Qhyccd Polemaster

[vlazg (George)]

Sounds good but i understand it is only good above 30deg latitude although did i read somewhere that for those of us closer to the equator, 12.5 degS, they will be adjusting the software for lower latitudes?

[skysailor (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Eden

This is true, Ken... but using the built-in polarscope is difficult to impossible from the suburbs, depending on light pollution. The resolution provided by the camera also trumps what you could expect from looking through the supplied polarscope.

Yep - I totally agree - my view to the South includes my street light which could have been used as a searchlight during the London blitz considering the light it puts out
cheers

[RobF (Rob)]

It would be interesting to hear a comparison between those using a camera on their polarscope versus the polemaster. Presumably the polar scope would have to be very well aligned and camera mounting nice and straight to get the same accuracy.

The polarmaster camera has a decent lens/magnification to make this work?

[DJT (David)]

Originally Posted by beren

....I'm going to try it with my teegul sky patrol and see if it works

Did you get a chance to give this a go? Would be great for the portable setup.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

From what I've seen the "reticule" for the QHY PoleMaster shows the four brighter Octan's star pattern (sigma/chi/ tau/ Ups Octans) whereas the SW polar scope reticule shows Sigma/ CG Oct/Chi/ Tau configuration.
CG Oct is a 6.55mag star close to sigma - easily visible in the polar scope and/ or finder.

[beren]

Yep thank goodness for CG oct, its my signpost for getting sigma octanis right in my polarscope the overlay template in the polemaster software yes show s the four brighter stars plus BQ oct {mag 6.86} and two other stars that are easily visible through the polemaster.

On my second go with the polemaster I did an alignment with my mounts polar scope {Tak EM-200} and then checked with the polemaster. It was pretty close with only small corrections to be made with the mounts altitude and azimuth movements.

Haven't tried yet with the teegul, got to figure somehow to mount it might be a weekend project and a trip to bunnings .

[astrobin (Robin)]

Originally Posted by Eden

Excellent news, Gary. I found it was easier to do on second and subsequent attempts and apart from a couple of minor bugs in the software, the results are more accurate (and quicker) than what the Synscan alignment is able to provide.

Good to see that it'll work on the G11, too. Maybe QHY will consider making an adaptor available for that mount.

Eden, the G11 adapter is available now. I got mine from Cyclops Optics.

[GaryPlum (Gary)]

After too much imaging time wasted after poor polar alignment and subsequent difficulty with phd2 calibration I've pulled the pin and ordered one; shipping now.
I'm in the southern hemisphere and have a mobile rig. Taking it to Tassie for a month in December too so I don't want to be wasting time there!
Found this excellent demonstration video by AstroNZ on Youtube for us southern hemisphere folks. Will write my findings when I give mine a run after the next New Moon (clouds depending of course, it's been a lousy winter).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_LgUFZLqIM

[VPAstro (Andrew and Cam)]

I got mine last Thursday, for my 51st Birthday. It took me less than 5 minutes to get a correct polar alignment, then a two star alignment, and I was off and imaging. It was great! I usually spend up to 1 hour aligning. I set up and pull down every time I image, and have placed marks on the ground to aid the placement of the tripod. However, over the last year or so, I have found that new street lights have been causing issues. I was too scared to move the location of the mount, because I new it was going to be a pain to align it again. On Saturday night, I took the plunge and moved it back, so that a brick wall would block the street light. Polemaster had me aligned and setup again in less than 5 minutes. I am very impressed with this.
Andrew...

[LaughingBeagles (Peter)]

My apologies for necroing this thread but I it is still very relevant to all of us newbies.

I have a polemaster and find it tricky to use. I think I will have to try the plate solve - I live north of Perth so when facing south to polar align I have to contend with city lights. I can make out the stars but blowed if I can work out which of the combo is to suit the overlay. Driving me nuts to be honest.

I know it must be so, so close (I do a manual alignment using aluminum bar, compass set to -1.7deg dec for true south, 31 deg lat for Ocean Reef) so I know I am peering up into the ball park but just cannot find the star to kick things off.

I keep clicking on one and slowly moving the template around, but alas..

Any hints?

Pete

[Nikolas (Nik)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_LgUFZLqIM

A very useful video for southern skies

[beren]

I keep clicking on one and slowly moving the template around, but alas..

Any hints?

Try unlocking your RA lock and slowly move it while watching your computer screen and see if the stars rotate around the centre of the live feed. This should give you an idea if you are close with your initial compass/dec adjustment. If you need a hand I'd be happy to run through it with you, I'm only a suburb away in Perth

[Kunama]

Check the camera focus, if it is out of focus you won't see the pattern and will most likely just see hot pixels.....

Phils Polemaster needed several full turn of the lens to get it to actually show stars instead of hot pixies

[LaughingBeagles (Peter)]

Some great advice and will do..

[LaughingBeagles (Peter)]

Ok, gave it another go and while I felt like I knew what I was doing more than before, I still had no joy.

Steps
1. I watched the YouTube video from NZ (excellent explanation)
2. Set up a sensor and telescope in Stellarium to emulate the pole master.
3. Wound the clock forward to when I would be looking at the night sky. This was particularly useful for giving me a hint as to what I would be looking at:

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w.../Polmaster.png

4. Set up the polmaster ensuring I had the USB to the right (seems to be the way to go in the SH according to most websites).

5. The following is the best shot I could do. To be honest, I was reluctant to fiddle with the focus in case I buggered it up. Not surprisingly, plate solving failed:

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w.../Misc/test.png

Yes, there are stars there if you look closely. Facing Perth from the North to the South I think doesn't help!

This is the driveway of my house by the way. If there was no EP, the Milkyway would pretty much climb up my drive.

Beren, I might call on your help mate. If that's not too much trouble?

Pete

[mountainjoo (Jerome)]

The first step in setup allows you to adjust the exposure settings of the polemaster (duration and gain). Have you tried adjusting these settings? Judging by the image you posted it looks like you should try increasing the exposure duration (if you haven't already). I am situated just north of Sydney and have no issues using the polemaster facing south. I suspect it is unlikely that this is the source of the problem.

I hope you can get it sorted, it's a great little tool that really does make polar alignment trivial.

[issdaol (Phil)]

Originally Posted by LaughingBeagles

Ok, gave it another go and while I felt like I knew what I was doing more than before, I still had no joy.

Steps
1. I watched the YouTube video from NZ (excellent explanation)
2. Set up a sensor and telescope in Stellarium to emulate the pole master.
3. Wound the clock forward to when I would be looking at the night sky. This was particularly useful for giving me a hint as to what I would be looking at:

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w.../Polmaster.png

4. Set up the polmaster ensuring I had the USB to the right (seems to be the way to go in the SH according to most websites).

5. The following is the best shot I could do. To be honest, I was reluctant to fiddle with the focus in case I buggered it up. Not surprisingly, plate solving failed:

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w.../Misc/test.png

Yes, there are stars there if you look closely. Facing Perth from the North to the South I think doesn't help!

This is the driveway of my house by the way. If there was no EP, the Milkyway would pretty much climb up my drive.

Beren, I might call on your help mate. If that's not too much trouble?

Pete

Hi Pete,

This sounds like the exact problem I had with mine to start with..........

Problem is that the focus for some units shipped is so far out of focus that you are only seeing warm pixels......that you initially think are stars.

Once the focus is set you will see a whole pile of stars very easily.

Also if you are using a Mac Book with retina you either need to use a non retina MacBook or change the App setting to run in standard resolution mode. This will then change the template scale to be correct.

Cheers
Phil

[Kunama]

Peter, point the camera at Jupiter or Sirius and focus the camera on them first.
once you do get it focused the polar alignment patterns will be very obvious.
From memory I had to rotate the lens on Phil's camera counterclockwise at least 8 full turns to get focus.
I think there was a grub screw to loosen before rotating the lens.....

[LaughingBeagles (Peter)]

Ok, I think I might be getting somewhere. I bet none of you had your polemaster rattle when you first got it?

Mind did. After screwing off the hard metal outer cover, I noticed the lens had screwed lose - probably in transit.

Anyway, tightened off now so will give it another go tonight and will grab focus off a bright star as suggested should the tightening have failed to do anything.

Oh, and yes, that image was with adjusted gain. To be honest, with a loose lens, God knows what it's showing!

Will keep you posted and Beren, you are still more than welcome to pop over if you would like to (but happy to give this a crack first to save you the trip if you would rather stay home ).

Pete

[beren]

Pete I'm back in Perth Friday ( working in remote outback NT), pretty sure Matt and Phil have it correct with their advice. If your still having problems PM your contact details and I'll get in touch