Celestial pole.

[MarkS]

I use a method just as complicated as, but different to, Mac's method.  It involves "dialling-in" the date and time on the reticules to get the corrent orientation of the polarscope for that time and date.  Once I've done that, the orientaion of Cass and Ursa Major in the polarscope invariably match their orientation in the sky.

So I keep asking myself why do I bother with my complicated approach?

Mark

[RobertM]

I just look through the polar scope and align the Plough or Cassiopeia on the reticule as accurately as possible then adjust the mount till Polaris is in the middle of the circle.  I've found that seems to be accurate enough for my needs though it's a bit awkward to adjust sometimes.

Robert

[MarkH]

Thank you all for your help. I don't actually have a polar scope. I have a Meade wedge and will go down the route of Duncans suggestion of the polar mate. I did toy with the idea of adapting a polar scope to fit the wedge. What I got caught up in was trying to establish WHERE the CP was so as to get the right starting point. When I searched I got umpteen different answers. Now things are much clearer.

[MarkH]

After a google search I can see why Mike chose the kochab method ....super accurate

[MarkH]

Earlier on tonight before it clouded over I had some sucess with polar alignment. It was surprisingly easy and accurate just by collimating quickly on polaris and the shifted the wedge back by an estimated one and ahalf moon widths back towards Kochab with a laser pointer. The ammount of drift was very little I reckon I must have been wthin 4 or 5 arc minutes. After some investigation though the polar mate is definitely the way I will go because it s so quick and  it is claimed to be more accurate than any software based system. Thank you all for your input.