PoleMaster Adapter for Any Telescope Mount
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- Anyone who has a PoleMaster knows what a great tool it is for doing polar alignment with your mount. Having a good polar alignment is essential for doing long exposure astrophotography with your telescope. I'm considering upgrading to a more heavy duty telescope mount (the Celestron CGX Mount). The problem for me is that there is no QHYCCD PoleMaster adapter for the CGX or CGX-L mount - in fact there is no place at all to even put a polar scope on this mount - although I hear a polar scope adapter is coming soon. That's why I hunted down this adapter from ADM Accessories. With this adapter, it should allow the QHY PoleMaster to be attached to any kind of mount. Just make sure you have a clamp that fits your telescope's Vixen or Losmandy dovetail bar or whatever mounting bar you happen to be using. And it's not just for equatorial mounts (EQ), I could see this also being useful for altazimuth (alt-azimuth) mounts too. Unsupported mounts should be a thing of the past.
Thanks again Chuck for helping the astro community with your contribution.
I just got both at NEAF (at a nice discount), but have not used it yet. Anthony at ADM said that you can also just drill and tap holes or attach the L-shaped part if you have thru holes somewhere appropriate on your telescope tube or mount....... like say the handle connecting the tube rings on Explore Scientific refractors. I'm looking forward to polar aligning everything that moves! :)
Maybe a stupid question. Wouldn't that require your dec / ra to be perfectly homed to start a proper polar alignment? If that's the case, then I'd rather not use this approach. Just adds additional sources for errors and in something that requires so much accuracy, this just doesn't make sense. The beauty of mounting the PoleMaster to your polar scope axis is that the only source of errors are some missing az / alt corrections.
I didn't have a choice with my CGX mount. But I've never heard anyone else who uses this approach to have issues. Of all of the issues I've encountered with this hobby, and there have been many, polar alignment is not one of them.
I believe the manual for the Polemaster states the USB connection must point east when lined up on Polaris to get accurate alignment.
With your mount in the park position (weights down, telescope pointing up), stand to
the north of the mount facing south. Insert the quick install plate into the base mount
adapter ensuring that the USB socket faces to the left (east). This position aligns the
PoleMaster’s sensor correctly and makes azimuth and altitude adjustments during
polar alignment more intuitive as the up/down directions on the image will be the
mount's elevation angle directions and the left/right directions will the azimuth angle
directions without there being too much adverse interaction between the two.
Furthermore, when carrying out the atmospheric refraction calibration, which is
required for locations with a latitude of below 40 degrees, this orientation is vital.
I see yours does not?
Thanks for the info, if I ever take it off, I will make sure I put it back on the right way. I am used to it the way it is now and my guiding seems pretty good.
I have been binge watching your videos and I see your guiding has been excellent. I am from SW Michigan, so on the other side of the state from you. I find your videos very informative and too the point. Keep up the good work as I look forward to your videos. Well done!
Hello neighbor, thanks!
enash7070, your reference to the orientation of the camera is the first I have seen about this. My backyard is lined with neighbor trees to the north, and it has been frustrating trying to determine where in the tree limbs Polaris is. Now I understand why I couldn't match what the app was showing with what I was seeing of the limbs. I did reread the manual and found the important line: "The USB port of the camera should be directed to the left side when you are facing the camera." Thanks for noted this important tidbit.
I dont understand ... when you start the alighning process you have to turn the RA axis. It works when the polemaster its on the RA Axis but if you put the camera on the dovetail saddle... when you needd to move it your are not pointing to polaris anymore !!! How will you align it ???
With accuracy in mind I am wondering how you made sure the bracket to the dovetail connection was true. I only see one screw hole and I don't see any sort of alignment for the bracket.
It was close enough to get Polaris in view. After that, the camera tracks with the movement of the RA. Guiding is good.
This helps! C11 EdgeHD CGX.
Works great!
This is really helpful, does it really work mounted this way. Is it still as accurate? Would be great to have a video showing this on the scope,.
The clamp works great. But lately I found an even simpler way. I screw the the PoleMaster Adapter right onto the Vixen Mount Bar directly - no clamp needed. You can see a picture of it at the end of this video: th-cam.com/video/wAH69xQ1Jac/w-d-xo.html
Hey that is super cool, my mount bars at the top/bottom don't stick away from scope as much as yours but its gives me an idea, might be able to mount it directly to the losmandy bar itself at the bottom. However i wouldn't want it move around one screw/axis during alignment. Thx for the ideas!!
No prob. Hope it works. Good luck!
You're the man!
I was surprised they included the clamp with it.
Awesome, this should work with my CGE.
So it will work with my Meade ETX?
I don't know about the Meade ETX, but send an email to ADM Accessories and tell the what kind of mounting bar you have - I'm sure they will suggest a clamp that fits.
will it work on a long refractor
Sure., as long as there is space on the mounting bar to clamp it to.
the scope want get in the way of the field of view of the camera?
No, the nothing is in the way. I have a clear field of view.