29 replies to this topic

[LunarNomad]

Being totally new to this game this thread is confusing me with it's talk of wedges and angles. I just set my tripod arm to the angle requested by the Seestar and adjust the polar alignment by rotating the arm. Do I need a wedge? Am I missing something?

 

[WillR]

Being totally new to this game this thread is confusing me with it's talk of wedges and angles. I just set my tripod arm to the angle requested by the Seestar and adjust the polar alignment by rotating the arm. Do I need a wedge? Am I missing something?

 

IMG_7835.jpeg

No you are fine. If you want to use the Seestar tripod or a similar but larger tripod, you need a wedge, because there is no way to angle it so the Seestar points to the north pole.

[Sun Tzu]

Okay, I went to have a look at your video, and now I see what you are saying. Since the wedge is rotated 180 degrees in azimuth from where it would point if using a traditional telescope, the altitude adjustment angle is now the compliment.

 

If someone was used to polar aligning a regular scope, this would be confusing. But for us dummies who did their first polar alignment with a Seestar, we just use the app. 

Exactly. I mount my Seestar S50 on a Skywatcher HEQ5 pro eq mount. My latitude is 27 degrees. If I set the mount to 27 degrees as I would with a regular scope, the Seestar actually points to 63 degrees AND south instead of north. To achieve 27 degrees N with the Seestar, I set the mount to 63 degrees and turn it around so the Seestar points north. 

[groom]

Since he is making them for the Seestar, it should be fine. His product is actually a piece of metal bent to an obtuse angle with the angle being your latitude plus 90 degrees. That's. what I see going to his website. If your latitude was 90, it would be a flat bar. If it were 0, it would be a right angle.

But give them a call if you are worried.

The problem is, how do you adjust the polar alignment after the Seestar gets the deviation? You will be fiddling with the tripod legs a lot. I. looked at these, but decided that having no way to adjust was a deal breaker for me.

The simplest way is to adjust the tripod leveler, which your photo shows mounted between the tripod and the "wedge" support bar. The simplest way to do that is to make sure that your leveler wheels are lined up with the tripod legs, so then you would only have to adjust the one wheel which is lined up with the tripod leg pointed north.

Edited by groom, 01 April 2025 - 12:07 PM.

[WillR]

The simplest way is to adjust the tripod leveler, which your photo shows mounted between the tripod and the "wedge" support bar. The simplest way to do that is to make sure that your leveler wheels are lined up with the tripod legs, so then you would only have to adjust the one wheel which is lined up with the tripod leg pointed north.

I should have been clearer. That’s not my set up, that’s a photo from Petersen Engineering to show the person I responded to why he would be okay with the wedge he ordered.

 

I agree using the 3 point leveler makes fine adjustments to polar alignment easy, but I don’t use it. I’m using a fluid head tripod.