Polar Aligning

I want to try some long exposure piggyback photography with the ETX-125 in the avitar left.
but I'm hitting a brick wall when it comes to finding a
clearly explained and illustrated how-to guide.
The Meade manual is as clear as mud and Mike Wesners site has a lot of pages about it but it's hard going
to get the info I want.

Has anyone ever set up an ETX in polar mode?
If so could you tell me the basics?
Cheers!

Yes, though it was a long time ago!

The essence is to point the scope directly upwards then tip it over using the adjustment on the tripod so that the scope is pointing directly at the North Pole - for which Polaris will do initially. You should find that you have your latitude identified on the scale.

You also have tell the Autostar what you've done - there's a Polar/AltAz setting under the setup menu IIRC.

And that should get you to the point where you run a normal alignment on the Autostar and is probably good enough for short exposures of a minute or so. To get longer exposures you have to go through some quite complicated processes to account for the fact that Polaris isn't exactly North - that's where your fun starts!

Good luck,

Paul.

Thanks Paul.
I have the general jist of polar aligning but the ETX manual does not give a clear 'home position' or any photos showing the steps.


This is about the best I could find on the net (from Weasners ETX site)
It's position no 3.

Question.
If you set up the etx in polar mode.
(image 3 above)
And do a 2 star alignment.
will that be accurate enough for long exposure wide angle piggyback photos?

I'm guessing you have to do a more accurate polar alignment manually
because the autostar is going to just do a digital compensation?

I've been looking for details on polar alignment and equatorial setup since I bought a LXD75 mount recently (thanks Paul - it's working fine) and came across detailed advice specifically for the ETX 125 on Mike Weasners site www.weasner.com/etx/ref_guides/polar_align.html . The instructions are geared towards the ETX but the "" method is (apparently) quick and nearly as accurate as the drift alignment method. Briefer details on "Clay's Kochab Clock" are also listed at www.weasner.com/lxd/techtips/polar_alignment.html

Thanks William.
I have read both before but they wreck my head.
After chewing through both again I think I get the general Jist.

Rgds,