Vixen Polar Scope

An Artificial Star for the Southern Hemisphere

Im writing the updates in the end of this page, if you want to see only the most recent
stage of this project, just go right to the end.

The Vixen Polar Alignment Scope has been damned for many reasons, here at southern
hemisphere its worse because our best polar star Sigma Octantis has magnitude 5.5,
almost invisible though the poorly illuminated PAS, but its easely visible with a 7 X 50
binocular.

I decided to build an assembly to help me point the pole using a green laser.

Pic 1
There are two L shaped poles, the first is coupled to the tripod board, but can be rotated
in azimutal , the second pole connects to the first one and can rotate in altitude. Both L
poles have small studs to lock them in raw pole position

The ALT pole supports two aluminum rings that supports a tube where the green laser
pointer will be inserted. The two rings have two studs each to make the precise polar
alignment of the laser beam on the southern pole.

Pic 2
In some green laser pointers (Radio Shack is OK), the on-off button is aligned with the
pocket clamp and turns on the laser just inserting the pointer inside the aluminum tube,
nice !

With a binocular in one hand is easy to ajust the four studs to place the laser very close to
the pole near Sigma Octantis with the other hand.
Now its time to adjust the mount, the green laser beam is easely visible through the PAS,
just adjust the RA and DEC mount alignment bolts to make the PAS recticle coincide
with the beam tip.

PAS Alignment
Another question is that the PAS need to be checked with the mount RA axis, I found
mine is off by some minutes.

Theres a description on how to make that alignment somewhere on the Internet, but I
coudnt find it anymore. The name of the file is
VixenNAGP_GPDX_PoleAlign+Findr.pdf, contact me (remove the "X") if you need a
copy.

Pic
3
The procedure is basicaly to remove the counterweights and scope from the mount,
rotate the RA so that the CW shaft points to the right horizon, point the PAS to a fixed
spot on the landscape adjusting the ALT and AZ mount alignment bolts, then rotate
again the RA to make the CW shaft point to the left horizon and check it the PAS still
pointing to the same spot in the landscape.
Unfortunately the Vixen document doesnt specifies which bolt needs to be adjusted to
correct the misalignment, there are possible 5 rings and sets of candidates :

Pic 4
UPDATE 18/08/2007
I made two pictures rotating only the PAS 180 degrees between them and put them in
two layers on this picture :

Pic 5

I understand that the PAS recticle is off of the PAS optical axis by the radius of the red
circle.
Next step I made the same procedure but rotating the whole RA body of the Sphinx
mount (including the PAS) :

Pic 6
It appears that the problem is the recticle position and the PAS body is perfectly aligned
with the RA axis.
The SXD document tell about align the PAS with the mount, but nothing about aligning
the recticle within the PAS.

Pic 7
UPDATE 28/08/08

I finally figured out how to colimate the PAS reticle, the bolts to be adjusted are marked
as "A" on the PAS, see Pic 4 above. The procedure is to find the center as in Pic 5 and
adjust the small "A" allen bolts :
Hold the PAS pointing it to the ground, if you see the recticle center too much to the left
like in picture below, youll need to loose the bolt 2 (I guess 90 degrees) and press bolt
3, place the PAS on the mount again and repeat with smaller movements. Dont move
the PAS from pointing to the ground while some bolt is loose because you can make
the ring that supports the recticle to move from its correct place.

Pic 8

By the way, the green laser assembly is a must here on the south, I made a map to help
locate the pole from near stars. Take it here.
UPDATE 02/09/08
The picture below shows the green laser in action, it was taken with a modded Canon
350D and a 180mm Zeiss telephoto. The site is higly polluted and with the laser I could
keep the finder illumination off and get the three Octantis stars in a pictue. The laser (a
5mW from Radio Shack) was pointed to the south pole using a binocular, it was very
easy to put the PAS recticle cross over the laser beam tip. The small red dot is the correct
spot. Of course there still some arc minutes pointing error, but its fast to get there.

Pic 9
UPDATE 25/04/2009
I made a new support for the laser that made the pointing far more precise ..

Pc 10

Pic 11
UPDATE 25/05/09:
The picture to the left was taken with an EOS camera on my 150mm F5.5 newtonian
telescope, its a 60 seconds unguided exposure and this is aproximately the field of a
27mm eyepiece, I made a pointing fine tune seeing these stars through the newtonian.
The more visible stars are marked on the picture.

The right picture came from TheSky6, showing the South Celestial pole precise position.
Angular distance between stars A and B is about 4 arc minutes. This laser has a 3Vdc
power supply.
Compare both with the image from Update 02/09/08 above (Pic 9).

Pic 12
A way to place it on a fence....

Pic 13
Here on the upper left you can see Alpha an Beta Centaurus, Musca and part of Crux :

Pic 14
Regards