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One word of caution, if you are too far off pole, wacky things will happen. To avoid this, I use a compass and take into account the magnetic offset to the pole. That way, I’m pretty close before I begin. Anything less than 5 degrees has worked well for me. Over 10 degrees and stuff just doesn’t seem to make sense. I line up on the pole and lay a piece of wood or alloy channel on the ground pointing to the pole before I move any big steel bits nearby. I can’t trust the compass once everything is around me. I then set up over the stick being careful not to bump it, and remove the wood after setup. From here, I check my GPS and set my alt angle with my tablet. Now you’re ready for twilight, just as you see the first stars visually. Pempro will lock on stars at this point, and you have a good starting position.
If you have a look in the manual, Roland (Mr. AP) uses the daytime alignment technique, and fine tunes with Pem Pro. Before PemPro, it was hard. Tried all the stuff everyone mentions in the forums. This method has worked for me. I think the main reason is knowing how to translate the graduations on the adjustment knobs to how far PemPro reports you are off pole. I tried it with a Vixen GPDP and it drove me nuts. Did not know how far to turn the Alt / Azimuth adjustments. I was always wrong and it was truly just a guess. Frustration would be an understatement. With the AP Mount, that all changed. It’s almost like it was made for it.
Terry
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