telescope - Alt-Az or Polar?

With the wedge in place, you will only do polar alignments. If you want to go back to az/el, you must remove the wedge.

For me polar alignments are much faster and easier than az/el alignments.
For polar:

1. level the mount


2. Set your latitude on the wedge


3. Let the auto alignment point the scope at dec 90 and manually spin the mount until you align on Polaris. You use the manual controls on the wedge for this, not the hand controller.


4. Do a one star alignment on an overhead star. I always use Vega in the summertime. You use the hand controller for this.

If you haven't moved the mount since last time (or if it is permanently mounted) all you have to do is power up and do a one star alignment. Easy!