Software to help polar align a Tal-2 Mount

[rawhead]

I am looking for some software to help me polar align using a webcam (740K)

A quick Google came up with WCS (http://wcs.ruthner.at/index-en.php)

Any other recommendations? The less technical the better…….

Cheers

Jon

[Reggie]

Pretty much any software that can overlay a crosshair/grid on the webcam image(PHD,WXAstrocapture etc.) and a decent drift alignment tutorial. http://www.petesastrophotography.com/ Look down the list in the sidebar and click on 'polar alignment' It does a really good job of describing drift alignment and it also has a simulator so you can practise drift aligning until you're comfortable doing it with the scope.

[ottUp]

WCS works well, but with a limited number of cameras (all webcam-types). If you have the right camera it's a great choice.

PEMPRO is great software for measuring and tuning periodic error. It's not free but if you have it anyway, it contains a polar alignment routine that I find excellent - I prefer it to WCS. It will drive pretty much any camera - but that's a little unfair to say, since it does so by connecting to either CCDSoft or MaximDL and lets them do it - and those packages are not free either. PEMPRO + Maxim will cost you more than a WCS-compatible camera so, financially, WCS is cheaper. But if you already have CCDSoft or Maxim, I would highly recommend the PEMPRO route.

PoleAlignMax is a similar story - requires that you have CCDSoft or Maxim, then uses their built-in plate solving ability to guide you to a very precise polar alignment.

[themos]

I used Astrosnap Lite last night. It's free but the user interface is not great. I'll try it again once I've read the manual carefully.

http://www.astrosnap.com/soft/astrosnapv13f2.zip

[rawhead]

Thanks for the info guys Just downloaded Astrosnap, will check out later..

Reggie: I read the tutorial ( ) Step 3 says you must align the reticle. Easy if you are using an EP, not sure how I canachievethis with WXastro (which I already use) Am I missing something?

Thanks again

Jon

[Reggie]

Hi Rawhead, you are indeed missing something No matter, we'll have you sorted in a mo just rotate your webcam until it your target star moves horizontally/vertically according to the reticle that wxastrocapture overlays on the image.

To get the reticle to show in wxastrocapture make sure you are on the 'record' tab and just below the video device 'properties' button you will see a tick box, click on it and and you will now see the reticle overlayed on the screen.

To align the target star and camera with the reticle simply use the dec buttons to slowly move the star in both directions up/down noting the angle that it moves across your screen according to the reticle, then simply turn your webcam that number of degrees and you should be sorted. If you turn the webcam the wrong way, just try again turning the cam the other way this time.

[rawhead]

Doh :oops:

Turn the webcam !!! :?

What a plonka :mrgreen:

Thanks Reggie

[themos]

Astrosnap calculates a rotated reticle automatically. It tells you to turn off the sidereal tracking and then follows the star as it drifts westwards. A single button press recentres the reticle on the star whenever you want.

[Reggie]

thats a nice function themos, PHD does something similar, it will calibrate itself for you but doesn't rotate the reticle as it's only purpose is autoguiding.

[themos]

If you enter the correct parameters for your optics ( focal length, barlows, reducers) it will annotate the reticle (I like the concentric circles) with arc-minute gradations. Once you know how much your alignment is off by (the software tells you), you could calculate the angle correction at the target star declination (I'm not sure if the software does that for you) and use the reticle to do the correction. Since I have an EQ1 with a motor but no hand controller and a continuously variable rate, the software also tells me how close my tracking speed is to sidereal (e.g. 14.8 arc-secs per second).