nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

My daddy always said, "fool and money soon part." well ....too true at least in my case. I just ordered this for polar alignment:
http://www.qhyccd.com/PoleMaster.html
I have been using Alignmaster software and that works great. But I hate to get down on my knees fiddling with polar scope.
I will let you know how it works.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Looks cool. I will be waiting to hear how it works.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Yes Ed, I too will be very interested to hear if it works as described.
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Shucks, I have to Bendover anyway when an alignment star is up near vertickel anyway.
That's why I'm leaning towards getting my PHD display and telescope as close to par aim-point as possible.
They're really close as it is. But there is nothing as close as my eyeball in the illuminated eyepiece.
So bendovering for my polar scope check is just another of my PITA.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I cheat...and choose another alignment star closer between 20 and 40 degrees alt. I boot up Stellarium or Sky Safari, or Starry Nights and select the alignment stars i am going to use before hand....as I have limited sky opportunities.

skylane5sp Loc: Puyallup, WA

But at your latitude you don't have to bendover as far as I do...

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Because I either use Backroom EOS for Nikon or APT (both have live view) and I either use a Rigel Quickfinder or a Finder with an angle eyepiece I try my best not to get too contorted - once there I may stay there at my age. But you are right, 34.52 is a pretty forgiving lat.

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

I'm curious, anything that can help do something is a plus in my book.

skylane5sp Loc: Puyallup, WA

Did you mean BackYARD Nikon? If so, how do you like it?

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Well, that's not cheating.
But when it wants to offer up Hamel, and my telescope goes to 12 O'clock High (of late), I no like it. :(
So I will use the Undo button to get around to something I do like. Like Rigel, Capella, or Sirius, or Be-tell-juice as Stellarium pronounces it. :lol:

But the Bendovers are a PITA.
So I like having things connected to my compooter. ;)

So does that Polar Aligner tie into your computer?

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Yessir, Backyard EOS for Nikon is the real deal. Awesome software!

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I bought Alignmaster when I first started imaging.....used it then stopped. In fact, I used the polar scope plus an app that put polaris in the right spot on the Polar scope clock. That got me close but images longer than 100 seconds showed rotation issues (u shaped stars). I just started use Alignmaster last summer - this is fast, lets you pick stars in your preferred "neck of the woods" for me the EAST and it's very accurate. I HATE spending an hour drift aligning......and I don't have a permanent position. I set up nightly so polar aligning has been a frustrating part of my imaging.

Here is the flow using Backyard EOS for Nikon LIVE VIEW - Frame and Focus,

I do a two star alignment 5 minutes

Run Alignmaster twice 5 minutes

Then I cycle down the mount and do a 4 star alignment 6 to 8 minutes if that.

From then on I am good with gotos and round stars for 3 minute exposures. I do not shoot over that at this stage and doubt I will unless I do more narrow band imaging. I still guide if imaging over 120 seconds but 120 seconds is where I draw a line in the sand.

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

I have heard great things so far on that Qhy camera. Supposedly gets you within seconds of alignment fairly quickly, with minimal effort. QhyCCD is really stepping up their game.

I use drift aligning to get fairly close, but then again I normally don't bring my mount inside, so it keeps good alignment night to night. I will wake the mount, sync on one star and begin target hopping.

I was on the backyardNikon bandwagon for a bit, just I could not use it with the hacked firmware and I didn't like having to use different imaging software for different cameras. It is fairly robust and is getting most of the bugs worked out, which for a new program is saying a lot. I guess having already templated from backyadEOS played a heavy hand in the quick turnover. The biggest issue isn't his, or anyone's program interface it's Nikon being secretive with their SDK.

Matthew

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Backyard EOS for Nikon works to perfection with my D800e and D810a but I understand some cameras do not fair so well.

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

Mine is also the 800e, but I use the hacked firmware to take away Nikon's in camera processing of the "raw" file by clipping the black point to 600 adu, where as without the clipping the black point is roughly 16-130 add depending on the subject. For regular photography it makes little difference but with astro, there is a lot of detail in the lower 500pts it cuts out.

YMMV
Matthew