Polemaster Problem

[Fotozone]

So,I have a Polemaster Qhyccp camera mounted to my Fornax Light Tracker. Last night in the Mojave Desert was my first chance to use it. When I got on station, everything went very well up the point where the POLEMASTER INSTRUCTIONS (on the computer screen) said to rotate the image to align the star pattern with five given circles. I rotated and rotated. Disconnected, reconnected and otherwise spent 3 hours trying to align the stars around Polaris with the Polemaster pattern. Nothing work so I did the honorable thing and gave with zero images.

Can I get some advice from people who have used the Polemaster camera system as to what mat have been wrong? I checked all my levels, angles and relevant settings. Thanks in advance for any advice. Tom

 

[daveco2]

You rotate the star circles by the software slider, and in my case I had to slide it to the far right to get a match. It always matched up.

 

[Fotozone]

That is what I was trying to do, rotate the circles using the slider in the program but nothing ever aligned. At one point after several restarts I got two stars to align with the circles but that was it.

 

[swimswithtrout]

You rotate the star circles by the software slider, and in my case I had to slide it to the far right to get a match. It always matched up.

Yup almost to the far right end of the slider for my setup as well...


Do you have the gain and exposure turned up so you can see everything ? Don't expect them to be centered in the circles...as long as they anywhere in them, that's all you need.

 

[daveco2]

The stars were not in the center of the circles, half of them toward one edge. You may have a plate solving issue. Are you roughly aligned to Polaris before starting? You should see 5 distinct stars. Do they look sharp and focused? I sometimes had to adjust the view to see them all. Then rotate counterweight bar 45 deg around RA axis by releasing the clutch. You don’t have to use the motor.

 

[Saabster]

So,I have a Polemaster Qhyccp camera mounted to my Fornax Light Tracker. Last night in the Mojave Desert was my first chance to use it. When I got on station, everything went very well up the point where the POLEMASTER INSTRUCTIONS (on the computer screen) said to rotate the image to align the star pattern with five given circles. I rotated and rotated. Disconnected, reconnected and otherwise spent 3 hours trying to align the stars around Polaris with the Polemaster pattern. Nothing work so I did the honorable thing and gave with zero images.

Can I get some advice from people who have used the Polemaster camera system as to what mat have been wrong? I checked all my levels, angles and relevant settings. Thanks in advance for any advice. Tom

If you could not align the pattern then you were not pointing at polaris. this can happen.

I like to use a green laser pointer to ensure I have the mount in the vicinity of polaris. then I use pole master to finalize the alignment.

How were you rotating the mount? through the hand paddle/controller or by manually unlocking the clutches and rotating the mount in RA?

 

[Aaron@Utah]

So,I have a Polemaster Qhyccp camera mounted to my Fornax Light Tracker. Last night in the Mojave Desert was my first chance to use it. When I got on station, everything went very well up the point where the POLEMASTER INSTRUCTIONS (on the computer screen) said to rotate the image to align the star pattern with five given circles. I rotated and rotated. Disconnected, reconnected and otherwise spent 3 hours trying to align the stars around Polaris with the Polemaster pattern. Nothing work so I did the honorable thing and gave with zero images.

Can I get some advice from people who have used the Polemaster camera system as to what mat have been wrong? I checked all my levels, angles and relevant settings. Thanks in advance for any advice. Tom

seems like a dumb question but are you sure you were pointing at Polaris?
if there was no stars to align in the circles then that would be the cause

I use PM for all my polar alignments on several scopes and have never been able to get all the stars exactly in the center of the circles

you get them as close as possible and go on with the alignment

also make sure your PM is flat and square on the mount
I had this happen on one of my mounts and spent (wasted) some time trying to figure out why I could not get a good alignment and that was my issue

 

[Fotozone]

Thanks for all the comments. I have determined a couple of things 1) my tripod head is not stable (strong) enough for the mount weight 2) I was trying to use the pole master with my 400mm lens and camera on the ball head on the Fornax, probably too much weight and moving parts 3) I was rotating the polemaster arm the opposite direction of right ascension direction (may or may not be a problem)

I any case I have reworked my rig and plan on going out with new head, no weight other than ball head on the Fornax and try to calibrate on a known flat and level pavement. Hopefully, practice will make perfect and I will be able able to translate lessons learned to the rough unlevel area where I plan to do the astrophotography. The test area is a Bortle 4 and the final field area is a Bortle 2. Keeping my fingers crossed!! Tom

 

[Brueghel]

So,I have a Polemaster Qhyccp camera mounted to my Fornax Light Tracker. Last night in the Mojave Desert was my first chance to use it. When I got on station, everything went very well up the point where the POLEMASTER INSTRUCTIONS (on the computer screen) said to rotate the image to align the star pattern with five given circles. I rotated and rotated. Disconnected, reconnected and otherwise spent 3 hours trying to align the stars around Polaris with the Polemaster pattern. Nothing work so I did the honorable thing and gave with zero images.

Can I get some advice from people who have used the Polemaster camera system as to what mat have been wrong? I checked all my levels, angles and relevant settings. Thanks in advance for any advice. Tom

I agree with the last 2 answers. Happens to me once every 10 times may be.

First it happened it took me xx minutes to understand what was happening... I wont divulge the exact value of xx ! But it certainly was above 10 (and quite less than 60). Whatever, it got me really mad until I figured it out.

Sometimes the seeing is so bad that one is not really sure to have nailed Polaris. So when it happens I (like others apparently) use my pointer for 3 seconds to make sure I point in the right direction )))

 

[Ben Diss]

I find Sequence Guider Pro (SGP) to be much easier to use than the included Polemaster software. It's only a few dollars for SGP, but it plate solves and continually calculates the elevation and azimuth error as you're adjusting. No matching little circles to faint stars. Super simple to use.

 

[Brueghel]

I find Sequence Guider Pro (SGP) to be much easier to use than the included Polemaster software. It's only a few dollars for SGP, but it plate solves and continually calculates the elevation and azimuth error as you're adjusting. No matching little circles to faint stars. Super simple to use.

Sequence Generator Pro is not in the same league as the PM software. SGP can do many things while the PM software does just one. SGP seems to be THE standard for serious astrophotographers.

I dont know much about SGP. I did setup my PC for its use (Ascom etc). At home it seemed to work perfectly. Tried it one night out in the field and hated the experience on a 13" screen, (but that's personal.. ) it also crashed a number of times which is not welcome news when you have to drive a long way on those rare nights when there are no clouds or smoke or polar weather. If I had an observatory and a PC dedicated to astronomy, things may be different. But I dont.

But what I usually read is that people use Sharpcap to polar align with SGP. Have you found a way to polar align with SGP only ?

With PM, matching stars and little circles is not hard at all usually unless the seeing is real bad (can happen) or the star you think is Polaris is not Polaris.

Actually, 99% of the time, once you align one star and one little circle, the others are de facto aligned.

PS This person http://charlesduarteastrophotograph.../polemaster-and-sharpcap-polar-alignment.html mentions little circles and stars for Sharpcap too. He does not seem to say that Sharpcap is super easy to use

 

[Ben Diss]

I find Sequence Guider Pro (SGP) to be much easier to use than the included Polemaster software. It's only a few dollars for SGP, but it plate solves and continually calculates the elevation and azimuth error as you're adjusting. No matching little circles to faint stars. Super simple to use.

Sequence Generator Pro is not in the same league as the PM software. SGP can do many things while the PM software does just one. SGP seems to be THE standard for serious astrophotographers.

I dont know much about SGP. I did setup my PC for its use (Ascom etc). At home it seemed to work perfectly. Tried it one night out in the field and hated the experience on a 13" screen, (but that's personal.. ) it also crashed a number of times which is not welcome news when you have to drive a long way on those rare nights when there are no clouds or smoke or polar weather. If I had an observatory and a PC dedicated to astronomy, things may be different. But I dont.

But what I usually read is that people use Sharpcap to polar align with SGP. Have you found a way to polar align with SGP only ?

With PM, matching stars and little circles is not hard at all usually unless the seeing is real bad (can happen) or the star you think is Polaris is not Polaris.

Actually, 99% of the time, once you align one star and one little circle, the others are de facto aligned.

PS This person http://charlesduarteastrophotograph.../polemaster-and-sharpcap-polar-alignment.html mentions little circles and stars for Sharpcap too. He does not seem to say that Sharpcap is super easy to use

Argh. I typed that all wrong. I meant to say that I use SharpCap for polar aligning.

FYI, for imaging I'm a huge fan of NINA.

 

[Brueghel]

I find Sequence Guider Pro (SGP) to be much easier to use than the included Polemaster software. It's only a few dollars for SGP, but it plate solves and continually calculates the elevation and azimuth error as you're adjusting. No matching little circles to faint stars. Super simple to use.

Sequence Generator Pro is not in the same league as the PM software. SGP can do many things while the PM software does just one. SGP seems to be THE standard for serious astrophotographers.

I dont know much about SGP. I did setup my PC for its use (Ascom etc). At home it seemed to work perfectly. Tried it one night out in the field and hated the experience on a 13" screen, (but that's personal.. ) it also crashed a number of times which is not welcome news when you have to drive a long way on those rare nights when there are no clouds or smoke or polar weather. If I had an observatory and a PC dedicated to astronomy, things may be different. But I dont.

But what I usually read is that people use Sharpcap to polar align with SGP. Have you found a way to polar align with SGP only ?

With PM, matching stars and little circles is not hard at all usually unless the seeing is real bad (can happen) or the star you think is Polaris is not Polaris.

Actually, 99% of the time, once you align one star and one little circle, the others are de facto aligned.

PS This person http://charlesduarteastrophotograph.../polemaster-and-sharpcap-polar-alignment.html mentions little circles and stars for Sharpcap too. He does not seem to say that Sharpcap is super easy to use

Argh. I typed that all wrong. I meant to say that I use SharpCap for polar aligning.

FYI, for imaging I'm a huge fan of NINA.

)))

It happens.... (it has happened to me too...)

No problem

What I have heard of NINA is very positive. There are other alternatives like APT I think and the little thingy (BEOS) that I use and appreciate for its simplicity and stability. It does not interface well for plate solving but that's OK for me until I have my own observatory