Disclaimer: For those of you who do not have an equatorial mount and a polar finder scope, you can ignore this short post.
This past week I was looking through plastic bins of times past for some items I needed, and ran across a little led light that I had wrapped in red cellophane for night use.
This past week I was looking through plastic bins of times past for some items I needed, and ran across a little led light that I had wrapped in red cellophane for night use.
As I looked at it, it hit me that it would be perfect for illuminating my polar finder scope on my CG-5 equatorial mount. I had tried to make something before for this but it didn't work out, so I normally just hold a red led flashlight near the upper end of the telescope axis while I perform a manual polar align. This is sometimes awkward though. Eyeing my old modified led light, it looked like it could clip on the mount right above the upper axis and I could bend it to provide just the right amount of red illumination to my polar finder scope without it being in the line of sight.
So I tried it and it worked! Here is a picture of it clipped into place and another picture without a flash to give an idea of the low red light it provides in just the right place.
So I tried it and it worked! Here is a picture of it clipped into place and another picture without a flash to give an idea of the low red light it provides in just the right place.
When I am finished with the manual polar align, I simply un-clip the led light from the mount and clip it to the tripod tray so it is handy the next time I need it.
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