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Pole master on other scopes

SkyBound

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SkyBound

SkyBound

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Hi,

now this might be a really stupid question, can a pole master be used on an SCT wedge mounted, bearing in mind that the home start position for the scope is pointing with the forks and tube straight up at Polaris...Or better still the NCP ??

sorry if it is really stupid :(

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ChrisLX200

ChrisLX200

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It's not stupid, but probably not many have tried (I've never seen a suitable mounting bracket for sale). It will work fine if you can arrange for the camera to be attached to one of the fork arms and pointing parallel with the Polar axis. The offset from the RA axle won't matter.

ChrisH

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Davey-T

Davey-T

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Out of interest why do you start with the forks and tube pointing at Polaris ?

I start and park with the forks pointing North and the scope pointing South  0 Dec and get good PA  drift aligning.

Apart from the fact that I can't aim them both North as the camera hits the base.

Dave

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SkyBound

SkyBound

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2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Out of interest why do you start with the forks and tube pointing at Polaris ?

I start and park with the forks pointing North and the scope pointing South  0 Dec and get good PA  drift aligning.

Apart from the fact that I can't aim them both North as the camera hits the base.

Dave

I just do what the manual stated for my Meade wedge mounted scope

it says to point the scope and forks straight at the NCP, and centre by moving the wedge adjusters to centre, then do a easy align, it slews to first star and i centre and sync  then same on second star, and it works flawlessly, I don't park it as I have to take back in after each session.

the wedge only has to ba adjusted the once, as I have a pier with wedge left on all the time, so,the wedge is always then aligned.

surely if I was pointing the scope wrong the the stars would not be in the field of view on the align ?? And it is perfect each time.

and as I say it says this in the Meade manual..!!

i do it with an eyepiece in the diagonal, then after align change to my camera.

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SkyBound

SkyBound

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28 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

That gets the GoTo aligned but not PA accurately enough for imaging.

The easiest way to PA an SCT on a wedge is using the DARV  method, will be as accurate as Polemaster and cost nothing.

http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/articles/darv-drift-alignment-by-robert-vice-r2760

Dave

 Have looked at the link you sent, seems very good, and fairly simple, the problem I would have is that my DEC is at "0" when it is pointed at the NCP straight up, to align, so would I have to alter that...? As when pointing due south it would not be on "0"

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Davey-T

Davey-T

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24 minutes ago, SkyBound said:

 Have looked at the link you sent, seems very good, and fairly simple, the problem I would have is that my DEC is at "0" when it is pointed at the NCP straight up, to align, so would I have to alter that...? As when pointing due south it would not be on "0"

Dec should be at 90.00 ish when pointing at Polaris.

Dave

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SkyBound

SkyBound

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1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

That gets the GoTo aligned but not PA accurately enough for imaging.

The easiest way to PA an SCT on a wedge is using the DARV  method, will be as accurate as Polemaster and cost nothing.

http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/articles/darv-drift-alignment-by-robert-vice-r2760

Dave

 Have looked at the link you sent, seems very good, and fairly simple, the problem I would have is that my DEC is at "0" when it is pointed at the NCP straight up, to align, so would I have to alter that...? As when pointing due south it would not be on "0"

 

1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

Dec should be at 90.00 ish when pointing at Polaris.

Dave

Hi,

sorry my mistake yes I just checked my mistake it is at 90 when pointed at NCP.. :)

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Squiddy

Squiddy

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I use the Polemaster with my CGE mount. There is no adapter plate available for this mount so I had to do one of my own. I'm sure there is a way to fit a polemaster on your mount. If you can tell us what mount/telescope you're using, we might come up with some bright idees :-)

Getting the Polemaster was one of my best investments as I never could figure out the secrets of drift alignment to. When I got the Polemaster it took me 15 min to get a good enough polar alignment.

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SkyBound

SkyBound

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1 minute ago, Squiddy said:

I use the Polemaster with my CGE mount. There is no adapter plate available for this mount so I had to do one of my own. I'm sure there is a way to fit a polemaster on your mount. If you can tell us what mount/telescope you're using, we might come up with some bright idees :-)

Getting the Polemaster was one of my best investments as I never could figure out the secrets of drift alignment to. When I got the Polemaster it took me 15 min to get a good enough polar alignment.

Hi,

i have an 8" Meade SCT, I thought that the polemaster went into the eyepiece, that's why I wondered if it would work, but now imrealise it is a stand alone camera... so not so sure anymore, maybe it would be better to fix to the wedge and align that accurately and then the scope would be aligned when fitted...??!, would that work as an idea ??

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SkyBound

SkyBound

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10 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Dec should be at 90.00 ish when pointing at Polaris.

Dave

Could the back flat surface of the polemaster camera,  be fixed to the angled plate of the wedge and align the wedge with the NCP, then when the scope is fitted it will be already aligned..?

do you think that would work ??

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Davey-T

Davey-T

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1 hour ago, SkyBound said:

Could the back flat surface of the polemaster camera,  be fixed to the angled plate of the wedge and align the wedge with the NCP, then when the scope is fitted it will be already aligned..?

do you think that would work ??

I don't think the wedge is that accurate, be better mounted like a finder scope I think but on one of the fork arms

If you do try the DARV method don't use a star that's about to cross the meridian, it'll confuse the issue if it goes from climbing to falling, best choose one just past merian then it gives you a bit of time.

Dave

Couple of pictures of a mounting bracket I made from 4 angle brackets from Wickes, used to extra weight but could mount anything on it.

Wedge-bracket.png

Wedge-bracket-2.png

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SkyBound

SkyBound

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2 hours ago, Squiddy said:

You don't put it on the wedge, you put on top of the the RA axis. This makes the camera point towards polaris and can be turned around it's own axis when moving the RA axis.

 

No, I know it is not supposed to go on the wedge, I was just putting an idea out there to use on an SCT wedge mounted that's all.. :)

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