Latest version has a "start from current position" button. So you can manually point your mount whereever you want and start.

@yangyunbo1

2 жыл бұрын

thats amazing.it means i can polar alignment in my south balcony？

@jplorge

2 жыл бұрын

@@yangyunbo1 Hi, yes you can, i use it only in my south balcony between 4 weeks, follow the update to have corrections

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for letting me know! It's crazy how it's getting improvements so quickly!

@billblanshan3021

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, just tested the start from current position, works great!!!

@billblanshan3021

2 жыл бұрын

So, after leaving my mount in the same position as last night, I went ahead and ran the PA function tonight and it said I was off, which was strange as I never moved it, so after redoing the PA and running it a second time to confirm, I started imaging, but this time my drift was off 12 min. So maybe they still need to work out some bugs as it didn't seem to be consistent. Please check on your end too as this might not be reliable

I’m already looking forward to your drift alignment test. Such a cliff hanger! 😃

@andreya108

2 жыл бұрын

Yes. And one can try play with settings. I've noticed that results are slightly different with different settings. Looks like there is a space for some polishing of Nina's PA algorithm. But in any case PHD2's DA can be a judge.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Yep - if the clouds let me :/

I'm a newbie - just got my setup and feeding from the firehose - I have a wonderful view of the sky from the South to the West but no Polaris so this is a total lifesaver - thank you so much for the video Cuiv!!! Also the one on using the AZ GTI mount in EQ mode - that is part of my setup so also invaluable

I tried this the other night. It works extremely well. In fact last night after I was done imaging, I took the polemaster to see how close it was. I found it was only slightly off. This can be used without using a polemaster or other tools, as I do feel confident this add on is that good. I can see polaris, but its neat you can use any point of the sky to do this. I can see getting used to it, it would actually be faster than the polemaster.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

At some point, I will need to get my hands on a Polemaster!

Someone paid attention in math class and made a NINA plugin for everyone. Thanks!

I really like your inquisitive approach, and try to verify the result obtained with one piece of software with another. Thanks for sharing and keep that critical point of view!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely, thanks Enrique!

Loving all the new content, and happy you are doing better.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Thanks for continuing to produce these videos Cuiv! I hope to give this a try my next time out!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome! I have an upcoming video where I compare NINA to Sharpcap in a more rigorous manner and the results are unexpected!

@tjeyko40

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek I can't wait to see it and the results!

Hi Cuiv. Yet another good video, thank you... After guiding with PHD2 for a while, you can just check the the Polar Alignment Error under the Drift-tab in PHD Log Viewer. No need to run the Guiding Assistant or to Drift Align to find out. I use to check the guiding performance in the Log Viewer now and then during my photo sessions without need to paus the exposures.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I ended up using the guiding assistant (upcoming video), but this is good to know!

¡Hola, Cuiv! I used this polar alignment last week. Have to admit that it is quite cool and easy to use. Unfortunately for me did not have the results I expected, since I had some issues with my guiding, even the stars I got were not so round. I have a simple Celestron AVX mount, and today I polar aligned it as I used to do before: with the any star polar align that this scope has built in. Now my guiding is decent again and my stars fairly round. So, just wanted to let you know about my personal experience with NINA’s polar alignment compared to the one built in my mount. Again, Cuiv, thanks for sharing! Cheers!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Enrique, actually that makes sense to me! Mounts like the AVX tend to have large DEC backlash, and for those a less than perfect polar alignment, such as the one obtained with the ASPA, can be better (as it basically makes DEC guiding mainly occur in a single direction)

Thanks for this Cuiv. I am excited to try this new feature of NINA, so this is super helpful!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

It's really good, I hope you enjoy!

As ever, thanks for this insightful video! I am looking forward to the next installment as a lot of my imaging is done from my south facing balcony

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Clouds are making a next installment difficult but it's definitely part of the plan!

I would also be interested in seeing how PoleMaster compares with PHD-2 Drift Alignment, SharpCap, & Nina.

@derekderek2570

2 жыл бұрын

Easy. It's the best...if you have line of sight on Polaris.

@beatsntoons

2 жыл бұрын

+1. I use the Polemaster which is very quick and accurate. But I don't like the process of manually selecting stars. Plus the Polemaster aligns the mount, not the scope. I'd like to use the Polemaster to align the mount, and then NINA to "sync" the scope to the Pole (means quicker and more accurate go-to later). Aligning the mount should remove any issues with field rotation

@1cezet

2 жыл бұрын

I have compared polemaster, sharpcap pro and NINA doing polar alignment. All 3 give slightly different results. But since I am using NINA for the whole process of framing, focusing and sequencing the session, I stick with NINA.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

I need to get my hands on a PoleMaster first :)

@User1dentification

2 жыл бұрын

Hi all, very interesting Video. I got everytime different values between Polemaster and ASIAir Pro focusing methode... Currently I trust Polemaster more as it is a dedicated device for only one purpose and now lots of years on the market... but due to that I'm not 100% sure what methode is superior... Keep up doing such greate Videos I stay tuned.

Thank you - great review. I hope to try it this weekend. Clouds tonight in Cape Town. Appreciate these reviews very much.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the feedback, glad it is helpful!

As soon as the winter clouds go away, I'll try to compare this NINA plugin with phd2 drift alignment. My balcony looks directly to north, so these are the only options I have to polar align, since Sigma Octantis is completely to the other side 🤷🏻‍♂️. Happy to have another option with this plugin now. Thanks again for your video, Cuiv!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome, let us know how it goes!

I just ran the NINA 3 point alignment for the first time. Wow!!! I compared it to PHD2 drift alignment. Spot on!!! (also the first time I ran NINA, as well--everything works!)

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

It really is quite good :)

Would love to see some more experimentation around which is more accurate (SharpCap vs. Nina vs. Polemaster), and maybe validate using PHD2 drift alignment as others have said? It would be awesome to see the results.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, waiting for the weather to allow such a test!

Cuiv, I did some testing with this and found it to be much more repeatable and accurate results when I expanded the measure point distance to up to 45°. This is much closer to the RA axis sweep range that we use in sharpcap. I found my results to be much more repeatable when i did this. In order to set this up I changed my Alt, Az start point to be roughly @ 45 degrees to sweep evenly across the home position. I'd recommend you try that. I suspect you'll get more consistent results between sharpcap and nina if you do that. Thanks for sharing the knowledge!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Nick! I'll do some more tests when time allows!

Thanks a lot. Your video came just in time as I am currently planning the restart of this hobby

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Excellent! Wishing you all the best restarting the hobby!

@majortom4338

2 жыл бұрын

Maybe one advise from your side? I am medium experienced, get good 60 Second subs. For my ioptron cem25p, stock DSLR, no guiding under bortle5, would you recommend a 60/360 FPL53 dublet or 72/432 dublet in same quality. So my question is about the focal length. I can't decide yet...thanks a lot in advance. BR from Germany

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

@@majortom4338 I'd personally go for the lower focal length, since it's lighter and easier to guide. Don't forget a focal reducer/field flattener!

Hi, cuiv, Tested with SharpCap and the plugin, both agree if you do not set the "Correct for Atmospheric Refraction" in SharpCap. Only about 5" to 6" diff. Then they both use the "apparent" celestial pole with no compensation for Atmospheric Refraction. Otherwise there is indeed a big discrepancy. Good to see that you are back in business.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Very interesting! Thank you for this (along with others pointing out the atmospheric refraction) - it gives me more to test! :D

@michael.a.covington

11 ай бұрын

Theoretically, this problem should go away if you use NINA aimed high in the sky rather than at the pole.

Cuiv, I have already done comparisons with iPolar and Sharp cap and also compared against PhD drift analysis. Nina is far more accurate and I have been staying under an arc minute typically for the whole night. One suggestion, if you're wanting to polar align in the direction of Polaris, set your altitude values to the same as your GPS altitude value i.e. 29,38,0. And for AZ, set 0,1,0. Keep east direction off and stay at 10 degree movements.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the details! I will try that!

Hello Cuiv, I am using the PA routine in NINA since it is available (having a south facing balcony in the northern hemisphere) and have very good results with it. I am just going for an error < 3' and then start taking photos. With guiding, I can easily take 300s subs without star trails on my 80mm refractor. So it seems the alignment data NINA provides is quite good.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for letting me know! I will really want to check via PHD2!

Speaking from the perspective of an astrophotographer in Singapore at only 1 deg N, I can positively confirm that there does appear to be some error between the polar alignment value reported in NINA polar alignment vs the PHD2 drift alignment. However, I have trusted NINA and went on to have fantastic results when polar aligning with it. The best part for me is it saves me tons of time on polar alignment, so more time could be spent enjoying taking those sweet images! Keep up the good work Cuiv! Merci beaucoup pour tes videos!

@christiangloor6504

2 жыл бұрын

I'm 5 degrees South, in Indonesia, and noticed the same. Aligned with NINA and checked with PHD2 to find that it was not spot on. I didn't dare imaging directly, so I adjusted in PHD2. Next time, I'll try directly after NINA's alignment.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Very interesting - so it does seem like atmospheric refraction is playing a role here. Thanks for letting me know! I really need to test against PHD2

Thanks for this share. I will lovely try it with my new AM5 next week :)

Looking forward to the drift alignment test, unless I get some clear skies to try it out myself before my SharpCap license runs out in roughly a week. :D I really hope the NINA solution works well enough!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Definitely! Meh, even if it's off by 1/10th of a degree, with autoguiding it doesn't matter much. It can even be better if your DEC has a lot of backlash!

Thanks for the helpful video. I’m going to give Nina a try. I’m having real problems with star aligning my Eq6r. Possibly suspect cone errors? Further investigation required there. Nina looks useful. Thanks again.

This way of polar alignment is also used on ASA Direct Drive mounts, works very well, I always did it 2-3 times.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Great to know! Thank you!

Good tutorial. I use ipolar to monitor alignment at all times throughout the night because polar alignment moves during the session.

cant wait to try this method. Tried it few nights ago, but idk what i did bad and it did not work. Hopefully next clear night ill figure out how to PA correctly

Isn't it funny how when the lights are turned off, we naturally speak more quietly? Love the video, and am going to attempt this tonight. :)

This is great- I love NINA more and more as I use it. On a side note, my IDAS NBZ shipped. I'll do a side-by-side with it and an L-eNhance with my RASA and send you results.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Ooooh awesome on the NBZ!! I do expect it to perform better in the same conditions, so looking forward to that!

Thanks for this. I was looking at Sharpcap but, since I don't have a guide scope & guide camera, and use a C8 SCT (with f/6.3 reducer) and a ASI294MC Pro (with IR Cut Filter), Sharpcap didn't seem to suit my purpose (and I didn't way to pay money just for it to not work). I live in the Southern Hemisphere and can't see Polaris - well Sigma Octantis that is - very well (amongst other things like tree cover). NINA looks like it will suit my needs just right for Polar Alignment. FYI: currently have an ASIAIR Plus on backorder that will come who knows when so being able to hook things up to a laptop in the meantime is awesome. Additionally, seeing this video, I will also need to give GSS a go! Also going to use Stellarium/CDC as well. I have a HEQ5 Pro mount. For me, my main purpose is EAA, so this is more than suitable. I was going to look at ASI Live (as part of their ASI Studio PC software) for live stacking as well (and ASIAir App on the iPad when I finally get my ASIAIR Plus).

As usual, a very informative video. I've just started using NINA and I haven't had the courage to use this tool, but I will have to in the summer as I won't be able to see Polaris any more. Could you go over the setting of the limits in EQmod at some point, please? That would be very good!

awesome! Just installed the plugin.....will try this tonight:)

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome, and enjoy!

I love my Go-To EQ6-R, but man I love PA with the SGP iPolar. It's like a mini-game.

Loved the video. Have to try it and do my own test against my pole master which I’ve been very happy with. Also loved my new T-shirt. The coffee mug looks beautiful but needs to be bigger. Doesn’t hold enough coffee.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

So cool the t-shirt and mug arrived! Glad you liked them, but yes, more coffee is always better :D

great video!

Great video Cuiv

Awesome video as always.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Awesome vid - I almost wish I would have found it before I spent $253 on an iPolar electronic polar scope. My only reservation about using NINA for PA is my longer focal length 'scopes make the adjustment very touchy and I have to do a bit of back and forth to zero in to an arc-minute or less.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

Жыл бұрын

To be honest I've never felt like such precise polar alignment is absolutely needed - anything less than like 5 arcminutes is fine as long as you're guiding imo!

Very good video. Thank you

Some info on polar alignment in NINA and SharpCap. I PA aligned in NINA, run 10-star model in 10 micron, PA accuracy calculated by 10 um was 70”. I done the same with Sharpcap PA. 10 um after the same modeling showed 14”. Interestingly, using my previous mount AVX with their software, I was consistently getting the same outcome Sharpcap is better than NINA in PA. Then, I thought “Celestron is probably more compatible with Sharpcap”. Now, it is settled for me: Sharpcap is better in PA.

Thank you for the clarity of your tutorials. In my version NINA 1.10 HF3 in French, I do not have access to plug-ins, let alone the one for polar alignment

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the feedback! Yes you need NINA 1.11 for this (nightlies)

After using this once, i dont even look through my polar scope any more. My lazy old back and knees send you thanks :)

Hi Cuiv. I tried the Nina 3 point last night and found it got close but not as good as sharpcap. I hope they can make this more accurate as it a very easy way to polar align. Great video as always

@jimwaters304

2 жыл бұрын

This may not be the case. You need to do a very accurate Drift Alignment then determine which is more accurate.

My QHY polemaster does this. It's usually 3 arc minutes or so off of what sharpcap gives me. I never have figured out which is more accurate. I had issues with the polemaster drivers so it's just sitting on the mount doing nothing at the moment. Looking forward to giving this a shot once it cools down a bit here.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, in the end we're kind of slitting hairs (at least when autoguiding)

Thanks Cuiv! i’ve taken note of this feature, but Polaris is very available and i’m super comfortable polar-aligning now in Sharpcap. But what i’ll be watching for is your determination of which routine is more accurate! : ) thanks for all you do for the hobby. tell me this: how much back pain do you have now at this point in your recovery after the accident?

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I have back pain especially after exerting myself, but manageable (and no pain meds). Those huge rods and screws in my spine don't help. In a few months, I should be able to get them removed and hope the pain will be gone!

@EmeraldHillsSkies

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek May it be do. I’m praying right now that you will be able to recover 100%. Glad for your willingness to help all of us learn from all the time you’ve invested. Thankful for your resilience.

Your videos have been unbelievably helpful, keep up the good work! Question - If I drift align with phd2 after I finished polar aligning, would the adjustments I make to drift align mess up my polar alignment?

I don't have n i n a but very interested in it. I watch you all the time. I'll be glad to see you on the Astro imaging channel September 19th.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Glen! NINA Is great, but it does require some initial setup indeed.

@glen2880

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek I'm using SGP at this time and I just got semi adjusted to it. The thought of starting over isn't apealling. But it looks interesting.

I just left all at default and started NINA Polar Align here just north of Sydney Australia. Telescope rotated north then pointed to the ground. NCP???. Restarted this time remained pointing close SCP. Plate Solved but I seemed to spend a long time getting as close to zero error on both Alt and Az. PHD2 had a hard time keeping up with drift. Checked in Sharp Cap and was way out. Aligned in Sharp Cap PHD2 and guiding sweet as usual. To be fair there was a Update to NINA PA yesterday but I think I am used to Sharo Cap and have a years sybscription to go. Still like NINA for everything else.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting - have you tried asking on the NINA Discord? I know they have some main members in NZ, so it's likely this was taken into account.

@barrycampbell532

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Will Do also try the update to NINA PA tonight if weather keeps clear.

@barrycampbell532

2 жыл бұрын

Clouds so not tonight

@barrycampbell532

2 жыл бұрын

Last night 10th Sept 2021 I installed update to PA in NINA and compared it to Sharp Cap. Leaving all at default this time the telescope did not slew North and look for worm holes in the lawn but angled about 60 degrees East from SCP facing and plate solved. Azimuth error was a adjusted to -00' 00' 04"and Altitude -00' 00'03" Total Error 00" 00" 05". Then checked in Sharpcap Polar Align Error 00'03'29". Right 00'03:29 Up 00:00:10. So something like I think you got but not too bad.

I’ve installed the plug-in but not tried it yet. I like the fact you don’t need a widefield view. I now have a permanent setup with a pier in my observatory so hopefully won’t need to do this often but still have a second mount for portable use too. Be interesting to compare the different results from the 2 programs. I have SharpCap pro but not sure it will work with my scope - 425mm length.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

I think 425mm may work with Sharpcap Pro - it's gotten much better at longer FL than it used to!

@JohnMcGFrance

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek I’ll give it a try. I’m about to put that scope on for some imaging of the Veil nebula. The mount is well polar aligned using the routine in the ASIAir pro. I’ll try N.I.N.A. and SharpCap. As there should be no movement of the mount being on a pier/concrete base it will be interesting to see what happens. I’ll let you know🧐

I am not guiding in DEC and rely on very accurate PA for imaging, going to have to try this next time i get a chance as i would love to just use NINA for everything. I will say that Sharpcap PA agrees with my guidegraph, DEC barely moves when i have polar aligned to some arcsecond accuracy.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

DEC Drift will be the final arbiter indeed!

Sharpcap is much more responsive in live view with my qhy600m camera. Makes it better for a lot of things that NINA would otherwise be much better for. But it can be very nice to have polar alignment options that dont require polaris. It means I can move my scope about a foot or two to the north towards the fence and neighbor's wall, which is going to be a lot more practical, and will open up a lot of the southern sky.

Looking forward to your Drift Alignment vs. N.I.N.A. vs. SharpCap analysis.

@msacco

2 жыл бұрын

As far as reviews goes so far, NINA beats them by far.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Me too :D The clouds are not as excited though!

After this video I am going to try Nina

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Make sure to try it and test it during the day to avoid frustration at night!

Hey Cuiv, recently I've whached an interview on KZread with one of the founders of PHD2. He revealed shocking news regarding perfect polar alinement! He told, that PHD2 works best if you have an error of 2 to 10 arc seconds in your polar alinement! He also claimed, that there won't be any field rotation error in that range. I'm still shocked!😅 Greetings from Germany, Christian

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Hahaha that sounds like something I want to watch! I don't have the precision needed to be within a few arcseconds anyway :p

@christianvulpescu1398

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek "PHD2 a quick breakdown- Bruce Weddington". That is the title on KZread.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

@@christianvulpescu1398 Thank you!

@christianvulpescu1398

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek The plesure is on mine.😀😘👍

Hello, Cuiv... I haven't used NINA 3-point polar alignment myself yet, but if I understand the geometry correctly, it should be more accurate when used a long way away from Polaris -- such as near the celestial equator. As I understand it, it is doing the same thing as drift alignment -- looking for non-parallelism of the telescope's RA motion with the actual lines of declination. So the farther you get away from Polar, the bigger this discrepancy will be, for any given polar alignment error.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

11 ай бұрын

Actually no! It doesn't rely on the RA motion, actually the more RA has time to drift, the worse the TPPA is! So if you were far off from PA in the first place, there was a lot of drift, and doing TPPA twice in a row is best!

I have noticed using the plugin plate solving works only if I use at least 2x binning . 1x fails to plate solve (imx570 sensor)

Hey Cuiv, loving all the great information, thanks, is there a way do achieve the alignment when using the NINA file camera as I don't have a dedicated astro camera, just my Fujifilm X-H2

I believe you can check polar align error with PHD2 ( I haven't done it), but may give an idea which process is more accurate.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Yeah that's part of the plan once clouds go away!

Thank you :-) very nice !

Thanks for another fantastic vid. Is that the beta version you are using? I don't have the plug in icon on my nina screen.

I've been playing with NINA's new 3PPA over the past few nights. I'm not convinced how accurate it is. I got exceptional PA with it then ran it again straight afterwards and it was way off PA. I'm in the Southern Hemisphere btw

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting to know. Well, I need to do more testing :)

you can use 'guiding assistant' in PHD2 to double check the real polar alignment error

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, definitely want to do that! I wanted to image quickly on that night, but now I'm waiting for further clear nights

Thank you for the information. This is a good feature for someone who live in a area where polaris cannot be seen. But for this, do we need to point to where we can see any star? Is it possible to start at any random position even where there is no star can be seen?

Hi, nice video. I want to ask: Do you use the three point polar alignment with the guide scope + camera scope or the main imaging camera + the main scope? Thanks.

i used this polar allignment technique and it said barely any errors, when doing a 60sec exposure i had insane amount of star trail.

@jesuspineiro1622

2 жыл бұрын

It may be due to mount periodic error and not due to alignment. You must check it

@mif1118

2 жыл бұрын

That is weird. I use this new method with NINA and can get 300s exposures with guiding without any sign of star trails (imaging through a 80mm f6 refractor).

@Boekoe12

2 жыл бұрын

@@jesuspineiro1622 i Will look into this, but with a quick look I think I don’t have backlash/worm gear problems.

@Boekoe12

2 жыл бұрын

@@mif1118 it was quite wierd not sure what went wrong. Because the night before it was fine I thought.

@backgammonbacon

2 жыл бұрын

Was your mount sidereal tracking? These tools leave the mount stationary while aligning you then need to star align/set tracking rate of your mount as normal afterwards.

Cant wait for the drift alignment, we need to have a winner!!.. Though for me Sharpcap is winning, NINA takes way to long to platesolve. Im using All Sky Platesolver, which works but all so slowly!!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

I would strongly recommend you use ASTAP instead. ASTAP is pretty much instantaneous. It works wonders for me.

@gazza9839

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek +1 for ASTAP

I still prefer the Kstars PA tool. It uses the guide scope and is much faster for updates so you can adjust in realtime.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

You can also use the guide scope in NINA PA - I think with guide cam and no filter, you could easily have an exposure time of just 1 second, so it's more real-time.

Hi Cuiv, I am one of those dinosaurs who use pole master. Obviously it’s another cable etc. I did the same thing that you did. Compare polemaster results to sharpcap. Having done bang on pole master alignment I get an error in sharpcap polar alignment. I didn’t try it the other way round though. That is polar align in sharpcap and then do a polemaster alignment. This will ruin the night as it will take so much time but I think that’s a missing step to settle which method is polar alignment king / queen or whatever. Also on skywatcher mounts it’s not easy to do small adjustments for alt or az i also use an app available on AppStore Allen’s polar align pro that can get you very close to polar alignment during the day. The other thing is to eye ball it off the polar scope itself! I could do that as well. Also Cuiv more importantly the music at the end, really. It’s not you or the channel. I love music but just any music is no good. Also I know I can’t criticise W/o suggesting something. For now nothing is better but if you must use the sound of yurt Gagarin rocket taking off or landing! Please.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I wouldn't call using Pole Master as being a dinosaur! I think polar scopes belong to that category much more! I'm having so clear skies tonight so I hope to investigate the polar alignment :) On the music, I understand the feedback - I don't think it's too obtrusive (and I've used music before, for the images at the end of a session), but I'll think of workarounds!

@nxu5107

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek sorry if I was rude with my comments about music. Your channel your music and you know what it’s the knowledge you give that counts. Your topics are fantastic. That’s the long and the short of it. Thanks.

Hello, awesome video!! I tried using this last night in Phoenix, Arizona and NINA kept wanting to point the OTA down toward the ground. If I manually slewed and started from current position it would not engage tracking and could not plate solve. I have a Celestron AVX mount. Any suggestions? I am sure the wanting to point toward the ground is due to the azimuth and altitude settings as I have left them default, but I am very new to this and not sure what to set them at.

@Ronbo765

10 ай бұрын

I’ve had this prob with the AVX with APT. Never figured it out but make sure ur longitude, lat and time are correct. I deleted any previous alignments in CPWI. It finally stopped, but I’m always nervous about the problem happening again.

Cuiv, interesting I tried the NINA PA routine last night. I can confirm that you do need to ensure mount limits are set to avoid pier strike :-(. I think the default angle of rotation between measurements is 10deg, however like you I changed that to 20deg as I was not convinced 10deg would be accurate enough. I ran the PA routine twice and then did a full sky model for my 10micron mount and like you found a 6min discrepancy between the two. However the second time I did the PA followed by another full sky model I got less than 30sec discrepancy. Interestingly I get the same inconsistencies when I use Sharp Cap and compare to the 10micron model. I have no idea why you get these random discrepancies, however I suspect user error is the most likely reason. One thing I don’t like about the NINA PA routine is having to enter the Initial pointing coordinates for the scope. Could make that more intuitive, perhaps allow you to the framing assistant or enter a catalogue number. That would make it easier to picture where you are pointing to. Finally I can see you struggle with the alt/az adjustments on you mount. I have not found a mount that has good smooth way of adjusting these setting on a mount. Small stepper motors on each axis would be idea and then NINA could fully automate PA!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

A lot to test there, I really want to get to it! By the way the latest version of the plugin lets you just start from the current mount position - so that's immediately more intuitive, just slew somewhere and then start the procedure. Your wish has been granted by the way: the Avalon M-Zero has an option for motorized Alt-Az adjustments for PA! www.avalon-instruments.com/products-menu/mounts/m-zero-obs-wi-fi-detail . It ain't cheap though!!

I tested the NINA 3point on my Esprit 100ED and SW AZEQ6 mount front inside my office with a 600mm square window view. Appeared to work. The error between apps, you have a lot of variables with differences between methods, for one 3point is using the main scope, for me sharpcap is using the guide scope. Then how well is your scopes aligned with the axis of rotation. Just a lot of compound error with setup and equipment. I suspect all methods get you close enough to get the job done. For me, less is more, being less fussing with multiple software packages and ease of use.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

In theory both sharp cap and NINA account for the cone error, but I think the main source of the difference could be the refraction compensation in Sharp cap! I'm looking forward to trying this more!

I compared some while ago the differences between polemaster, sharpcap and the drifttool in phd..drifting came out tops(no suprises there) then sharpcap ...they all differed to each other..this pluggin reminds me of ASPA that celestron uses.. didnt think much of that for imaging personally

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for letting me know - I just wish clouds would go away so I could double check the PA result!

@gazza9839

2 жыл бұрын

ASPA works best with a few iterations, maybe we should try the same with NINAs version ?

@derekregan6926

2 жыл бұрын

@@gazza9839 yes I've heard this said before.. but the inaccuracy comes from using star position for PA. PA is the point in the sky that the stars revolve around, so unless you're pinpoint or measuring the drift then it's always going to inaccurate..

Thanks for the great videos !! Does it matter if the camera is at an angle ? I use N.I.N.A 'Framing' to frame my camera and adjust the angle. It seems to me that if the camera is at 0 degrees the measuarements might be better when doing the Polar Alignment. I've been getting some inconsistent results using N.I.N.As 3PPA. My mount is on a very heavy concrete pier. thanks, Monty

@montygiavelli8125

2 жыл бұрын

I went into N.I.N.A. and with the help of the Framing tool I rotated my camera assembly so it was showing 0 degree rotation. I then did a 3 Star Polar Alignment and my guiding made a big improvement even though the moon was overhead. Tomorrow I will do another 3SPA and see if the numbers are the same !!

You should trust whichever has atmospheric refraction taken into account :D

Thank you for your time. I have a skywatcher star adventurer pro that is not a goto. Can I still use this method for polar alignment? Can move the camera to the 3 locations manually, if so how do I know where to face the camera on each occasion? Also can you clarify that this method uses imaging from the main camera, in my case a dslr, and not the guide camera? Thank you, I am new to this hobby and having issues with PA here in the Southern Hemisphere as my view of the octans is blocked. Cheers.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

I believe there is a manual mode via the Manual button in there - you may want to double check on the NINA Discord!

Awesome. Will this plug in work for RA camera drives like the Sky Guider Pro. My building totals blocks Polaris. Thanks

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

As far as I understand it, YES it will work with something like the SkyGuider Pro - the Manual mode is there for that.

Hi there, can this also work if a DLSR is the camera on a star adventurer?

I suppose you could’ve tested your guiding based on NINA scores then polar aligned with Sharpcap and test guiding and see if your guiding improved or worsened. Probably would’ve been the same.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Yes - the best way is to simply run the PHD2 guiding assistant and see if DEC drifts - I will do that once the weather allows!

Hey Cuiv, More cool stuff from NINA ! when is NINA also going to make me a coffee when it realises (using my webcam) I am falling asleep? 😴 🤔

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

I think you could do that via scripting :D

Cuiv.. how do you set your mount limits with GS server? Im debating updating Nina so I can get this PA feature but I haven't found how to set limits with GS server.. Thanks

Good morning. For alignment with Nina, what to do when the mount is oriented towards the North, on the wall side of my balcony, this one being oriented due South. The mount will rotate but will therefore only see my wall. THANKS.

I understand that it is a valid method even if the only available horizon is the South and therefore totally away from Polaris. Is that so?

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

That is correct, as far as I understand!

Great video! I have an asi120mm guide camera in the mini guide scope and was wondering if I could use this to do the polar alignment routine in NINA? I only use a DSLR and WO zenithstar for my imaging. Would I be better off to try and use the DSLR for this routine or the guide cam?

@astrotechnique1

Жыл бұрын

Please reply

Cuiv, please correct me if I'm wrong... I usually do the polar alignment routine with sharpcap with the mount turned off. So the mount don't try to move during the alignment and I can measure the real misalignment of it. If you do the routine with the mount on and tracking you could get some error only for the movement of the mount around the pole, if you are near the celestial pole the amount of the error will be low but is not perfect, instead if you do it with the mount turned off, the sky is rotating around your RA axis and you can get a more accurate measure of your alignment, if you can align to the pole with the mount off your results will be consistent between Nina and sharpcap.... The only thing is that Nina move the mount by itself.... So it require that the mount have to be on.... maybe the routine has to be manual??? To get better results?

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

That's a very good point - Sharpcap definitely prefers no tracking. But NINA... I don't know! For 5 second exposures, tracking is definitely needed though, and my guess is that NINA keeps track of that. More tests to do :)

@davidterraza889

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek maybe you don't need tracking if you are pointing near the pole. In sharpcap, When I don't have a guide scope I use the Main camera (DSLR in my case) and take several exposures of 3 to 5 seconds that are automatically downloaded to a folder where sharpcap can take it and use it for polar align... I think that Nina can do it to.... If you want to polar align pointing far from the pole I would prefer drift alignment instead.

Cuiv, is the imaging from the guidescope or the main camera?

Hello Cuiv, I tried this last night after going through the setup process with ASTAP, Astronmy and all the features for plate solving. Sad to say, I failed at it. During the second measurement point it told me to move the mount along the RA axis! 0/10 degress, could not figure out what that was supposed to be. I used my EQMOD mount controller to move the mount in different directions but it was never in the right spot, again, whatever that was supposed to be. I think for now I am just going to use my Stellarium and Backyard EOS to help with proper polar alignment and work on NINA as I have lots to learn with that. UGH...

@davidjennings2733

Жыл бұрын

Update on my NINA usage, I have now managed to get this to work after making sure I have the star database and installed, letting NINA know where it's located on the pc. Anyways, it's working now and I just love using this this. First and second night of using it worked flawlessly, went out the 3rd time to use and could not get it to plate solve. I could not figure this out to save my life, uninstalled the star database, reloaded it and still had the same problem. Then the light bulb turned on, it was my focus that was out enough so it could not determine where it was looking in the night sky. Boy did I feel dumb, after I focused, it began to work again. Slaps self on the forehead and takes mental note.. FOCUS, FOCUS and FOCUS. Just had to share that as to also alert others and as you also said, make sure you are in Focus.. Thx

cuiv , maybe you can use PHD2 guiding assistant to check the polar alignment error.to make sure which is right.

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, that's part of the plan, once clouds go away!

@yangyunbo1

2 жыл бұрын

​@@CuivTheLazyGeek you also could add the QHY polar master to these software polar alignment method.maybe we can throw the QHY lol

Follow-up video ... Which software is actually more accurate / correct ?

I tried NINA TPPA, nailed it down to approx 30 arc-sec in both RA & Dec, then I do TPPA again to check polar alignment error again, and I got approx 6 arc-min in RA & Dec, performed knob adjustment again, and check again with TPPA and it seems the result is still not correct, perhaps you can give it a shot this way and see if TPPA agrees with itself.

No need to do a drift align, just run PHD2 guiding assistant for 10 min or so, or else just check your PHD2 log after imaging, either one will give you alignment error. I'm looking forward to trying this, thanks! :)

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely! I will be doing that :)

@JamesPetruzzi_MyHawaiianImages

2 жыл бұрын

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Update: tried it last night, worked great! Checked my PHD2 log after and it says I'm within .8 arcmin, which is PLENTY good enough. Great tool!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

@@JamesPetruzzi_MyHawaiianImages Awesome! Great to know!

I have a Nikon DSLR, tracker, and manual mount. I can also only see 60 degrees left and right of south, and only over 30 degrees from the horizon to overhead. Is NINA still do-able?

Have you tried this with DSLR cameras? I am hoping to do this without the use of something like a Polemaster.

Will this work with a sky tracker like Ioptron skyguider pro? Asking for a friend.

It would seem having the tripod/mount exactly level would be very important, no? If so, what recommendations do you have for getting an exact level on the mount? Thanks!

@CuivTheLazyGeek

7 ай бұрын

Nope it's not really important. Having rough leveling is enough to follow the NINA process (left right up down) with the only downside being that if you're really far from level, changing left right will also affect up down which can be frustrating. But once you're polar aligned and in the proper home position for your mount, then the mount leveling doesn't matter (assuming of course you're not so unleveled that your equipment would topple over :) )

I'm struggling to get it working because at every steps it stops tracking on my eq6 r pro with eq mod. Is there a way configure the tracking on?

Could I be poiting to opposite direction and use this process?

Hi. I tried this method last night. I use a Canon DSLR as imaging. After taking the first picture, NINA processed it and then the process showed the "start button" again. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Thank you!

Can this be set up to use one's local horizon settings (as in Sky Atlas) so that it points to a clear part of the sky? I have a building in the way with the default settings. Alternatively, how to change the default so that it stays above 35°?

@CuivTheLazyGeek

2 жыл бұрын

Newer version of the plugin has a tool to start from where the mount is currently pointing to. With that and the RA direction it should be fairly easy to keep to your section of sky!