Best £10 I ever spent

[Anthonyexmouth]

Went out last night with my new ed80 and guide scope with its asi120 mono. Had sharpcap for a week now but first time I could use the polar align tool. Wow, if anyone has a camera that works with sharpcap and isn't paying for the full version to use the polar tool must be nuts. It seemed too easy to get an "excellent" result. 

[groberts]

Sounds too good to be true!  PA is my nemesis, in particular as I have no view of the north sky or Polaris from my main set-up location. As a matter of interest, does the Sharpcap polar align tool require a view of Polaris or will it work looking south?

Graham

  

[MarsG76]

Unless your mount has a built in polar alignment feature, like celestrons ASPA... that actually works very well.

 

[billyharris72]

I've struggled a bit with this feature (I think it's probably an issue with flexture in my tube rings when I rotate the scope arounid the RA axis) but totally agree that it's a great idea and a steal at the price. The live stacking feature with dark subtraction (which I think is also paid for) is no slouch either.

Billy.

[tooth_dr]

Funny I ran this last night and agree it’s an excellent feature and the reason I paid £10 too

[tooth_dr]

When I read the thread title I did laugh. I think this might be the best £10 I ever spent, it was just delivered this morning (£10 all in).

 

[John78]

It's a breath of fresh air compared to traditional techniques!

[newbie alert]

5 hours ago, groberts said:

Sounds too good to be true!  PA is my nemesis, in particular as I have no view of the north sky or Polaris from my main set-up location. As a matter of interest, does the Sharpcap polar align tool require a view of Polaris or will it work looking south?

Graham

  

Sharpcap polar align tool is excellent but not perfect, or as good as you're going to get sky conditions wise.

Sounds like the drift tool in phd2 is what you're after..now that does get the numbers down..

 

 

[Anthonyexmouth]

2 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Sharpcap polar align tool is excellent but not perfect, or as good as you're going to get sky conditions wise.

Sounds like the drift tool in phd2 is what you're after..now that does get the numbers down..

 

i've seen people do tests on youtube and say its as good as drift aligning in phd. how much better is phd drift align? my guiding last night, and im no expert on the guiding lingo, was graphing at max 2 pixels. but generally within 1 pixel. 

[newbie alert]

I use various polar aligning tools,polemaster,sharpcap.phd..and for me phd drift tool is the best..i find sharpcap better than polemaster..and I find sharpcap differs on which side I rotate at the second solve stage(prob cone error).. don't get me wrong sharpcap is excellent  and highly recommend it but if I have the time and really want to get those RA and DEC figures down then the drift align tool does a fantastic job..

NB..id change the format from pixels to arc mins in settings..

Try it and see..i found it really easy to use

[Anthonyexmouth]

what kinda figures should i be aiming for in arc seconds?

[newbie alert]

Really depends on your mount,where you're pointing in the sky..conditions( wind etc) but myself personally I aim below 1 arc min.. my best after doing the phd drift is .69 but on the whole I'm happy under a arc min

[Atreta]

7 hours ago, groberts said:

Sounds too good to be true!  PA is my nemesis, in particular as I have no view of the north sky or Polaris from my main set-up location. As a matter of interest, does the Sharpcap polar align tool require a view of Polaris or will it work looking south?

Graham

  

It is that good, i used to struggle with polar alignment before sharpcap and now it's much easier. But you need to have a view from the north to br able to use it, the site says about 5 degrees difference is ok for it to solve, but to me it works best with about 2 or 3  degrees off. 

Another thing i did to get  faster alignment was to mark on the ground the spots where the tripod stands, so every night i can place it on the same place. It gets me with less than 10'  error.

Also there is a site that may be good fir you since you don't have a north view, it shows a one star drift alignment. 

http://www.astrotarp.com/drift_method.htm

 

[Anthonyexmouth]

I made some small indentations in my deck, tripod slots into place even if i cant see the marks.