Polar Scopes...right forum?

I want to get a G11 for a C9.25...(have been advised not to get the fork mount which I am still considering)...whatever...
The polar scope made by Losmandy sounds terrible other than it fits the G11.

I have mag 3.5-4 north skies...I can see Polaris, but not much else in the north (good south skies), so alignment appears a bit iffy on some but maybe not all nights.

Thoughts? Or to another forum?

Thanks.

Marc

Hi Marc,
I have the G-11 and the Polar scope. It is virtually the same one that Astro Physics uses and it is very good in my opinion. What is it that you heard that was so terrible?
The Polar scope uses Polaris and two other stars that are visible even under heavy light pollution. I have no problem in my backyard, which is terrible for light.
Plus, the G-11 has two built in routines for refining the alignment for you. I use Polar Align Correction most of the time.
You can do as good a polar alignment as you can with the polar scope and then do a two or three star alignment and follow up with the Polar Alignment Correction and get a pretty good polar alignment for photography. For visual use, just a 2-3 star alignment is fine.

Attached Image:

Marc: I have devised a method for polar aligning a scope on a German Equatorial mount that utilizes looking toward the north celestial pole through the scope's diagonal, with no significant physical discomfort. I can furnish you the details, if you are interested, but you will need the following: (1) the ability to write your own spreadsheet program (based on data available on the internet) to calculate the exact sidereal times as of when you are doing the aligning, (2) a low power (wide angle) eyepiece that has (or can be fitted with) a cross reticle, and (3) knowledge (or the ability to determine) the actual field of view of that eyepiece. My system may or may not be precise enough for astro-imaging, but it works almost flawlessly for visual observing.