2 replies to this topic

[SpaceTom]

Hi all. 

 

Very new to this. Like first time new, so please be patient.  

 

I hope I'm in the correct forum. 

 

I'll be on vacation next week in a Bortle 4 area. I'm hoping to play around with and get to know my new GTi mount.  

 

Obviously the first thing to do is to learn how to polar align. I want to try and do it with the PolarAlign Pro app. I made a wooden vixen bar to mount my phone (out of a piece of oak).  

 

If I can get close using the app, then I can also verify through the polar scope.  

 

Question 1: How accurate is the PolarAlign Pro app?  I've read various opinions one way or the other. 

 

 

Someone here suggested using NINA and TPPA. I watched a few videos about using NINA and TPPA and it appeared that they all were using a guide camera or at least a dedicated astro camera. 

 

Question 2: Do you need a guide or astra camera for NINA/TPPA?  If not, can someone post the steps required or post link to a site or video? 

 

Question 3:  Once I get good enough with polar alignment, what is the next step?  Start shooting?  

 

 

Thanks much! 

 

Tom

 

 

[MartinNI]

I use the Polar Scope Align IOS app. You should be familiar with the GTi polar scope at home. And then have a compass app with true north, not magnetic north setting. That gives a starting point. The most difficult thing for manual polar alignment is making sure you have found the polar star in the scope. And a prerequisite for that is that you can reliably find it bare eyes in the night sky. A small binocular is fun and teaching. It is usually easiest to find the polar star in the polar scope early in the not completely dark sky, when only bright ones are visible. After polar alignment there is star alignment with one, (two or three) bright stars. After that, whew, you are ready to goto to some object and test taking a photo. But there is the software way of polar alignment and platesolving which replaces the manual procedure. I would strongly suggest to test and struggle a few times at home. And, at the darker site, enjoy the night even if nothing else works.

Edited by MartinNI, 17 April 2025 - 11:33 AM.

[MartinNI]

What is also important is to learn your scope and camera. Try to find how long an exposure you can take before stars begin to trail. And of course that you can focus your scope and camera. I started with decent 30s exposures with a 400mm scope. For that you should be able to get something without autoguiding. Its better to err on taking too short exposures instead of too long.

Edited by MartinNI, 17 April 2025 - 11:38 AM.