Alignment With The Celestial Pole P30; Polar Alignment P30 - NATURE & DECOUVERTES mizar LUNETTE 114/900 Mode D'emploi

ALIGNMENT WITH THE CELESTIAL POLE
Your telescope offers the advantage of being installed on an equatorial mount. This mount allows the
rotation of the Earth to be offset during observation.
To make the most of this convenient feature, you will need to use a setting called: polar alignment.
Objects in the sky appear to rotate around the celestial poles. (In reality, celestial bodies are fixed in
place, and their apparent rotation is caused by the rotation of the Earth). In one 24 hour period, the
stars complete one full revolution of the pole according to the concentric circles of which the pole is
the centre. By aligning the right ascension of the telescope with the northern celestial pole (or for ob-
servations in the southern hemisphere, the southern celestial pole), you can follow the celestial bodies
by rotating the telescope around a single axis - the right ascension axis!
POLAR ALIGNMENT
Polar alignment consists of aligning the right ascension of the telescope (A - FIG 1) with the rotation
axis of the Earth.
To do so:
1. Set the mount at the desired level (horizontally), by adjusting the height of the legs.
2. Unscrew the azimuth lock (8) from the baseplate (7), so that the telescope and its mount can move
horizontally. Turn the telescope until the right ascension (A) points north. Use a compass or locate the
North star to help you.
3. Determine the latitude of your observation site using a road map, atlas, or via Google Maps . Use
the adjustment screws (21) to turn the mount of the telescope, so that the marker (23) indicates the
latitude of your observation site on the coordinate ring (22) (Example in FIG 11: 50 degrees).
Your telescope is now sufficiently well aligned for visual observations.
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