For users of polar scopes made by Synta under the SkyWatcher, Celstron and Orion brand. These polar scopes have been available for EQ3, EQ4, EQ5 including HEQ5 and HEQ5 Pro, EQ8, CGEM and others.
The app will generate a view that reflects the correct rotation of the reticle for the location and time. The design of the polar scope has circles on the reticle where the user is supposed to move the polar reference star(s) but due to precession of the Earths axis they are no longer where reticle says they should be. The app will present a view of where the reference star(s) should be. Thus to correctly polar align your mount it is simply a matter of matching the view in the polar scope to that which the app generates.
The northern hemisphere only has Polaris as the reference star. This is not problematic because it is normally visible to the naked eye and can be located by its relative position to the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia.
The southern hemisphere uses the Octans asterism which comprises of Chi Octans, Sigma Octans, CG Octans and Tau Octans. These are faint stars - less than magnitude 5 - thus it is important to identify them as a group.
This app relies on the system clock and location services. If location services is not available a manual location entry pane is available to enter the co-ordinates of your location.
