On the astrophotography front, now that I’m reasonably flush again, it’s likely that I will be buying that equatorial mount some time this year (though, given the kind of weather we’ve been having, there hardly seems any point). So it behooves me to do a little research into how to perform a polar alignment on an equatorial mount. A rough alignment seems straightforward, though I’ve never done it; astrophotography requires something more precise. Astro Baby has a tutorial on using the polar scope to align the HEQ5 Pro (which is the mount I’ll almost certainly be getting). Andy’s Shot Glass has what looks like an excellent video tutorial on drift alignment, which is for when you need really exacting alignment — i.e., for astrophotography. But then, you don’t need an equatorial mount unless you’re doing astrophotography.

Previously: Gearing up for astrophotography.