Pole align max

[blinky]

Has anybody used this software? Looks pretty impressive but I have read the manual and am a bit confused (nothing new there I hear you all say!).......

Do I do a normal alignment with EQMod & Starry night then fire up PAM, or do I use PAM completely without a pointing model defined in EQMod?

How do I do a Sync on a star when it slews to it?

I had a look for tutorials on Pole Align Max but all google threw up was a question asked on here some time ago with no answer, so I thought I would try again:D

[moocher]

Can`t help with this software i`m afraid mate but have you tried alignmaster? Even an idiot such as myself can get this to work and work very well it does!!! Takes about 5 mins if that.....

Alan:D

[blinky]

I have alignmaster but always struggle to find suitable pairs of stars.

[SteveL]

I use PAM, I`ll do a longer post tomorrow when I am in the office again.

[syd_malicious]

Polealign has good and bad points.

Good

• free
  
• good support (Yahoo group)
  
• easy to use (when you have figured it out)
  
• good feedback about the changes in alt/az you need to make
  
• much quicker than drift aligning
  

Bad

• can be tricky to setup
  
• you need reliable plate solving
  
• you need the full version of Pinpoint
  
• is only calibrated for J2000
  
  • this really limits its usefulness
    
  • so it will give you the pole 10 years ago
    
  • there is a spreadsheet on the Yahoo group to help with the recalculation
    
  • I think the authors are working on an update for this
    

Overall it is very useful but I now use T-point because of the J2000 issue. However, for a quick alignment that puts you within a short distance of the pole it is very useful. So if I was setting up from fresh I would use this first and then move onto T-point to fine tune things.

Paul

[SteveL]

you need the full version of Pinpoint

Thats is incorrect, it works fine without the full version.

The Jnow/J2000 is the biggest issue with it, time to hassle in the FocusMax Yahoo group to see if we will ever get to see an update for this.

[blinky]

So..... it's not that accurate then?

[Ben Ritchie]

PoleAlignMax was stunning with my 1200GTO using CCDSoft and TheSky6 Pro. Very easy to get extremely good alignment, but the pointing accuracy and backlash-free adjustment of the mount's a limitation there too.

[SteveL]

Its certainly one of the best free options out there. Never used T-Point, so I cannot comment on that. PAM was good enough for me to get 15 minute subs without any field rotation on any of my current setups.

[blinky]

Ah, now that sounds good Steve!

[syd_malicious]

Thats is incorrect, it works fine without the full version.

Sorry was going off memory , thought it needed the full version.

As for t-point then this is "supposedly" very accurate as it measures the polar alignment using most of the sky whereas PAM uses a portion xx degrees across (depends the setting you use). However, polar alignment with T-point can be a bit of a faff with various correction factors to sort of guesstimate.

If I didn't have T-point I wouldn't buy it for the polar alignment capabilities, plus you need the Sky Professional to run it. But T-point is unbeatable for pointing correction (better than Maxpoint) and I can get repeatable pointing all over the sky to less than 30 arc seconds; every target is bang centered even after a meridian flip.

In your shoes I'd go with PAM but the J2000/JNOW issue limits it. You could always get it pretty accurate with PAM and then use another method (drift or one of the programs to do drift with a CCD) to refine the alignment.

Paul

[George]

PAM Tips