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hi everyone, been here for a while now and it's been great inching forward in learning this hobby! I've recently bought myself a Star Adventurer GTi mount and have been using it for a while. however, it;s been pretty difficult (as a consequence of being a beginner) to polar align my telescope, as every time i tell it to go to an object it always seems to be a little "off". anyone got any tips for me? i'm using the polar scope align pro app as I can't see polaris from my house. thanks in advance! |
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| I have the same problem with my sky watcher 35 Eq that I bought recently. I have a a asiair ordered and I will see if it does better than the hand held syn scan. |
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I you could do two things. first I would point the mount as closely to the polestar as you can with you phone compass or other tools and dial in the declination from the area you're in. you can research that. Then go through the 3 Star alignment in the synscan app. Once you've done that you can start polar alignment on a star, the synscan app will tell you what to do. that worked pretty well. You can also go via the ZWO asi air to do an all sky polar alignment, that works fairly well too. The important thing is that you do the setup of the scope step by step and don't skip one. then it should work pretty well. the Coordinates are very important as well. If that doesn't work at all I'd highly suggest you getting the asi air or hook it up to a laptop to plateslove, so if it is off, it will recognize that and correct itself until it is spot on. I struggled as well in the beginning but with a bit of patience I got it to work with the GTI. |
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If you can connect a laptop, I would recommend using three point polar alignment. You don’t need to see Polaris for that, and you can get pretty precise. You would need a plate solving software (eg ASTAP) and software to control the GTi and your camera, that also does TPPA (eg NINA or APT). This approach has a bit of a learning curve, though. Of course you then already have everything in place for the next step in your journey, automating your imaging sessions. |
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| Living in the southern hemisphere, i gave up on the polar scope. Instead, i use an ASIAIR. Alternatively, you can order an attachment to fit a Polemaster if you have one. Both options will give you an accurate polar alignment within 5 minutes. There are other solutions as well, such as NINA. Good luck with it. |
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| I only have experience in the northern hemisphere, the standard Synscan app does work though. don't feel pressured to spend more money (for now ;) ) |
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I've only polar aligned twice with the built-in polar scope when I initially received my SA GTI mount. I didn't have any significant issues but I soon purchased my Asiair mini and have been very happy with the PA that I'm getting. I decided on the Asiair for the guiding and dithering function but a side benefit was the polar alignment function. Clear skies |
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I have the same mount and it was a challenge to use the Synscan Pro app. I have perfect visual polar alignment, the I would go to an object and it would slew to another location. After dealing with it for a while, I decided to get the ZWO ASIAIR Plus. Never had any other issues. Hope that this helps As others have mentioned using other platforms maybe the way to go. Unless someone has cracked the code on using the Synscan Pro. |
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Jens: I second this, as well as many other people have said. The asi Air is just a very easy and convenient platform for everything, and I find my polar alignments to be spot on every time. I do however have one tip for you regarding the accuracy of the GTI's go to: I find that if you do your 3 star alignment near the area where your object of interest is, (ex. West) then it will be more accurate than if you align some other direction away from your target (ex. North or south). Sometimes I found that a one star alignment with a star right next to the target was better than a 3 star alignment of 3 bright stars spread out over the entire sky. Hope this helps! CS. |
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If all else fails, there is always the brute force drift align method. Works great when the pole is obstructed. https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/darv-drift-alignment-by-robert-vice-r2760 |
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I was never happy with my Star Adventurer GTI mount initially and I resisted using the ASIAIR (not sure why). I finally gave up and got the ASIAIR and it makes using the GTI pretty easy. The polar alignment process through the ASIAIR is the easiest I have ever done and when it misses going to a specific target, it just plate solves and centers. I know it almost seems like cheating but it makes the whole thing much more enjoyable. My 15 year old now has his own SA GTI and ASIAIR and aligns and hits target right beside us. He wasn't even interested watching me monkey around before. |
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| If you do not have pole star visibility, you can get extremely precise polar alignment using the PHD2 drift align routine. A faster alternative is the N.I.N.A. three point polar alignment routine, that leads to very good alignment as well. |
