Software Bisque Paramount 6 Series - Accurate Polar Alignment; The Accurate Polar Alignment Command

Paramount GEM User Guide
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Figure 53: The OTA’s optical and mechanical non-perpendicularity errors degrade the accuracy of the rough polar alignment
method.
Note that optical and mechanical non-perpendicularities in the telescope and the declination axis play a
key factor in the accuracy of the rough polar alignment method. If these misalignments are large (in the
order of 30 arcminutes or greater), the initial polar alignment will not be as accurate.
Accurate Polar Alignment
For most amateurs, optimal tracking performance can be achieved when an equatorially mounted
telescope is aligned to within about 100 arcseconds of the refracted pole. Coupled with a TPoint model,
TheSky’s Accurate Polar Alignment command makes getting there much less difficult.
The Accurate Polar Alignment Command
TPoint author Patrick Wallace developed an ingenious method to align an equatorial mount’s polar axis
accurately, and relatively painlessly with the celestial pole. Figure 54 shows the accurate polar alignment
workflow.