The p1 performs a precise polar alignment in just a few minutes time, with an accuracy of up to 30 arc seconds. With its help im able align my eq6 mount with subarcminute accuracy in five minutes of time. But further adjustments need to be made for precise polar alignment. Another nice app hoping someboy would do it would be one which would align precisely 2 smartphones in the 3 directions of space using wifi or bluetooth. Level the tripod and set the star adventurer to midnight, october 31st, in time zone 0 using the graduation circles. Tutorial on how to perform polar alignment with the hour angle method. I have used several methods of polar alignment over the years. Precise polar alignment for longexposure astrophotography if you want to do longexposure astrophotography, or are setting up an observatory with a permanentlymounted telescope mount, you need polar alignment that is as close to perfection as can be obtained. I intend to include more detailed comparisons, but in the short term, i hope that the following is useful. Orion starshoot p1 polar alignment camera lowest prices. This star will assist the software in correctly aligning your telescopes mount with the north. Precise tracking still depends on an accurate polar alignment. Accurate polar alignment with eq3eq5heq5 and eq6 mounts. Polar alignment free polar alignment software download.
Check the files tab above for links to download ipolar software, see a compatibility chart or download the instruction manual. Page 1 of 2 polar alignment, guiding and pec posted in beginning and intermediate imaging. Polar alignment by the star drift method takes more time than using a polar scope, but a simple procedure using two stars will get your mount right on the celestial pole. Alignmaster is not free but at 19, it is an absolute bargain.
About the only reason to do precise polar alignment is for astrophotograhy, or for practicing your skill of the art. Very popular software for web cam imaging, which i believe can also be used for polar alignment. However if combination of mount, telescope and camera fov can slew to target would it be sufficient for astro imaging with additional guiding such as phd. The qhy polemaster electronic polar scope was designed to make your polar alignment routine easier, and more precise. Allstar is our exclusive, innovative polar alignment procedureavailable on. I turn the mount on and feed the handset with all the current data and proceed to star alignment procedure. Precise polar alignment using your smartphone and polar scope align pro not daytime mode this method requires the use of polar scope align pro or a similar app and to have the tripod leveled. It is one of the few programs that are accurate in lower latitudes by correcting for atmospheric refraction so expect results to agree only with precise software and not most simplistic polar align apps see the accuracy section in the website for details. The weather has finally cleared enough that i can actually use the scope the i bought in the flo clearance sale a while ago. Page 1 of 3 the best program for polar alignment posted in mounts. I spent a good while setting up the scope in the light. You take one image of the celestial pole, rotate the mount around the ra axis and take another image. A camera is not needed, but an ocular with illuminated crosshairs is helpful and will give a more precise alignment. The list includes polealignmax, align master, eq align, wcs, pempro, polar finder, star targ 2.
Even with a visible star very near the north celestial pole ncp, the true celestial pole can be a very elusive place to find without assistance. This tutorial best suited for the eqneq6atlas mounts. Furthermore, precise tracking of celestial objects also depends on an accurate polar alignment. By rotating your mounts right ascension axis by 15 degrees or more, the software can confirm this value. Octantis in your polar scope reticle for your location using your phones gps, allowing a quick and accurate polar alignment. Parot is software for ultrafast and precise polar alignment of equatorial mounts. Use of alignmaster allows the user to have a very precise polar alignment with minimal effort and time in contrast to other methods such as the popular drift alignment watching a star drift slowly offcentre in a crosshair eyepiece and correcting for it. You can easily achieve alignment accuracy better than 1 arcmin in 5 minutes of time. Then, you are asked to rotate the ra axis of your telescope mount to determine the rotation of the mechanical axis. Phd2 is guiding software inspired by stark labs phd guiding. Polar alignment, as performed by many amateurs, can be very time consuming if you spend a lot of time getting it more precise than is needed for what you intended to do with the telescope. If you want a more accurate alignment for astrophotography then you could start with my guide for aligning the heq5 which will give a more precise alignment.
As one becomes more experienced with practice, the polar alignment process will become second nature and will take only a fraction of the time as it did the. Precise polar alignment declination drift technique for long exposure imaging, the alignment using polaris will not be perfect and stars will slowly drift across the image. I collimated the polar scope and when it got dark i polar aligned as accurately as i could. The drift align tool in phd2 can be used to quickly obtain a precise polar alignment of your. Select a suitable bright star from the nexstar hand controls database. Polar alignment sharpcap lunar, planetary, solar and. By aligning the axis of your telescope mount with the motion of the sky, you can accurately track objects in space. A precise polar alignment can provide you with many benefits when it comes to astrophotography, including better autoguiding accuracy. This results in visible field rotation, something that is the staple limit of altazimuth mounts when it comes to longexposure astrophotography. Polar alignment is an essential first step towards a night of visual observation or astrophotography. If you are in the southern hemisphere, polar alignment is much more difficult due to the absence of bright stars near the celestial pole.
Its a simple method that does not require setting circles or the knowledge of date and time. Accurate polar alignment is a specific requirement of any kind of astrophotography as only by achieving this alignment can accurate tracking of celestial bodies be made. Tutorials section this section is only for the posting of actual tutorials, either single post or multiple, to ask questions or comment on a tutorial, please use the tutorial discussions section where you will find a topic titled for each topic posted here, it just helps stop the topics becoming convoluted and lets the tutorials flow properly. Simply attach the p1 to your mount with the proper adapter, load up the software on your computer, and follow the easy step by step directions to align your mount faster and easier than ever. Personally, i find polar alignment with a polar alignment scope faster and more convenient than a mounts polar alignment software, and sufficiently accurate for most purposes, so i rarely use the software feature on mounts that have a polar alignment scope. If the mount is moved by accident and polar alignment is lost, the alignment can be restored by adjusting the mount to. Polemastertm electronic polar scope installation and user.
There are two common methods for improving the polar alignment. Follow the instructions given by the autostar software. Now autoguiding on single axis portable tracker finally works. Simple if the procedure is too complex it will be prone to error. It is one of the few programs that are accurate even in lower latitudes by correcting for atmospheric refracti.
To get really accurate ncp alignment this program will show you where to put polaris in. Now you have completed the initial polar alignment. However, you still need to bend yourself, or knee down on the ground to perform the polar alignment the most straight forward way for polar alignment. Tpoint by software bisque, used in conjunction with thesky tpoint will provide polar alignment data which can be used to polar align the mount. Precise polar alignment declination drift technique astronomy.
This means that youll be able to capture longer exposures without the worry of tracking errors. Octans, a dim star in the dim octans constellation. Alignmaster is a program designed for a quick and precise alignment of goto mounts to the polar axis. Align to at least one calibration star on the opposite side of the meridian. Allstar polar alignment celestron telescopes, telescope. Sure, to do it you have to have the guide scope and guide camera mounted on the telescope, but if you are after a precise polar alignment you likely will be imaging and will want to guide with that guide cam and scope anyway. However, this is accurate enough for most peoples needs. Using an eq mount simple polar alignment for beginners. If you are just setting up for a night of visual observing, stop here and get to the observing. Phd2 drift alignment the drift align tool in phd2 can be used to quickly obtain a precise polar alignment of your equatorial mount.
Precise polar alignment in just minutes using the softwares simple step by step directions. The process takes a little bit of practice, but after. Therefore, alignment using software of this kind can be inaccurate by several arc minutes. Although all of these methods work with varying results, i am not really happy with most of them for one reason or another. For noncomputerized telescopes, a polar scope is the best option. Obviously there could be others that i am not aware of. Drift alignment software for german equatorial mounts. What is very important is that when one polar aligns, if the polar alignment is not precise, your mount is tracking along an offset declination axis. Starshoot p1 polar alignment camera w atlasprosvp adapter. Many computerized equatorial mounts including forkmounted telescopes on wedges have a polar alignment routine built in to their software to provide a more accurate alignment. The following is a list of all the polar alignment software that i am aware of. Now that i understand sharpcaps procedure, its polar align tool is just easier and, i believe, more accurate. The process takes a little bit of practice, but after doing it a few times, you should be able to obtain an accurate polar alignment in minutes.
One star alignment to enable accurate goto instead of 3star alignment. Parot is a program for ultra fast and precise polar alignment of equatorial mounts. Survey of polar alignment methods celestial wonders. The drift align method can be used in either hemisphere by using free software called phd2. Cgxl equatorial mount and tripod celestron telescopes. With the ipolar epolarscope from ioptron, accurate polar alignment has never been so simple. Align the telescope with the sky using the twostar alignment method. Drift alignment with phd2 the drift align tool in phd2 can be used to quickly obtain a precise polar alignment of your equatorial mount. Polar alignment sharpcap lunar, planetary, solar and deep. The declination drift method allows a much more accurate alignment by monitoring the drift of selected stars. For drift aligning i use the software tool drift align within phd2. Any other software installed excep the driverssoftware for your camera or.
No matter which camera tracker or telescope mount youre using, when it comes to astrophotography, accurate polar alignment is critical if you have ever struggled to polar align your telescope mount with the north or south celestial pole, the qhy polemaster may just be your. Now when i perform very first goto of the star alignment, the handset software assumes that we start from perfectly polar aligned position and also from home position of the mount, so the first goto should be somehow precise. After monitoring is started, as long as a goto has not been executed, the software will continuously determine the pole position frame by frame. Simply attach the p1 to your mount with the included adapter, load up the software on your computer, and follow the easy step by step directions to align. The drift align tool in phd2 can be used to quickly obtain a precise polar alignment of your equatorial mount. Easy polar alignment for astrophotography step by step. Well, it is very important to have precise polar alignment pa. Simply follow the steps prompted by polemaster software and you will have a very precise polar alignment. Precise polar alignment declination drift technique.
Fine tuning my the polar alignment accuracy of my telescope mount using the qhy polemaster. Sharpcap pro polar alignment is quick, accurate and easy to use. The best program for polar alignment mounts cloudy nights. Polar alignment can be confusing, but its easier than you think.
Allstar polar alignment allows quick and very precise polar alignment. A precise telescope mount polar alignment using alignmaster software. The telescope mount manual will describe how to move the mount in these directions. When autostar tells you to make adjustments to the scopes mount, use the knobs on the wedge to move the scope until polaris is nearly centered in the eyepiece. To use the current version of parot, you will need. Qhy polemaster electronic polar scope high point scientific. So, for manual polar alignment without software support it is recommended to make polar alignment in five steps. The polemaster uses this image to calculate the ncp, and that is the first step in achieving a precise polar alignment. This technical note sets out the procedures required to accurately polar align a synta eq3eq5heq5 or synta eq6.
Accurate polar alignment of a german equatorial mount is essential in order to undertake longexposure astroimaging, otherwise your final resulting images will show trailed stars or field rotation. Astromate x64 is a project for automating repeating astrophotography tasks, such as equatorial mount polar alignment and target centering, by integrating existing tools and especially plate solving to the ascom telescope control interface. Polar scope align will calculate the position of polaris or. But it also possible to perform with smaller heq5 mounts. The drift align method can be used in either hemisphere by using free software called. Align on any bright named star without extra polar alignment accessories, apps, or other assistance adjustable eq head position to optimize center of gravity over the tripod and.
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