Paramount Me Quick Polar Alignment Method; Step-By-Step Procedure - Software Bisque Paramount ME User Manual

Figure 29: Remove these four screws to access the azimuth nosepiece. (View from the bottom of the
Next, remove the four hex screws that hold the nosepiece in place. You'll see the
additional sets of mounting holes beneath this piece. Remount the nosepiece in the holes
that give you the desired azimuth adjustment.

Paramount ME Quick Polar Alignment Method

The Paramount ME contains homing sensors that can be used to aid in the first step of
polar alignment. Each time the Paramount ME is homed, it returns to the exact same
position (that is, to the nearest encoder tic, or a fraction of an arcsecond). This position is
very near hour angle 2 and declination 0. This represents a point in the sky two hours
west of the meridian on the celestial equator.
Although the mount homes to the exact position each time, the home position is not
precisely at hour angle 2.0000 and declination 0.0000. This is in part due to consistency
of the position of the emitter-detector pair in the home sensors. Additionally, if the main
optic of the system is used for star sighting, it will have inherent non-perpendicularity
errors. Therefore, the following procedure can be deemed "very good" as far as estimating
polar alignment; however, TPoint should be used to more accurately refine the polar
alignment.
For portable operation, if the OTA is attached to the Paramount ME in a consistent
manner, the following procedure can result in accurate polar alignment each time the
Paramount ME is set up. When the star synchronization is performed, it represents a
calibration of many of the polar alignment offset errors.

Step-By-Step Procedure

Step 1 Level the mount, and adjust the Paramount ME's altitude and
azimuth as close to the celestial pole as possible.
In general, the mount need not be level to achieve extremely precise
pointing and tracking. However, leveling the mount is required to get
good polar alignment using the following alignment technique. Once
mount.)
Paramount ME User's Guide
47