Polar Alignment Scope Finder

Polar Alignment gives you a clear, current clock target for placing the pole star. It uses Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere and Sigma Octantis in the Southern Hemisphere.

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.

CONFIRM THE VIEW
Before the target is revealed, confirm that the 12-o’clock baseline is upright. Choose an upright or inverted optical view; the inverted option applies one 180-degree rotation so the on-screen direction matches what you see.

HONEST FALLBACK
For every other polar scope, the app clearly 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 the current Sigma Octantis target. It is a clock guide, not a reproduction of an unsupported scope’s physical reticle geometry or radial scale.

THREE-STAGE SETUP
The Setup tab walks you through three stages with diagrams: rough aim (level the tripod, set the altitude scale to your latitude, point the polar axis to true north or south), 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, whether that was the live clock or a fixed time you entered, the UTC offset, the site or manual coordinates, the profile and view, and whether you entered a declination. History groups sessions by day, opens a detail card, exports CSV and shares the card as an image. Reuse loads the setup and recalculates for the current time. 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, then load its coordinates with one tap. To plan ahead, enter a fixed date and time in your device time zone. Red night mode protects dark adaptation. Atmospheric refraction is not corrected.