grayfoxv]

@@birreboi I'm only looking to use a full frame mirrorless camera to begin with, so I'm not sure a QHY polemaster would work with this while travelling... is the only way to use it to use a laptop? I'll have to do more digging!

[@amancalleddustin7575]

Use the southern cross can help locate south.

[@robglassey4517]

Like other southern observers I NEVER use a polarscope. Complete waste of time! It's almost impossible to see these stars in a polar scope, and even harder to find them. Any illumination of the reticile will completely wipe out the stars, and if it's actually dark enough to see the stars, you can't see the unilluminate reticile.... and you thought it was hard in the app! So how? My #1 tool is a pair of binoculars. These stars show up well in 7x50 binos. Find south using the southern cross (pretty rough), then locate bright Achernar on the opposite side of the pole from the cross, then scan from Achernar to Alpha hydri, SMC, Beta Hydri, an obvious tight group of 3 stars and on to the 4 stars that include Sigma Octans, then identify the exact position of the pole. Once I have that in my binos I scan up and down to locate a landmark directly below the pole. It sounds like it would be miles out, and take forever, but it takes me only seconds, and it's remarkably accurate. If you do this when standing directly behind the mount, you can align the mount with the landmark by eye. Again, it's amazing just how accurate this process can be. For latitude I tend to rely on a level bubble and the previous alignment, but if you have a decent finderscope you can find the pole easilly enough now the scope is pointing the right way, and you only need to adjust the latitude on the mount. For more precice alignment I either use Sharpcap and a guide scope, or drift align (still easier than a polar scope!)

[@dennisrogers6786]

Easy now if you have a goto mount, celestron has an all polar star alighment. I hear sjywatcher has something similar. Makes it dead simpler

[@andresalcaino7570]

I have bortles class 4 and I barely saw some stars, it is very difficult to watch through the polar scope. Today I completely failed polar alignment, tomorrow I will use my camera to point in the same direction, maybe that way I will find the SCP

[@teresabrubaker]

Thank you, Peter, for your wonderful videos. I recently got my Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro Pack. I tried to download the SAM Console app to my new Google Pixel 7 phone, but got an error that said this app is not available for the new Android systems. What app would you recommend instead? My son is taking me to New Zealand in February and I want to be ready to do some astrophotography while there. Thank you so much!

[@junjunelephant]

I live near the equator and polar aligning is almost impossible for me..

[@PatrickGuerrisi]

yeh that would suck....It would be like on the horizon and you;d have things blocking it wouldnt you?

[@haroldland4620]

Thanks for the tutorial, very good. suggest you get a windshield for your mic or move it further away

[@Flaxworx]

Thanks for this! I tried with the help of two apps only for photo pills showing a totally different location of that "bowl" than the SA Console... and I cant for the life of me see the constellation through the scope at all...(ok, it might get better in a darker area). Any tips how I can work out which app is correct?

[@michaeltoth1624]

I really think this tutorial will help me but I don’t have a star tracker I have a Celestron Astro Master 114 so I’m just a little confused on how to find the polar alignment I do have the full version of Stellarium on my iPhone?

[@cristianjara2211]

gracias

[@SuperBuickregal]

Thanks!

[@artekphoto_video2444]

The Octans is way too low in Winter, which is the best time for the astro. Hard to set the polar for long exposure using Skywstcher! Any trick you know of to share? Thanks

[@alexo.o3729]

Witch apps and programs do you use in this video??

[@cking74sg]

Is he rotating the scope or the clutch? I rotate the clutch and the scope is not rotating at all. Maybe I need to figure out the hard way :(

[@DARRELMCQUIENN]

nobody in the southern hemisphere knows Polaris Australis. It's not what we look for when aiming at the SCP. We look at the Southern Cross and the Two Pointers.

[@The_Real_Slim_Shadow94]

A major problem is I can polar align to South Pole, but that means with my equatorial Mount, I can’t see behind me, thus can’t track the celestial equator, where all the planets follow. Also you’re using the wrong way: you find where the souther cross intersects perpendicular to the two pointers. Intersect at directly southern pole

[@dmystify1381]

his actually correct and is the standard method taught ,but the best way is what you stated...align with the sthrn cross...it is far easier.

[@Nottsboy24]

Great tutorial ☺👍:)

[@MrGoatflakes]

Thanks! Good video. But could you please put links to the software in the description?

[@regp5]

Looks like a Polemaster would be even more valuable in the Southern Hemisphere.

[@PeterZelinka]

Yeah! There's also the iPolar or an auto-guider. All of these will allow you to do the polar alignment with the help of software, rather than trying to do it visually with the polar scope.

[@grayfoxv]

Hey Peter! Can you do a polar alignment in the southern hemisphere using the laser on the move shoot move star tracker?

[@Gavlister]

I was wondering that, but if you do not have a star to point it to then probably not. Also the msm laser is illegal and considering the fines relative to aviation it isn't worth using one

[@grayfoxv]

@@Gavlister I asked MSM themselves and they said use Photopills to point your phone towards it and then use the laser, but I would imagine given the sigma octans are barely visable that this method would be a pretty rough estimate at best

[@dmystify1381]

@@Gavlister ...its not illegal under a certain wattage.

[@zarathustra8326]

Is it advisable to turn on say APP or STAR mode while polar aligning so that when you align, you don't lose it?

[@andresalcaino7570]

Yes, but it will consume your batteries

[@Tekytek]

Thanks Peter.. so does the guide scope take into account the fact that it is reversed? Compared to the map, like the SAM one? So if the map shows it on the left, will it be actually be on the right or am I a crazy? 🤓

[@bearup1612]

Will these software work with no internet of phone connection

[@youngmers]

Iv just got the move shoot move and using with a full frame camera and 14mm lens i can still only get a 60sec tracking without star trails i was hoping for much longer.. im in New Zealand im goimg to have to aline more accurately with a scope or something just pointing it south is not good enough..

[@PeterZelinka]

Yeah, if your polar alignment isn't great you'll be pretty limited with your shutter speed. The southern hemisphere doesn't help with that... Check out Lincoln Harrison's website for a great tutorial on doing a polar alignment in the southern hemisphere. That, plus a polar scope, might help

[@josh-astro7464]

What if you don’t a view south? My backyard view south is completely obstructed

[@TheAstroGuy_m42]

You're done for good

[@d1xenotime]

I have a question, how do you align South on the compass? Do we need to take the declination into consideration? Do you have a tutorial on this? I tried aligning my SkyWatcher south and I spent 4 hrs and could not find the cluster.

[@claudiogoncalves1985]

Yes. You had to use the declination. He showed 1 app for this. At south u can get a approximation Based on the Crux constellation

[@dennismaccaskie5976]

next time you make a tutorial like this it would be EXTREMELY nice if you would NOT keep changing the scale and center of the star image. Instead,if you could just tell us what the hell you're looking at and why? And QUIT jumping around?