Polar Alignment: Polaris Aid

About

Polar Alignment gives you a clear, current clock target for placing the pole star in your polar scope. It uses Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere and Sigma Octantis in the Southern Hemisphere. USE MY LOCATION Tap Use my location to fill latitude and longitude from the device. Location is requested only when you tap, only while the app is open, and never in the background. You can always type coordinates or pick a saved site instead. REFRACTION ESTIMATE Near the horizon the atmosphere lifts the pole star slightly, which moves its clock position, most at low latitudes. With the estimate on, the target includes a standard-atmosphere refraction estimate (1010 hPa, 10 °C). It is an estimate, not a measurement of your local conditions; switch it off in Setup to see the geometric position. Each saved alignment records whether the estimate was on. VALIDATED ACCUALIGN GUIDE For Northern Hemisphere iOptron AccuAlign polar scopes, the guide uses the documented 36′, 40′ and 44′ Polaris rings. The display is referenced to a 12-o’clock baseline so the clock position has an unambiguous starting point. Outside the printed rings the marker continues on the same scale and a notice appears; if it cannot fit within the displayed reticle, the marker is hidden and the clock position remains available. CONFIRM THE VIEW Before the target is revealed, confirm that the 12-o’clock baseline is upright. A normal polar scope shows an inverted image, and that is already accounted for. Turn on the erect-image option only if your polar scope shows an upright image; it applies one additional 180-degree rotation. Mirror-image views are not supported. HONEST FALLBACK For every other polar scope, the app labels the display as a Generic Clock rather than presenting a brand-specific reticle. The Generic Clock is also used throughout the Southern Hemisphere for Sigma Octantis. It is a clock guide, not a reproduction of an unsupported scope’s physical reticle. THREE-STAGE SETUP The Setup tab walks you through rough aim (level the tripod, set the altitude scale to your latitude, point the polar axis to true north or south), the reticle baseline (rotate the RA axis until 12 o'clock is at the top) and placing the star with only the altitude and azimuth adjusters. It names the adjusters but never guesses which way to turn them, because that depends on your mount. HISTORY YOU CAN TRUST Each saved alignment keeps the time it was calculated for, the UTC offset, the site or coordinates, the profile and view, the declination you entered and the refraction setting. History groups sessions by day, opens a detail card, exports CSV and shares the card as an image. The latest 50 sessions are kept. SITES, PLANNING AND NIGHT MODE Save up to 20 named observing sites and see each site's current clock position at a glance. To plan ahead, enter a fixed date and time. Red night mode protects dark adaptation.