Because the Earth rotates on its axis, objects in the sky outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, such as the moon, planets and stars, seem to rise in the east and move across the sky, and then set in the west.

The Sun, Moon, planets, and all objects in the solar system, as well as nebulae, clusters, and stars in our own galaxy, and indeed even all of the other galaxies in the sky, follow this path across the sky as the Earth rotates beneath as the earth rotates. The stars
Galaxes, Nebula’s and other deep sky bodies form a circular pattern around the north star Polaris.

For visual observation polar alignment is not necessary but for taking photos Polar alignment is necessary to prevent blurry
pictures and star trails.

For Polar alignment the telescope needs to be level and set to the latitude of your location. Here in Tucson Arizona my
Latitude is N32 degrees 6 minutes and 25.644 seconds. My Longitude is W 110 degrees 42 minutes 31.402 seconds. This information
can be given to the telescope if it is motorized and has a controller. I will explain my set up latter. What polar alignment accomplishes it provides the telescope the offset between magnetic North and true North. If this sounds complicated it used
to be. However software has come to the rescue.

There is a terrific program called SharpCap which can be purchased for a nominal fee. This software has many features and
one of the is polar alignment. SharpCap when connected to a camera takes an image of the stars around the celestial pole
and tells the astronomer how to adjust the Azimuth and altitude of the telescope to achieve Polar alignment.