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Post by davy on Dec 4, 2016 20:16:15 GMT
www.alignmaster.deThis is a cracking bit of software that I wasn't aware of.. Another cracking tutorial from Dion at astronomyshed.
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Post by ChrisV on Dec 5, 2016 1:26:18 GMT
That's great Davy. Might be easier to use than the polar align on the celestron hand controller. You can use a bigger range of stars and you set the alt/az separately.
Also I might be able to ditch the handcontroller now as polar aligning is all i use it for !
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Post by Dragon Man on Dec 5, 2016 12:17:20 GMT
UGH! Only for EQmod users.
I had a read through all the comments under the You Tube tutorial video and couldn't find a positive comment. Seems it's not really a great piece of software. But it's cheap enough to give it a try (well, for EQmod users anyway).
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Post by howie1 on Dec 5, 2016 12:27:16 GMT
If your aim is to totally ditch the Hand Control, then for cheap bucks that works well. Of course if you are observing visually you'll need to buy a laptop But those of us into EAA, if you are just looking for some 'better' or faster way to PA and not have to use the polar scope, then the process outlined in the video is exactly what most hand control built-in PA routines do. But not many people know how to use the PA routine properly. The Skywatcher PA routine does exactly the same as the alignmaster software. It centres, then slews a tad off one of your alignment stars and asks you to correct / centre using first the ALT bolt, and then the AZ bolt. Been a while since I used my CGEM but I'm pretty sure it did the same. The reason many ignore the built in hand control routines is they totally forget (or dont know) how to use it. You MUST do another two star alignment AFTER adjusting the ALT and AZ bolts. Think about it .... 1. The first two star alignment accurately maps the Heavens even though the polar axis may still be off. In its brain it knows object A is exactly X degrees in RA and Y degrees in DEC around the RA and DEC axle's located in the mount head. 2. Then when you do the PA routine, you adjust the ALT and AZ bolts. So you are slightly changing the direction the mount is pointing. IE changing where the RA and DEC axle's in the mount head are pointing ... and so the map of the Heavens is now inaccurate. It will still rotate the correct exact degree's in RA and DEC around those axle's, but the axle's have been moved by adjusting those pesky ALT and AZ bolts, and so it no longer points as accurately to the objects. 3. So you MUST do another two star alignment AFTER doing the PA routine, which resets the map of the Heavens to once again correctly point at objects using the now polar aligned directions of the axle's in the mount. Cheers
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Post by davy on Dec 5, 2016 13:10:56 GMT
UGH! Only for EQmod users. I had a read through all the comments under the You Tube tutorial video and couldn't find a positive comment. Seems it's not really a great piece of software. But it's cheap enough to give it a try (well, for EQmod users anyway). Yip it's peanuts for the bit of software,,, certainly a lot cheaper than the polemaster
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Post by fondofchips on Dec 5, 2016 17:53:07 GMT
It gave me 2 stars below the horizon and insisted that I could see them. 'Uninstall' was the cure for that!
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Post by Dragon Man on Dec 6, 2016 11:17:12 GMT
It gave me 2 stars below the horizon and insisted that I could see them. 'Uninstall' was the cure for that! But gee Harry, they were probably nice stars
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