Last updated on February 27th, 2022 at 09:06 pm

The polar alignment is probably the most key component of AP in setting up your mount for AP every night. This mount however has a big gap in that it doesn’t have a polar alignment scope so I would use imaging camera and kStars software to perform polar alignment. My typical workflow in the evening is to get the mount setup just before dark and then do a course alignment to the Polaris. This would generally get the correction vector on kStars polar alignment. Then after about 2-3 integrations with the polar alignment I end up at a point in which I could not get any better.

Skywatcher Polar Alignment Option 1

I did find a few articles in which some have modified the mount however at the end of the day I decided it was time for a new mount.

SkyWatcher AZ-GTi Polar Alignment Option 2

https://www.amateurastrophotography.com/az-gti-mount

SkyWatcher AZ-GTi Polar Alignment Option 3

Use kStars and EKOS software polar alignment. This approach will use the primary imaging camera in your astro rig and move through a series of plate solving and mount rotations to get you polar aligned.