troypiggo
3rd of October 2009 (Sat), 22:01
Don't think I've posted a link to this here. You may already have seen it, but I'll post anyway since it's just too wonderful to miss. You won't believe how much time it'll save you drift aligning or polar aligning.
Written by the same guy that provides the free guiding software Guidemaster, only Alignmaster is "commercial". Inverted commas because it's only 14 Euros and more than worth it.
What you do is type in your latitude and longitude, or they can be obtained directly from a GPS, and your timezone etc. The software will then provide a list of star pairs to assist in the polar alignment. You choose a pair. The software then slews to where that star should be. You make a slight adjustment through an eyepiece etc to make sure it is centred. The software records that difference, then slews to the second star. Again you make sure it is centred. Then the software calculates the differences to where the mount should be in alt and az, slightly moves the scope the required offset from the second star. It then asks you to use your mount's alt and az adjustment screws to align the star back in the crosshairs.
After just a couple of iterations of the above you'll be very well polar aligned. Nowhere near the time it takes to drift align.
http://www.alignmaster.de/
PS - I have no affiliation with the software. Just wanted to share my experiences and hope to save you time.
Written by the same guy that provides the free guiding software Guidemaster, only Alignmaster is "commercial". Inverted commas because it's only 14 Euros and more than worth it.
What you do is type in your latitude and longitude, or they can be obtained directly from a GPS, and your timezone etc. The software will then provide a list of star pairs to assist in the polar alignment. You choose a pair. The software then slews to where that star should be. You make a slight adjustment through an eyepiece etc to make sure it is centred. The software records that difference, then slews to the second star. Again you make sure it is centred. Then the software calculates the differences to where the mount should be in alt and az, slightly moves the scope the required offset from the second star. It then asks you to use your mount's alt and az adjustment screws to align the star back in the crosshairs.
After just a couple of iterations of the above you'll be very well polar aligned. Nowhere near the time it takes to drift align.
http://www.alignmaster.de/
PS - I have no affiliation with the software. Just wanted to share my experiences and hope to save you time.