+RonC Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Did a firmware update yesterday, following the Astronomy Shed video. No problem at all (remembered to hold the right keys down when I powered up!) and was keen to test the new polar alignment settings. When it was dark enough, I switched on the goto, entered my data and did a 3 star alignment, which was problematic due to wisps of high cloud near Altair but suceeded OK. I then did an extra alignment on 2 more stars before trying the polar align setup. I chose Dubne and centred it with an illuminated 5mm ep, then pressed enter twice and it looked way off! I adjusted the alt. and azi. bolts to centre it again, all ok but when I checked my next 2 goto objects it was miles off! I then did a traditional manual polar alignment (using Polar Finder) which took about 10 minutes as it was so far off! Set up again and did a 2 star alignment and again did a 3 object re-alignment to be sure I was as near to polar aligned as I could be. Not deterred I tried the polar alignment and chose Alioth as my star, aligned again as before and this time it was only 2-3' off, I moved the alt/azi bolts (only a fraction!) and realignment it using the 5mm illuminated ep and pressed enter. I looked at 8 different objects/stars and they were all centre of the ep after that! The check test will be tonight (cloud permitting!) th see how a new set up works and how accurate it is? I will let you know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teslar Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Any news? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kheldar Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 (edited) I'm confused as to why you star aligned it before polar aligning it ... is that what the instructions say to do? Standard procedure would suggest polar align (through handset) then star align (as you would with a manual polar align.) Edited August 29, 2012 by Kheldar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted August 29, 2012 Author Share Posted August 29, 2012 Instructions say to 2-3 star align first, I also check alignment with 2 others after to get it precise THEN polar align using the handset. So far so good, adjusted the azi bolts 1/2 a turn that was all I needed! Still need a few night good viewing to be certain it's spot on though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kheldar Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Instructions say to 2-3 star align first, I also check alignment with 2 others after to get it precise THEN polar align using the handset. So far so good, adjusted the azi bolts 1/2 a turn that was all I needed! Still need a few night good viewing to be certain it's spot on though! Thanks for the info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Yup - I seem to remember the suggestion of a rough pre-align in the text first. I think it's to get in the approximate area before fine tuning the set up to get it spot on polar aligned. IIRC there's a final re-align after all that's done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Confused, what is the point of the polar align upgrade, if you have to polar align the old fashioned way first? Sheila Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glider Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 @Sheila, it's a really rough align, basically point north! It just gives the new software a fighting chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Ah OK, thanks Sheila Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AstronomyShed Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 You do a 2 or 3 star align first because the software uses a single star to polar align. So, When you do the two star align for example, when you center, the software is taking note of how far out it was and remembering the adjustments needed, then when you do the polar align, it calculates those previous centerings into the equation to tell you how far out you are, in effect it's doing a triangulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red dwalf Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 on the website there`s also a 3.30 version. is it newer version a great improvement over the 3.27 version, be nice if the handset could remember the time and date settings without having to put them in every time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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