Hi Don,
I have a CGE mount and use the Polar Finder Scope. It's located on top of the RA axis housing. You may see there is a small set screw in the middle of the housing plugging the hole that the Polar Finder mounts to. While the scope is not needed, it is useful for getting a quick polar alignment. I like it for visual only because you really do need a fairly decent polar alignment for the best goto and tracking accuracy. With the finder, it only takes about 1 minute to get a sub 10 arcmin alignment. This is especially nice in the field.
For most imaging applications, the Polar Alignment software routine will work. You can get a sub 2 arcmin alignment with it. The routine takes about 5-10 minutes to accomplish including re-acquiring alignment stars.
Either the Polar Scope or Polar Alignment software routine will give you a good starting point for drift alignment, which is only really needed for long exposure AP/Imaging manually guided or unguided.
Bottom line--The PAS is nice and convenient, but not absolutely needed.
I have a CGE mount and use the Polar Finder Scope. It's located on top of the RA axis housing. You may see there is a small set screw in the middle of the housing plugging the hole that the Polar Finder mounts to. While the scope is not needed, it is useful for getting a quick polar alignment. I like it for visual only because you really do need a fairly decent polar alignment for the best goto and tracking accuracy. With the finder, it only takes about 1 minute to get a sub 10 arcmin alignment. This is especially nice in the field.
For most imaging applications, the Polar Alignment software routine will work. You can get a sub 2 arcmin alignment with it. The routine takes about 5-10 minutes to accomplish including re-acquiring alignment stars.
Either the Polar Scope or Polar Alignment software routine will give you a good starting point for drift alignment, which is only really needed for long exposure AP/Imaging manually guided or unguided.
Bottom line--The PAS is nice and convenient, but not absolutely needed.
Randy Roy
