April 23, 2020 in Getting Started General Help and Advice. This is a concern to me. 2. This application allows you to carry out a precise stationing of the mount also excellent for astrophotographers and works in both celestial poles. I have used the daytime alignment feature to align my mount. Im now connected to a laptop for polar alignment, as Ive removed the visual polar scope completely. The process involves removing the control board and unplugging a few small cables. All rights reserved. At this point, Polaris should be very close tothe exact position for a near-perfect Polar Alignment for the night. For those that set up and tear down their equipment each night like me, youll quickly become a master in polar alignment through experience. In fact they are the same: you just need to change the position of one piece. It is now a matter of moving the mount left or right until Polaris comes into view. It displays this information on a screen so you can quickly make the adjustment to the mount. So yes using an app is a good idea to show where abouts Polaris needs to be on the clock face. A step-by-step walkthrough of my deep-sky astrophotography process. Aside from astrophotography (including an impromptu Facebook Live stream from our balcony) my wife, Continue Reading Astrophotography in Costa Rica (Carina Nebula)Continue, Your email address will not be published. The imaging camera in PoleMaster has a resolution of 30 arc second, so the best polar alignment that can be achieved by PoleMaster is also in the order of 30 arc seconds. You should be able to take some sharp images of at least 2-3 minutes with the 350mm FL Z61 with a sound polar alignment. I would like a setup that can function without a counter weight if possible. Yes exactly. Alternatively in theory you could do this: It will display the correct position of Polaris in relation to the North celestial pole. PolarFinder shows you the actual of the Polaris or the Sigma Octantis using the system time and GPS Polaris is a cool mobile compass which can be used with or without Wifi/GPS. The purpose of this simple application is to quickly initialize your synscan. I use this gear myself but many others use the QHY PoleMaster and rate it highly too so its a matter of preference really. Buy a raspberry pi + powerbank + ultra small usb wifi router You currently have javascript disabled. I'll be looking up some of those apps mentioned myself now. And most of all, we hope you'll enjoy the products as much as we do. In my latest video, I captured a wide-field deep sky object using an impressive little star tracker, the iOptron SkyGuider Pro. I knew that feature was coming to the ASIair and thats an excellent option for those that want to keep their rig travel-friendly! All users should download a new copy from the link below. Call or email us today to let us know what you think. Owners of the SkyGuider Pro looking to push the mounts capabilities further now have a dedicated device for this critical aspect of astrophotography. However, I recently tried to capture rho ophiuchi with my 200mm f4 lens I brought it to its knees (I ended up shooting at 100mm). Thanks for the review. There is only a $50 difference. This application allows you to carry out a precise stationing of the mount also excellent for astrophotographers and works in both celestial poles. An electronic polar scope uses a camera to plate solve an image of the area of sky around the celestial poles and provide useful feedback to guide your adjustments to the Altitude and Azimuth controls. These are unguided sub exposures at 250mm (thats actually 400mm when you factor in the 1.6x crop factor). By aligning the axis of your telescope mount with the motion of the sky, you can accurately track objects in space. Edited by ecuador, 31 May 2019 - 02:06 PM. It sounds like the ipolar requires a computer for setup which does not appeal to me taking another piece of equipment into the field? That being said do you have any advice for choosing between the two? It can also help an equatorial mount user do polar alignment with the polar scope. To that end I am using a smallrig very small and very stable tripod. ===== PS ALIGN excellent app! We'd love to hear from you! The phone holder is a 3D printed device that is on ThingAVerse. Ill attach my newly acquired Canon EOS 60Da to the RedCat, with a dual-bandpass narrowband filter inside (2 Optolong L-eNhance). The QHY PoleMaster uses a high sensitivity camera to capture an image of the northern sky to calculate where true north is. Late June may have the shortest nights of the year, but it sure beats spending extended periods of time outside in the cold winter months. ioptron SkyguiderproASIairipolar. Ive been extremely satisfied with the results Ive achieved using this method of polar alignment, but its time to push the SkyGuider Pro mount even further. The next time it is clear I will see how well it did. The app needs to be purchased separately at an extra cost, but alignment is a breeze once installed. After using iPolar and a Windows PC/laptop to do the polar alignment successfully, do we simply unplug the usb cable and not need the laptop anymore? Or another? Polar alignment is critical to the tracking accuracy. Your email address will not be published. I looked back at some images captured in February (from the Im seeing Red video) they were 4-minutes each at an equivalent focal length of 400mm unguided. I am so grateful for your videos. iPad Apart from the most reliable app for polar alignment (with or without a polar scope), PS Align pro has become the astronomer's swiss-army knife with all the tools added over the years. !Affiliate links for First Light Optics below. The beauty of a permanent setup in an observatory is, that the polar alignment process only needs to be done once. iOptron app is available for iPhone or iPad for locating Polarisit does cost extra though. The official iPolar manual states the following: You may also manually enter the rotation center, X=480, Y=640, for rough alignment if you are sure the iPolar center is not far away from the mount RA axis. This is a demo of the daytime polar alignment routine. The polar alignment was really dialed-in, but a 40-minute exposure is a but much. Regardless, I used each one of the 62 (240-second long) sub-exposures for my final image. This will be magnetic north though so only an approximation. One of the reasons I made Polar Scope Align was because the iOptron app was way off back then - it took them a few years of mucking about to even match their hand controller, it was quite bizarre (maybe they had outsourced the app?). The iOptron iPolar Polar Alignment Software. For those with ASIair lets hope ZWO hurries up with their polar alignment. The method how we achieve it is called polar alignment and it starts with a rough alignment of the RA axis. When loaded up, use the polar clock utility to show where Polaris needs to be in your polar scope (you need to put your location into the app). This setup usually consists of a DSLR camera and lens, but Ive seen some incredible little setups using dedicated astronomy cameras, and telescopes as big as the William Optics Z73 mounted (with a 50mm guide scope)! So many utilities you never knew you needed. Or we need the laptop to be on and to be connected to the iPolare, and check for alignment from time to time for the whole astrophotography session? As a beginner, am I better off starting without the iPolar, or should I jump to the improved technology? On 03/05/2020 at 20:32, AstroRookie said: What's the best polar alignment app for Android? So perhaps now it is OK (haven't checked lately), but technically Polar Scope Align is always more precise, as it calculates things like stellar aberration, nutation etc which are often ignored as they don't make a practical difference to your polar alignment. This App controls most functions through Bluetooth from your Android cell phone or tablet. Uses in your polar finder scope. live view and trial and error? You may have noticed that I am using the upgraded William Optics wedge to mount the SkyGuider Pro, and this certainly makes this process a little more enjoyable. You just need to make sure that the mount does NOT move (eg. For anyone that has used the QHY PoleMaster, this experience should feel very familiar and comfortable. This is an app to show the position of the Pole Star (Polaris in Northern Hemisphere, or Sigma Octantis in Southern Hemisphere) in the polar scope of all the iOptron(R) telescope/camera mounts. It displays Polaris' hour angle, local, sidereal and UTC time and GPS coordinates. Any idea if it exist for Mac OS? iOptron Polar Scope This is an app to show the position of the Pole Star (Polaris in Northern Hemisphere, or Sigma Octantis in Southern Hemisphere) in the polar scope of all the iOptron. A William Optics RedCat 51 Refractor mounted to the iOptron SkyGuider Pro. Since 2017, Ive captured several deep sky images with the SkyGuider Pro, with a DSLR camera attached to a camera or small telescope. The Polar-Aligner is a simple astronomical application for the northern hemisphere to help you to align your mount easily. The app is helpful to match orientation of the DSO Planner Free is an astronomy observation planning tool with excellent star charting capabilities made by active and experienced amateur observers with a passion for visual observations. The iPolar software is available to download on the iOptron website. About | Being as minimal as possible on gear/weight for trekking is important. Hello, i really enjoyed watching your videos and im inspired. Your email address will not be published. (I eyeballed alignment with the SkyGuider's polar scope and mobile app.) You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. If your view of the Big Dipper or Polaris is completely obstructed, you may need to polar align using the Drift Align method I mentioned earlier. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. It was nice to talk to you at NEAF. Terms of Service | Now, Stellarium and Polar Scope Align both calculate the effect of atmospheric refraction, so they will give you a different position from the most simplistic apps (the lower your Latitude, the lower Polaris will be shown lower - for an inverted reticle), so you are not to compare it with those, although if they are correct, at the 6/12 hour mark I often use them as their graphics are better than the HC display. You'll need to enter in the lat-long coordinates of your location, which you can easily find online or using the GPS on your phone. Even without the use of autoguiding, you may be able to capture long exposures with sharp stars depending on the mount you use. Hi, The altitude adjustment bolts can be a little difficult to get the hang of. Almost any starcharting software will give the position of Polaris, and most will correct for atmospheric refraction. IPolar will take an image based on the frequency and gain you set I raise gain to 6x and take an image every 500ms which works for me. As I want to tackle astrophotography I bought a new mount and a QHYCCD PoleMaster; I haven't even removed the cap of the polarscope of my new mount. For what it's worth. Android users should buy the Polar Finder App, while iPhone users can get this PolarScope Align app.The app is critical for an accurate alignment, as you will need . PolarScope is a polar-scope alignment app that runs on your Windows Desktop, Tablet and Phone. However, would it not be possible to somehow side mount a polar scope for manual polar alignment? There's an entry in the app FAQ about accuracy that might be of interest. Narrow bandpass imaging requires that you collect longer exposures than you would in broadband, especially when using a color camera like a DSLR. Hi! Is polar scope align availableon Android ?