I’m a self confessed Polar Alignment nuff nuff. Only after considerable effort with my semi permanent set-up do I get really good polar alignment. My inability to readily achieve polar alignment limits the times I would consider taking my rig to a dark sky site, as I would usually spend far too much time trying to polar align.
Having tried a few previous trick and tools including EQAlign, AlignMaster, Drift Alignment and the PHD2 Alignment tool, my better half presented me (after my suggestion) with a PoleMaster for my recent 50th.
Having only used the device once, I can’t believe how easy it was to achieve the best alignment I have ever achieved, all in under 20 minutes from unboxing, software installation to completion.
I’m actually looking forward to practicing polar alignment on my travel rig, and I’ve just ordered the new adapter from Cyclops Optics to use PoleMaster with a Polarie. I think a very good polar alignment with this device in 5~10 minutes is easily achievable.
I haven’t yet looked at the refraction correction in great detail, but the device is simple to install and use. Once the software is used once, it is also very intuitive and easy to use, and no doubt the software is calibrated to the field of view of the camera.
I'm not sure how to exactly calculate my residual polar alignment error, but whilst guiding with MaxIM DL @ 432mm fl, my 2 second corrections in X and Y are around 0.01 to 0.1 .... whatever that means
Overall, one of my best Astro purchases to-date .... and there's been lot of them
