PoleMaster Problems??

[Kunama]

Hello Fernando,
Once you have installed everything and turned on the camera, point it at a bright star and watch your computer screen. You may see a few hot pixels.
if the stars aren't in focus you will need to adjust the focus. We just handheld the camera while pointing it at Sirius to focus it. Once your focus is close you can refit it to the mount and fine tune the focus.

There is a small grub screw on the side of the lens part, loosen this with the allen key provided with the Polemaster and turn the knurled rings around the lens counterclockwise if looking at the lens from the front. We needed at least ten full rotations to get the focus correct.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by issdaol

Happy New Year All ! :-)

So a quick update.......Cloud Free Nights showed that it was going to be a clear night last night so Matt and I went out to test the focus theory with a borrowed Mac Book Air (thanks Jen ! :-) )

Connected up ok and loosened of the grub screw changed focus a fair bit and no improvement.....all we were seeing were hot pixels.

However Matt continued to adjust the focus and then a very blurred image showed up.....the focus was so far off that it was virtually at the extreme end of adjustment !!

Finally got a good clear image and immediately Octans was clearly & easily identifiable !! :-)

Locked down the focus and followed the Polemaster instructions....it was very easy and quick to complete both the rough and fine polar alignments :-)

Fired up the mount and synced on a star and away we went.......big difference from then on.....

All GOTO's were centre of field (using Tak EM400 and SkyFi with SkySafari 5) and I could walk away to look through Matts Big Dob and come back 15-20 minutes later and they were still centre of field :-)

So all is good and the PoleMaster worked very well....

Only thing of note is that we could not believe how far out the Focus was.......supposedly they are focused at the Factory then shipped out??

Given the way the focus is locked down and the packing its hard to see how this could have been so far out?? unless they are not focused at the factory at all or mine way one that was missed.....

But now haps yo say the PoleMaster is Highly Recommended as it does the job as advertised (in fact easier than the instructions imply).

Also support from Theo locally was excellent so recommended to buy from him in Melbourne and thanks to other IIS members for all the help and suggestions along the way ! :-)

Ah I'm glad it's sorted out, and OOF camera duly noted for when I get a qhy polemaster in the semi distant future.

Dave

[Fernando]

Originally Posted by Kunama

Hello Fernando,
Once you have installed everything and turned on the camera, point it at a bright star and watch your computer screen. You may see a few hot pixels.
if the stars aren't in focus you will need to adjust the focus. We just handheld the camera while pointing it at Sirius to focus it. Once your focus is close you can refit it to the mount and fine tune the focus.

There is a small grub screw on the side of the lens part, loosen this with the allen key provided with the Polemaster and turn the knurled rings around the lens counterclockwise if looking at the lens from the front. We needed at least ten full rotations to get the focus correct.

Thanks Matt. I will follow your instructions (depending on the sky conditions...)

Regards, Fernando