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PolarAlignment_Teaser

The document is a comprehensive guide on polar alignment for astro photography, detailing methods for finding Polaris in the northern hemisphere and Polaris Australis in the southern hemisphere. It emphasizes the importance of accurate polar alignment for successful star tracking and imaging, particularly with longer focal lengths. The guide also discusses the effects of light pollution on astronomical observations and provides insights into selecting and balancing astro photography equipment.

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STEP BY STEP GUIDE POLAR ALIGNMENT HENDRIK ANNE ZWART 2' ARCMIN
How to fi nd Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere and Polaris Australis in the Southern Hemisphere How to accurately Polar Align your Star Tracker How to make sure that you Polar Scope is centred How to setup and balance your Astro Photography Rig ABOUT THIS GUIDE What will you learn? How to set your Home Position
OUR NIGHT SKY Our night sky is amazing and holds many secrets. Not only for Astronomers but also for any other people who have an interest in nature. Many centuries ago our night sky was dark as we only had candles, torches and oil lamps to light up our surroundings and houses. Over the course to time we have worked hard to invent arti fi cial lights which became available by the late 1800’s. From this time on, the lights have made revolutionary jumps up till todays LED society. With the development of more high sophisticated light sources, we started to install more and more lamps in our villages, towns and cities. As a result our night skies became brighter and brighter. Many of us who live in cities, are living under Bortle Class 8 or 9 skies. This means that they cannot see much stars anymore. Not to think about seeing our own galaxy - The Milky Way. • Dark Skies • Bortle Class • Light Pollution • Astronomy / Photography WHAT ABOUT A S T R O N O M Y Back in the sixties when I was a child, in our village in the Northern parts of the Netherlands, we had dark skies (Bortle class 1). Today, based on a scale from 0 to 9….we are having a Bortle class 4 night sky. This means that our night sky became about 40% brighter.
80% of the world population is living under light polluted skies. As you can see on the left side image the night sky in the city is gone. Why am I telling you this? This is ALARMING. The negative effect of light pollution: • It harms animals • It harms Human Beings as it steals your precious sleep • It ruins nature Visit: www.darksky.org for more detailed information and perhaps you want to become an advocate to support our mission. So you may ask yourself, what does this have to do with Polar Alignment? Well….much! Light pollution destroys our view of the night sky. It will be harder to fi nd that celestial poles and deep sky objects. Light pollution does make astronomy unnecessarily more dif fi cult and expensive. The darker your night sky, the easier it is to fi nd your desired targets and celestial poles. Credit: International Dark Sky Association Credit: P. Cinzano, F. Falchi (University of Padova), C. D. Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder). Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. Reproduced from the Monthly Notices of the RAS by permission of Blackwell Science. HELP TO PRESERVE OUR NIGHT SKY
MILKY WAY AND DEEP SKY Astro Photography has made majors jumps over the last couple of years. We have gone from stationary equipment towards more mobile equipment to capture stunning images of the Night Sky. This has a lot to do with the the introduction of digital cameras in photography. Prior to digital photography, capturing the night sky was done in large observatories. Today, we have our own observatory at home. In order to start with star tracking and capturing the Night Sky we need a Star Tracker which will allow us to make long exposures. Without a Star Tracker we are limited to shorter exposure times, as earth turns. For wide fi eld Milky Way images (i.e. 14mm - 24mm Full Frame) we do not need a star tracker as long as we stay within the boundaries of the 500 rule divided by focal length. The outcome gives us the maximum exposure time before the stars start trailing. Dependent on which latitude you are, this time may vary. The closer you are to the celestial pole the shorter your exposure time will be. With some good techniques we can make stunning images. However, as soon as the focal lengths increase, the exposure times will decrease. At some point the exposure times are becoming too short to capture enough light of the night sky. • Star Tracking • GoTo Mounts • Manual Mounts • Mobility • Alignment STARGAZING A S T R O N O M Y
As we can see in the table below, the exposure times will radically get shorter by increasing focal lengths. 50mm is probably the maximum focal length which we can shoot from a tripod (without using a star tracker) without sacri fi cing too much image quality. Yes, we also can shoot 1 sec exposures from a tripod at 500mm but we need to increase the ISO / Gain signi fi cantly to capture enough light. This is however not recommendable. It is better that we start using a Star Tracker from focal lengths between 50mm - 135mm onwards. A Star Tracker tracks the sky: as earth turns, the Star Tracker will take care that the celestial object which we are tracking will stay (relatively) in the same position in the frame during the duration of our imaging session. Star trackers - we also call them mounts - vary from Manual Mounts to advanced GoTo Mounts. GoTo Mounts have the advantage over Manual Mounts that all Deep Sky Objects are in a Star Database and the tracker automatically slews to the desired target. No manual intervention is needed, only then keying in the Deep Sky Object name, number or co- ordinates. The opposite is true for the Manual Star Trackers. Credit: Hendrik Anne Zwart FOCAL LENGTH EXPOSURE TIME in Seconds 14 mm 35 24 mm 20 50 mm 10 135 mm 3,6 250 mm 2 500 mm 1
With the Manual Star Trackers you need to fi nd the Deep Sky Objects on your own. Manual Star Trackers - like the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer or the iOptron Skyguider Pro are more portable than the majority of the GoTo Mounts - i.e. SkyWatcher EQ3, HEQ5 Pro or the iOptron CEM 28 and many others. The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer or iOptron SkyGuider Pro you can carry easily in a photo-backpack and take them with you on your Astro Photography tour or on a hike to a dark site location and it will give you more fl exibility on the location from where you want to image the night sky. Portability also has some small drawbacks as it limits the weight you can carry on your star tracker. Refractors like the William Optics RedCat51 or the SharpStar 61EDPH are excellent examples which can be mounted on the Star Adventurer or SkyGuider Pro. The more heavier GoTo Mounts are the more stationary they are. Although you can still take them with you, their weight will be limiting you on how far you can leave your car or home. Dark site locations on the top of a mountain are probably not in reach when your GoTo mount already weights over 50kg. Portability vs Stationary: all mounts have one thing in common and that is that the Polar Alignment process will remain a manual task. Most GoTo Mounts owners most likely will have a laptop or a ZWO ASIAIR to control the mounts, so you can use the advanced PA (Polar Alignment) functionality within these tools. However, in this Guide we will concentrate on the manual Polar Alignment process. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer iOptron SkyGuider Pro M A N U A L P O L A R A L I G N M E N T
POLAR ALIGNMENT INTRODUCTION
Polar Alignment is perhaps the most important thing in Astro Photography and it is critical to get this right. Phrases like: „Polaris / Polaris Australis (in Octans) needs only to be close or rough alignment“ will not suf fi ce. Well? Yes and No. Yes, for wide fi eld images like the Milky Way, the Polar Alignment can be „in the neighbourhood“, but the longer focal lengths - No. The longer your focal lengths will become the more precise and accurate your polar alignment needs to be. Accurate polar alignment of 2 ArcMin or better will give you great results. When using a completely automated setup i.e. Nina, SharpCap, ASIAIR etc. these tools will help you signi fi cantly to achieve perfect polar alignment. When using a manual Star Trackers i.e. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, iOptron Sky Guider Pro you will have to perform Manual Polar Alignment. Polar Alignment can be a tedious process and will make or break your Imaging Session. Learning to perform Manual Polar Alignment is critical and will allow you to be fl exible and able to bring your Star Tracker with you on tours into mountains or on to hard accessible dark skies areas. Over the years I have created a method to achieve accurate Polar Alignment with a Mobile Star Tracker. When working precisely with this Method you should be able to achieve Polar Alignment within 2 ArcMin or better. As a vivid Astro Photographer I use multiple Mounts / Trackers, both GoTo and Manual, to support my business. Although I don’t need to, I always like to Polar Align my GoTo Mount manually, to so see and test how accurate my Polar Alignment method is. Recently I set up my GoTo Mount, which is driven by the ZWO ASIAIR and performed the Polar Alignment manually. After getting Polar Alignment, I switched on the ASIAIR and started the Polar Alignment process. After Plate Solving, the ASIAIR told me that my Manually Polar Alignment was 0,17’ArcMin - 17“ArcSec. What a fantastic result. Manually Polar Alignment will not only help you to understand how your Star Tracker works, but also will allow you to learn more about orientating the night sky. Many Astro Photographers are using a Mobile Star Tracker like the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, iOptron Sky Guider Pro, etc., which are the most common Mobile Star Trackers for Milky Way Wide Field and Deep Sky Wide Field, to take images of the Night Sky. There are also small GoTo Mounts which also need Manually Polar Alignment. Credit: Hendrik Anne Zwart - NGC1499
FOCAL LENGTH, Scope weight The method I will be explaining in this book can be applied to GoTo Mounts as well, when you want to test your manual polar alignment skills. Focal lengths for Deep Sky Wide fi eld will range from 135mm to ca. 600mm. These long focal lengths are upper limit in terms of weight for Mobile Star Trackers. The longer the focal length the more accurate Polar Alignment you need to achieve solid results. Telescopes like the William Optics RedCat51 (250mm), ZenithStar 61II (360mm), ZenithStar73II (420mm), SharpStar61 EDPH (360mm) and many others are all Wide Field Telescopes. Paired with cameras with different sensor sizes these focal lengths need to be multiplied by the camera sensor crop factor: 1 (Full Frame), 1.5 (APS-C), 2 (MFT) and 2.7 (1“ sensors) to get the focal length you will be imaging with. This means that when adding a 500mm telescope to your Star Tracker and your camera has an APS-C sensor, your actual focal length will be 750mm. Polar Alignment for this focal length really needs to be within 2’ ArcMin to get round stars and solid tracking. William Optics ZenithStar 81 - 560mm vs M.Zuiko 12-100mm (FF 24 - 200mm)
Preparations Home Position How to make sure that you Polar Scope is centred Polar Alignment Method + Requirements INITIAL STEPS What will you learn? Mounting Lens & Camera Balancing your Rig
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE SKY-WATCHER STAR ADVENTURER IOPTRON SKYGUIDER PRO SKY-WATCHER STAR ADVENTURER IOPTRON SKYGUIDER PRO Backgrounds with this colour are related to the Polar Alignment in the Southern Hemisphere. L E G E N D To make it easy to find your way in the Polar Alignment sections, we have separated the Northern Hemisphere from Southern Hemisphere sections by different background colours. Furthermore, you will find that we have dedicated Green colours for the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer and dedicated Red colours for the iOption Skyguider Pro. When your are using a Star Tracker which has the same Reticle as the one in the Skywatcher Star Adventurer or iOptron Skyguider Pro, you can use the appropriate sections for polar alignment. Backgrounds with this colour are related to the Polar Alignment in the Northern Hemisphere.
LEGEND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE COMMENTS FROM THE TEXT TO POINT OUT POINTERS IN THE IMAGE SECTION TO ACCENTUATE MOVEMENT ACTIONS IN ORDER TO MAKE THINGS CONSISTENT, WE HAVE OPTED FOR A COLOURED APPROACH FOR THE ACTUAL POLAR ALIGNMENT PROCESS: COMMENTS FROM THE TEXT TO THE IMAGES, POINTERS TO ACCENTUATE AND MOVEMENT ACTIONS, TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT IS WHAT. HOWEVER, IN THE GENERAL SECTIONS YOU MAY SEE ONLY ORANGE / REDDISH COLOURED ARROWS AS THIS COLOUR IS BEST SEEN ON WHITE BACKGROUND. NORTHERN HEMISPHERE MARKERS POSITION MARKERS
POLAR ALIGNMENT NORTHERN HEMISPHERE 2’ ARCMIN
POLARIS In the Northern Hemisphere, astronomers have a big advantage over astronomers in the southern hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere we have Polaris, which is nearly located in the North Celestial Pole and is the 47th brightest star. In the Southern Hemisphere we do not have such a star. But how do I fi nd Polaris? LINING UP YOURSELF • Look into the direction of North. • When you do not know exactly where north is, you can use a compass. There is also one in your smartphone. • Look / Search for the Big Dipper in sky. • You should see this constellation (see image) . • Depending on which time of the year you do this, you will see the Big Dipper always at another compass direction. • When you found the Big Dipper, concentrate on the both outer stars (Purple Rings). • Visualise the distance between these two stars (A). • Now you extend the length of A - 5 times along its axis. STEP 1 POLARIS 5 TIMES EXTENSION OF A A URSA MAJOR NOW YOU SEE POLARIS SkyGuide APP
RETICLES The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer uses another reticle than the iOptron SkyGuider Pro. Both reticles have their own way of working. Both reticles can be used in both Northern - and Southern Hemisphere. In the Polar Alignment section we will describe how to use the reticles. TRACKER SWITCHED ON • Remove polar scope protective cap from the back. • Remove polar scope protective cap from the front. You need to remove this cap before you mount your bracket holder onto the tracker. • Look through your polar scope and verify whether you see either polar scope reticle. • Upper reticle is used in the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer (simpli fi ed presentation for the Northern Hemisphere). This is used when using the Polar Scope Align Pro app and you are in the Northern Hemisphere. • Bottom reticle is used in the iOptron SkyGuider Pro. STEP 7 IOPTRON SKYGUIDER PRO STAR ADVENTURER RETICLE WHEN LOOKING THROUGH THE POLAR SCOPE
POLAR ALIGNMENT IOPTRON SKYGUIDER PRO HOW TO ALIGN This method is a manual alignment process. It may have some small deviation and is dependent on how precise your work. However, when you follow the steps you will achieve accurate polar alignment for your tracker. DISCLAIMER
HOW TO ALIGN iOptron SkyGuider Pro TRACKER IS TURNED ON? LOOK THROUGH YOUR POLAR SCOPE • You may see the reticle in this position. However, the look / position can differ from your view. • Polaris is situated outside of the pole scope reticle. • The „Pole Scope Reticle“ does not point to the „6“ o’clock position towards the bottom. • POLAR ALIGNMENT • In order to get an exact Polar Alignment, the „6“ needs to point towards 6 o’clock. • To achieve this you could open the RA clutch and approximate the position of the reticle to 6 o’clock (downwards position). However, this is not very precise! • To See where Polaris should stay at a time „X“, we can use the Polar Align Pro or the iOptron App. In the app you will see where Polaris needs to be, but this is the position for when the reticle is positioned at exactly 6 o’clock. STEP 1 STEP 2 POLARIS This is an example of how it can look like. This can differ from your situation. No worries. LIKE THIS
POLAR ALIGNMENT SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE 2’ ARCMIN
POLARIS AUSTRALIS In the Southern Hemisphere, astronomers have a big challenge to Polar align their star trackers. In the Southern Hemisphere we don’t have Polaris. We have to align our equipment with a star constellation in Octans. One of the stars is 𝜎 oct - Sigma Octans - Polaris Australis. This star however, is very dim and not so easy to fi nd. LINING UP YOURSELF • Look into the direction of South • When you do not know exactly where south is, you can use a compass. There is also one in your smartphone. • Look / Search for the Octans. • You should see this constellation (see image) • • • • To fi nd Polaris Australis, we need to spend more time on fi nding it, compared to Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere. STEP 0 PART 2 POLARIS AUSTRALIS This is what you normally will hear. In a sky full of stars it is hard to fi nd a dim star 𝜎 oct which has a brightness of about 5.44 mag (rel). In comparison Polaris (NH) has a brightness of 1.46 mag (rel). N O T E 𝜎 oct 𝛿 oct SkyGuide Pro App
POLARIS AUSTRALIS In the next sections we will discuss the perhaps easiest option to fi nd Polaris Australis. It is de fi nitely bene fi cial to use one of the stargazing apps to fi nd your way in the night sky. These apps will help to position yourself correctly and give you an idea of where to look! LOOKING SOUTH • Try to fi nd the constellation of APUS. Look for the pattern you see in the image. • Apus has a prominent shape and has some brighter stars. • The purple circle shows you a combination of stars which will guide you to draw some imaginary lines. • The bright star on the right side is 𝛿 oct • The two little gemini stars are 𝝅 oct • Remember this combination as a guideline • To get to this combination of stars: • Draw a curved line from 𝜶 aps • Draw straight line from 𝜸 aps STEP 1 PART 3 𝜶 aps 𝜸 aps 𝜷 aps 𝜹 aps 𝜹 oct 𝝅 oct
POLAR ALIGNMENT SKY-WATCHER STAR ADVENTURER HOW TO ALIGN This method is a manual alignment process. It may have some small deviation and is dependent on how precise your work. However, when you follow the steps you will achieve accurate polar alignment for your tracker. DISCLAIMER
HOW TO ALIGN Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer TRACKER IS TURNED ON? LOOK THROUGH YOUR POLAR SCOPE • You may see the reticle in this position. However, the look / position can differ of course. • Polaris Australis is situated outside of the pole scope reticle. • POLAR ALIGNMENT • In order to get an accurate Polar Alignment, we need to turn the reticle into correct position. • For the Sky-Watcher Southern Hemisphere’s reticle it is not important that the reticle points exactly vertically like the iOptron reticle. This is because the SW uses the octans pattern to align the reticle. • To see where Polaris Australis should stay at a time „X“, we can use the Polar Align Pro. In the app you will see where Polaris Australis needs to be. STEP 1 STEP 2 SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Equatorial Wedge This is an example of how it can look like. This can differ from your situation. No worries. POLARIS AUSTRALIS
HOW TO ALIGN Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer TRACKER IS TURNED ON • Activate App • Polar Scope Align Pro • Sky-Watcher SAM • The App will show you the exact position of where Polaris Australis needs to be for exact polar alignment. • On the image to the right, Polaris Australis is marked with an orange . • This is the position for Polaris Australis for this time!!! • At the top left you see: • Date • Time - GMT + Time difference • Longitude / Lon • Latitude / Lat STEP 2 STEP 3
This Step by Step guide wouldn’t have be possible without the use of product information, references to products, using screenshots from the tools we use to make astrophotography accessible for all. A big thank you goes to all astronomers around the world - Manufactures of equipment, App developers and photographers to make our lives as astronomers so much easier. Trademark Notice: Product or Corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identi fi cation and explanation without the intent to infringe. Sky-Watcher: Is a copyright of Paci fi c Telescope Corp. iOptron: Is a copyright of iOptron Corporation. Polar Scope Align Pro: Is trademark of Dimitrios Kechagias. Sky Guide: Is a copyright of Fifth Star Labs LLC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing. Permission requests should be sent to the author at nordiclightphoto@icloud.com. www.nordiclightphototours.com Disclaimer: Nordic Light Photo Tours nor the Author do not take any responsibility nor can they be held responsible for when the reader does not achieve the results as outlined in the eBook. It it the readers sole responsibility to work precisely and carry out the work. • SKY-WATCHER • IOPTRON • POLAR SCOPE ALIGN • SKYGUIDE • AUTHOR DISCLAIMER COPYRIGHTS - TRADEMARKS © 2022 - Hendrik Anne Zwart
Hendrik Anne Zwart was born in 1964 in the Netherlands. He was given his fi rst camera at the age of 7 and has been captivated by photography ever since. He is never without a camera, in order to be able to capture the light at the right moment at any time. Today he is a landscape and time-lapse photographer with a focus on Northern Europe above the Arctic Circle. There he leads photo workshops and tours at "Nordic Light Photo Tours". Central themes are photographing the Nordic Light in the majestic landscape of Scandinavia and - the most fascinating light in the world - the Northern Lights. For him, Nordic Light is the most beautiful light he has ever seen and it never ceases to amaze him. This "woah effect" is always overwhelming for him and has awakened in him a boundless passion for the Nordic landscape. Furthermore he is focusing on capturing the night sky, from Milky Way to Deep Sky Objects. One of his main goals is, is to help other photographers to capture stunning images with entry level equipment. Besides this, he is an active member and advocate of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) to fi ght against Light Pollution and to preserve our night sky. His photographs have inspired him to look at life from different perspectives. AUTHOR PERHAPS NICE TO KNOW © 2022 - Hendrik Anne Zwart

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PolarAlignment_Teaser

  • 1.
    STEP BY STEPGUIDE POLAR ALIGNMENT HENDRIK ANNE ZWART 2' ARCMIN
  • 2.
    How to fi nd Polarisin the Northern Hemisphere and Polaris Australis in the Southern Hemisphere How to accurately Polar Align your Star Tracker How to make sure that you Polar Scope is centred How to setup and balance your Astro Photography Rig ABOUT THIS GUIDE What will you learn? How to set your Home Position
  • 3.
    OUR NIGHT SKY Ournight sky is amazing and holds many secrets. Not only for Astronomers but also for any other people who have an interest in nature. Many centuries ago our night sky was dark as we only had candles, torches and oil lamps to light up our surroundings and houses. Over the course to time we have worked hard to invent arti fi cial lights which became available by the late 1800’s. From this time on, the lights have made revolutionary jumps up till todays LED society. With the development of more high sophisticated light sources, we started to install more and more lamps in our villages, towns and cities. As a result our night skies became brighter and brighter. Many of us who live in cities, are living under Bortle Class 8 or 9 skies. This means that they cannot see much stars anymore. Not to think about seeing our own galaxy - The Milky Way. • Dark Skies • Bortle Class • Light Pollution • Astronomy / Photography WHAT ABOUT A S T R O N O M Y Back in the sixties when I was a child, in our village in the Northern parts of the Netherlands, we had dark skies (Bortle class 1). Today, based on a scale from 0 to 9….we are having a Bortle class 4 night sky. This means that our night sky became about 40% brighter.
  • 4.
    80% of theworld population is living under light polluted skies. As you can see on the left side image the night sky in the city is gone. Why am I telling you this? This is ALARMING. The negative effect of light pollution: • It harms animals • It harms Human Beings as it steals your precious sleep • It ruins nature Visit: www.darksky.org for more detailed information and perhaps you want to become an advocate to support our mission. So you may ask yourself, what does this have to do with Polar Alignment? Well….much! Light pollution destroys our view of the night sky. It will be harder to fi nd that celestial poles and deep sky objects. Light pollution does make astronomy unnecessarily more dif fi cult and expensive. The darker your night sky, the easier it is to fi nd your desired targets and celestial poles. Credit: International Dark Sky Association Credit: P. Cinzano, F. Falchi (University of Padova), C. D. Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder). Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. Reproduced from the Monthly Notices of the RAS by permission of Blackwell Science. HELP TO PRESERVE OUR NIGHT SKY
  • 5.
    MILKY WAY ANDDEEP SKY Astro Photography has made majors jumps over the last couple of years. We have gone from stationary equipment towards more mobile equipment to capture stunning images of the Night Sky. This has a lot to do with the the introduction of digital cameras in photography. Prior to digital photography, capturing the night sky was done in large observatories. Today, we have our own observatory at home. In order to start with star tracking and capturing the Night Sky we need a Star Tracker which will allow us to make long exposures. Without a Star Tracker we are limited to shorter exposure times, as earth turns. For wide fi eld Milky Way images (i.e. 14mm - 24mm Full Frame) we do not need a star tracker as long as we stay within the boundaries of the 500 rule divided by focal length. The outcome gives us the maximum exposure time before the stars start trailing. Dependent on which latitude you are, this time may vary. The closer you are to the celestial pole the shorter your exposure time will be. With some good techniques we can make stunning images. However, as soon as the focal lengths increase, the exposure times will decrease. At some point the exposure times are becoming too short to capture enough light of the night sky. • Star Tracking • GoTo Mounts • Manual Mounts • Mobility • Alignment STARGAZING A S T R O N O M Y
  • 6.
    As we cansee in the table below, the exposure times will radically get shorter by increasing focal lengths. 50mm is probably the maximum focal length which we can shoot from a tripod (without using a star tracker) without sacri fi cing too much image quality. Yes, we also can shoot 1 sec exposures from a tripod at 500mm but we need to increase the ISO / Gain signi fi cantly to capture enough light. This is however not recommendable. It is better that we start using a Star Tracker from focal lengths between 50mm - 135mm onwards. A Star Tracker tracks the sky: as earth turns, the Star Tracker will take care that the celestial object which we are tracking will stay (relatively) in the same position in the frame during the duration of our imaging session. Star trackers - we also call them mounts - vary from Manual Mounts to advanced GoTo Mounts. GoTo Mounts have the advantage over Manual Mounts that all Deep Sky Objects are in a Star Database and the tracker automatically slews to the desired target. No manual intervention is needed, only then keying in the Deep Sky Object name, number or co- ordinates. The opposite is true for the Manual Star Trackers. Credit: Hendrik Anne Zwart FOCAL LENGTH EXPOSURE TIME in Seconds 14 mm 35 24 mm 20 50 mm 10 135 mm 3,6 250 mm 2 500 mm 1
  • 7.
    With the ManualStar Trackers you need to fi nd the Deep Sky Objects on your own. Manual Star Trackers - like the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer or the iOptron Skyguider Pro are more portable than the majority of the GoTo Mounts - i.e. SkyWatcher EQ3, HEQ5 Pro or the iOptron CEM 28 and many others. The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer or iOptron SkyGuider Pro you can carry easily in a photo-backpack and take them with you on your Astro Photography tour or on a hike to a dark site location and it will give you more fl exibility on the location from where you want to image the night sky. Portability also has some small drawbacks as it limits the weight you can carry on your star tracker. Refractors like the William Optics RedCat51 or the SharpStar 61EDPH are excellent examples which can be mounted on the Star Adventurer or SkyGuider Pro. The more heavier GoTo Mounts are the more stationary they are. Although you can still take them with you, their weight will be limiting you on how far you can leave your car or home. Dark site locations on the top of a mountain are probably not in reach when your GoTo mount already weights over 50kg. Portability vs Stationary: all mounts have one thing in common and that is that the Polar Alignment process will remain a manual task. Most GoTo Mounts owners most likely will have a laptop or a ZWO ASIAIR to control the mounts, so you can use the advanced PA (Polar Alignment) functionality within these tools. However, in this Guide we will concentrate on the manual Polar Alignment process. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer iOptron SkyGuider Pro M A N U A L P O L A R A L I G N M E N T
  • 8.
  • 9.
    Polar Alignment isperhaps the most important thing in Astro Photography and it is critical to get this right. Phrases like: „Polaris / Polaris Australis (in Octans) needs only to be close or rough alignment“ will not suf fi ce. Well? Yes and No. Yes, for wide fi eld images like the Milky Way, the Polar Alignment can be „in the neighbourhood“, but the longer focal lengths - No. The longer your focal lengths will become the more precise and accurate your polar alignment needs to be. Accurate polar alignment of 2 ArcMin or better will give you great results. When using a completely automated setup i.e. Nina, SharpCap, ASIAIR etc. these tools will help you signi fi cantly to achieve perfect polar alignment. When using a manual Star Trackers i.e. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, iOptron Sky Guider Pro you will have to perform Manual Polar Alignment. Polar Alignment can be a tedious process and will make or break your Imaging Session. Learning to perform Manual Polar Alignment is critical and will allow you to be fl exible and able to bring your Star Tracker with you on tours into mountains or on to hard accessible dark skies areas. Over the years I have created a method to achieve accurate Polar Alignment with a Mobile Star Tracker. When working precisely with this Method you should be able to achieve Polar Alignment within 2 ArcMin or better. As a vivid Astro Photographer I use multiple Mounts / Trackers, both GoTo and Manual, to support my business. Although I don’t need to, I always like to Polar Align my GoTo Mount manually, to so see and test how accurate my Polar Alignment method is. Recently I set up my GoTo Mount, which is driven by the ZWO ASIAIR and performed the Polar Alignment manually. After getting Polar Alignment, I switched on the ASIAIR and started the Polar Alignment process. After Plate Solving, the ASIAIR told me that my Manually Polar Alignment was 0,17’ArcMin - 17“ArcSec. What a fantastic result. Manually Polar Alignment will not only help you to understand how your Star Tracker works, but also will allow you to learn more about orientating the night sky. Many Astro Photographers are using a Mobile Star Tracker like the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer, iOptron Sky Guider Pro, etc., which are the most common Mobile Star Trackers for Milky Way Wide Field and Deep Sky Wide Field, to take images of the Night Sky. There are also small GoTo Mounts which also need Manually Polar Alignment. Credit: Hendrik Anne Zwart - NGC1499
  • 10.
    FOCAL LENGTH, Scopeweight The method I will be explaining in this book can be applied to GoTo Mounts as well, when you want to test your manual polar alignment skills. Focal lengths for Deep Sky Wide fi eld will range from 135mm to ca. 600mm. These long focal lengths are upper limit in terms of weight for Mobile Star Trackers. The longer the focal length the more accurate Polar Alignment you need to achieve solid results. Telescopes like the William Optics RedCat51 (250mm), ZenithStar 61II (360mm), ZenithStar73II (420mm), SharpStar61 EDPH (360mm) and many others are all Wide Field Telescopes. Paired with cameras with different sensor sizes these focal lengths need to be multiplied by the camera sensor crop factor: 1 (Full Frame), 1.5 (APS-C), 2 (MFT) and 2.7 (1“ sensors) to get the focal length you will be imaging with. This means that when adding a 500mm telescope to your Star Tracker and your camera has an APS-C sensor, your actual focal length will be 750mm. Polar Alignment for this focal length really needs to be within 2’ ArcMin to get round stars and solid tracking. William Optics ZenithStar 81 - 560mm vs M.Zuiko 12-100mm (FF 24 - 200mm)
  • 11.
    Preparations Home Position How tomake sure that you Polar Scope is centred Polar Alignment Method + Requirements INITIAL STEPS What will you learn? Mounting Lens & Camera Balancing your Rig
  • 12.
    NORTHERN HEMISPHERE SOUTHERNHEMISPHERE SKY-WATCHER STAR ADVENTURER IOPTRON SKYGUIDER PRO SKY-WATCHER STAR ADVENTURER IOPTRON SKYGUIDER PRO Backgrounds with this colour are related to the Polar Alignment in the Southern Hemisphere. L E G E N D To make it easy to find your way in the Polar Alignment sections, we have separated the Northern Hemisphere from Southern Hemisphere sections by different background colours. Furthermore, you will find that we have dedicated Green colours for the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer and dedicated Red colours for the iOption Skyguider Pro. When your are using a Star Tracker which has the same Reticle as the one in the Skywatcher Star Adventurer or iOptron Skyguider Pro, you can use the appropriate sections for polar alignment. Backgrounds with this colour are related to the Polar Alignment in the Northern Hemisphere.
  • 13.
    LEGEND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE COMMENTSFROM THE TEXT TO POINT OUT POINTERS IN THE IMAGE SECTION TO ACCENTUATE MOVEMENT ACTIONS IN ORDER TO MAKE THINGS CONSISTENT, WE HAVE OPTED FOR A COLOURED APPROACH FOR THE ACTUAL POLAR ALIGNMENT PROCESS: COMMENTS FROM THE TEXT TO THE IMAGES, POINTERS TO ACCENTUATE AND MOVEMENT ACTIONS, TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT IS WHAT. HOWEVER, IN THE GENERAL SECTIONS YOU MAY SEE ONLY ORANGE / REDDISH COLOURED ARROWS AS THIS COLOUR IS BEST SEEN ON WHITE BACKGROUND. NORTHERN HEMISPHERE MARKERS POSITION MARKERS
  • 14.
  • 15.
    POLARIS In the NorthernHemisphere, astronomers have a big advantage over astronomers in the southern hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere we have Polaris, which is nearly located in the North Celestial Pole and is the 47th brightest star. In the Southern Hemisphere we do not have such a star. But how do I fi nd Polaris? LINING UP YOURSELF • Look into the direction of North. • When you do not know exactly where north is, you can use a compass. There is also one in your smartphone. • Look / Search for the Big Dipper in sky. • You should see this constellation (see image) . • Depending on which time of the year you do this, you will see the Big Dipper always at another compass direction. • When you found the Big Dipper, concentrate on the both outer stars (Purple Rings). • Visualise the distance between these two stars (A). • Now you extend the length of A - 5 times along its axis. STEP 1 POLARIS 5 TIMES EXTENSION OF A A URSA MAJOR NOW YOU SEE POLARIS SkyGuide APP
  • 16.
    RETICLES The Sky-Watcher StarAdventurer uses another reticle than the iOptron SkyGuider Pro. Both reticles have their own way of working. Both reticles can be used in both Northern - and Southern Hemisphere. In the Polar Alignment section we will describe how to use the reticles. TRACKER SWITCHED ON • Remove polar scope protective cap from the back. • Remove polar scope protective cap from the front. You need to remove this cap before you mount your bracket holder onto the tracker. • Look through your polar scope and verify whether you see either polar scope reticle. • Upper reticle is used in the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer (simpli fi ed presentation for the Northern Hemisphere). This is used when using the Polar Scope Align Pro app and you are in the Northern Hemisphere. • Bottom reticle is used in the iOptron SkyGuider Pro. STEP 7 IOPTRON SKYGUIDER PRO STAR ADVENTURER RETICLE WHEN LOOKING THROUGH THE POLAR SCOPE
  • 17.
    POLAR ALIGNMENT IOPTRON SKYGUIDER PRO HOWTO ALIGN This method is a manual alignment process. It may have some small deviation and is dependent on how precise your work. However, when you follow the steps you will achieve accurate polar alignment for your tracker. DISCLAIMER
  • 18.
    HOW TO ALIGN iOptronSkyGuider Pro TRACKER IS TURNED ON? LOOK THROUGH YOUR POLAR SCOPE • You may see the reticle in this position. However, the look / position can differ from your view. • Polaris is situated outside of the pole scope reticle. • The „Pole Scope Reticle“ does not point to the „6“ o’clock position towards the bottom. • POLAR ALIGNMENT • In order to get an exact Polar Alignment, the „6“ needs to point towards 6 o’clock. • To achieve this you could open the RA clutch and approximate the position of the reticle to 6 o’clock (downwards position). However, this is not very precise! • To See where Polaris should stay at a time „X“, we can use the Polar Align Pro or the iOptron App. In the app you will see where Polaris needs to be, but this is the position for when the reticle is positioned at exactly 6 o’clock. STEP 1 STEP 2 POLARIS This is an example of how it can look like. This can differ from your situation. No worries. LIKE THIS
  • 19.
  • 20.
    POLARIS AUSTRALIS In theSouthern Hemisphere, astronomers have a big challenge to Polar align their star trackers. In the Southern Hemisphere we don’t have Polaris. We have to align our equipment with a star constellation in Octans. One of the stars is 𝜎 oct - Sigma Octans - Polaris Australis. This star however, is very dim and not so easy to fi nd. LINING UP YOURSELF • Look into the direction of South • When you do not know exactly where south is, you can use a compass. There is also one in your smartphone. • Look / Search for the Octans. • You should see this constellation (see image) • • • • To fi nd Polaris Australis, we need to spend more time on fi nding it, compared to Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere. STEP 0 PART 2 POLARIS AUSTRALIS This is what you normally will hear. In a sky full of stars it is hard to fi nd a dim star 𝜎 oct which has a brightness of about 5.44 mag (rel). In comparison Polaris (NH) has a brightness of 1.46 mag (rel). N O T E 𝜎 oct 𝛿 oct SkyGuide Pro App
  • 21.
    POLARIS AUSTRALIS In thenext sections we will discuss the perhaps easiest option to fi nd Polaris Australis. It is de fi nitely bene fi cial to use one of the stargazing apps to fi nd your way in the night sky. These apps will help to position yourself correctly and give you an idea of where to look! LOOKING SOUTH • Try to fi nd the constellation of APUS. Look for the pattern you see in the image. • Apus has a prominent shape and has some brighter stars. • The purple circle shows you a combination of stars which will guide you to draw some imaginary lines. • The bright star on the right side is 𝛿 oct • The two little gemini stars are 𝝅 oct • Remember this combination as a guideline • To get to this combination of stars: • Draw a curved line from 𝜶 aps • Draw straight line from 𝜸 aps STEP 1 PART 3 𝜶 aps 𝜸 aps 𝜷 aps 𝜹 aps 𝜹 oct 𝝅 oct
  • 22.
    POLAR ALIGNMENT SKY-WATCHER STAR ADVENTURER HOWTO ALIGN This method is a manual alignment process. It may have some small deviation and is dependent on how precise your work. However, when you follow the steps you will achieve accurate polar alignment for your tracker. DISCLAIMER
  • 23.
    HOW TO ALIGN Sky-WatcherStar Adventurer TRACKER IS TURNED ON? LOOK THROUGH YOUR POLAR SCOPE • You may see the reticle in this position. However, the look / position can differ of course. • Polaris Australis is situated outside of the pole scope reticle. • POLAR ALIGNMENT • In order to get an accurate Polar Alignment, we need to turn the reticle into correct position. • For the Sky-Watcher Southern Hemisphere’s reticle it is not important that the reticle points exactly vertically like the iOptron reticle. This is because the SW uses the octans pattern to align the reticle. • To see where Polaris Australis should stay at a time „X“, we can use the Polar Align Pro. In the app you will see where Polaris Australis needs to be. STEP 1 STEP 2 SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Equatorial Wedge This is an example of how it can look like. This can differ from your situation. No worries. POLARIS AUSTRALIS
  • 24.
    HOW TO ALIGN Sky-WatcherStar Adventurer TRACKER IS TURNED ON • Activate App • Polar Scope Align Pro • Sky-Watcher SAM • The App will show you the exact position of where Polaris Australis needs to be for exact polar alignment. • On the image to the right, Polaris Australis is marked with an orange . • This is the position for Polaris Australis for this time!!! • At the top left you see: • Date • Time - GMT + Time difference • Longitude / Lon • Latitude / Lat STEP 2 STEP 3
  • 25.
    This Step byStep guide wouldn’t have be possible without the use of product information, references to products, using screenshots from the tools we use to make astrophotography accessible for all. A big thank you goes to all astronomers around the world - Manufactures of equipment, App developers and photographers to make our lives as astronomers so much easier. Trademark Notice: Product or Corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identi fi cation and explanation without the intent to infringe. Sky-Watcher: Is a copyright of Paci fi c Telescope Corp. iOptron: Is a copyright of iOptron Corporation. Polar Scope Align Pro: Is trademark of Dimitrios Kechagias. Sky Guide: Is a copyright of Fifth Star Labs LLC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing. Permission requests should be sent to the author at nordiclightphoto@icloud.com. www.nordiclightphototours.com Disclaimer: Nordic Light Photo Tours nor the Author do not take any responsibility nor can they be held responsible for when the reader does not achieve the results as outlined in the eBook. It it the readers sole responsibility to work precisely and carry out the work. • SKY-WATCHER • IOPTRON • POLAR SCOPE ALIGN • SKYGUIDE • AUTHOR DISCLAIMER COPYRIGHTS - TRADEMARKS © 2022 - Hendrik Anne Zwart
  • 26.
    Hendrik Anne Zwartwas born in 1964 in the Netherlands. He was given his fi rst camera at the age of 7 and has been captivated by photography ever since. He is never without a camera, in order to be able to capture the light at the right moment at any time. Today he is a landscape and time-lapse photographer with a focus on Northern Europe above the Arctic Circle. There he leads photo workshops and tours at "Nordic Light Photo Tours". Central themes are photographing the Nordic Light in the majestic landscape of Scandinavia and - the most fascinating light in the world - the Northern Lights. For him, Nordic Light is the most beautiful light he has ever seen and it never ceases to amaze him. This "woah effect" is always overwhelming for him and has awakened in him a boundless passion for the Nordic landscape. Furthermore he is focusing on capturing the night sky, from Milky Way to Deep Sky Objects. One of his main goals is, is to help other photographers to capture stunning images with entry level equipment. Besides this, he is an active member and advocate of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) to fi ght against Light Pollution and to preserve our night sky. His photographs have inspired him to look at life from different perspectives. AUTHOR PERHAPS NICE TO KNOW © 2022 - Hendrik Anne Zwart