Thanks for making these videos. I don’t think I appreciated how important polar alignment really is! 5 minutes unguided on a mid-level Mount is impressive!
Ben thanks for the great videos! I have recently got myself a CEM40EC and performance is indeed outstanding. However, I am having issues to have a perfect declination balance. Apparently CEM mounts have a third axis balance that one should either adjust on the saddle or have a declination counterweight, how do you deal with it? Thanks
Hi Salar, Thanks for your comment! I don't think iPolar can be connected through ASCOM protocol, thus not available for PHD. Also the field of view of iPolar is huge (14 degrees), not accurate enough for guiding.
Hi, I have gem45g but now my polar allignment error is 8 arc/min in phd2. In the summer i had 0,2 arc/min. I have an observatory Bad seeing is relevant for these issues?
Hi Fiorenzo, sorry for the much delayed reply. I don't think bad seeing could impact polar alignment, you should probably redo your polar alignment, it's not uncommon that the pier sink a bit during a year.
Hi Mark, I didn't do a drift alignment, but instead the guiding assistant I run in the video works quite the same. And I can tell from the result, it's accurate enough.
Ben do you need to loosen the 6 bolts while you are doing polar alignment? I have the same mount but I could not get close enough, the plate solving just keeps failing.
Hi! Yes, you need to loosen the 6 bolts a bit before you can fine tune it. But if your plate solve failed, I guess you're not close to the Polaris enough to do the fine tuning. You should move your tripod to get a successful plate solve to start with. 2 things in iPolar's FOV can impact the plate solve, 1. ground light signal like a street light or a lit wall, or 2. random obstructions like tree leaves, check if there is any. Also, try the latest firmware for iPolar, I heard it has some great new features, like an arrow to show you how to move your tripod if Polaris is not in the FOV.
Thank you Ben it was slightly clear last night and I tried everything you said and I was able to get polar aligned, I dont have a scope yet so right now all I have is a DSLR and a Rokinon 135, I will see how far I can get subs unguided. Thank you again.
Thanks for this video. This is a great presentation on how your mount performs.....
Thanks Gary! Happy you like it:)
Thanks for making these videos. I don’t think I appreciated how important polar alignment really is! 5 minutes unguided on a mid-level Mount is impressive!
Thank you Brian! My latest video is about monitoring polar alignment, which IMHO is also important:) Clear skies!
Congratulations. A fantastic mount. Your videos are excellent thank you.
Wow - fantastic job and great information - thank you so much!
Very useful Ben thanks.
Very helpful to get me started with my brand new CEM 40 EC. Thanks!
Ben thanks for the great videos! I have recently got myself a CEM40EC and performance is indeed outstanding. However, I am having issues to have a perfect declination balance. Apparently CEM mounts have a third axis balance that one should either adjust on the saddle or have a declination counterweight, how do you deal with it? Thanks
Great video; thanks for sharing. I wonder if iPolar can be used as guide scope? Does it connect to PHD2 interface?
Hi Salar, Thanks for your comment! I don't think iPolar can be connected through ASCOM protocol, thus not available for PHD. Also the field of view of iPolar is huge (14 degrees), not accurate enough for guiding.
Congrats.... Ben
Thank you Luis!
Impressive! Do you have encoders on both axes?
Hi Christian, not exactly, the CEM40ec has only RA encoder.
Hi, I have gem45g but now my polar allignment error is 8 arc/min in phd2. In the summer i had 0,2 arc/min. I have an observatory
Bad seeing is relevant for these issues?
Hi Fiorenzo, sorry for the much delayed reply. I don't think bad seeing could impact polar alignment, you should probably redo your polar alignment, it's not uncommon that the pier sink a bit during a year.
Ben, would you do a drift align after an iPolar align and see if any change is needed?
Hi Mark, I didn't do a drift alignment, but instead the guiding assistant I run in the video works quite the same. And I can tell from the result, it's accurate enough.
0.0！ Unbelievable!
I was thrilled to see that too:)
😱😱😱😱
10’ alignment will not produce such guiding. Mount is sheeit. It is not surprising. IOptron is not high quality company.
Ben do you need to loosen the 6 bolts while you are doing polar alignment? I have the same mount but I could not get close enough, the plate solving just keeps failing.
Hi! Yes, you need to loosen the 6 bolts a bit before you can fine tune it. But if your plate solve failed, I guess you're not close to the Polaris enough to do the fine tuning. You should move your tripod to get a successful plate solve to start with.
2 things in iPolar's FOV can impact the plate solve, 1. ground light signal like a street light or a lit wall, or 2. random obstructions like tree leaves, check if there is any.
Also, try the latest firmware for iPolar, I heard it has some great new features, like an arrow to show you how to move your tripod if Polaris is not in the FOV.
Thank you Ben it was slightly clear last night and I tried everything you said and I was able to get polar aligned, I dont have a scope yet so right now all I have is a DSLR and a Rokinon 135, I will see how far I can get subs unguided. Thank you again.