N.i.n.a. Three Point Polar Alignment Plugin Download
Caroyln Gillaspie
The past few times I've used NINA's 3 point polar alignment plugin and have been getting what I thought was a very good polar alignment. I eyeball Polaris on the reticle first to get it 'thereabouts' and then use NINA to fine tune it. I usually try and get the alignment within 5 arc-seconds both in azimuth and altitude before tracking (yes, I'm very picky!). Running PHD2's guiding assistant usually says I have apx. 4.5 arc-minutes of PA error. Interestingly after running NINA's plugin I can see Polaris is quite a bit outside the outer reticle circle.
1. It makes no difference in your guiding results when using a GEM if you are aligned off from the pole by a couple of arc minutes. The ONLY thing that polar alignment does that cannot be corrected by guiding is to field rotation. So, if you get down to 2-3 minutes of error there's nothing to be gained by tweaking things.
Thanks for the pointers Ross.
Ha, I was wondering if someone might mention my cable (non) management! It's something I've been meaning to sort out but trying to find a way so there's no snagging during meridian flips.
I am aware small differences in polar alignment don't make a difference in guiding as this can be guided out by the software. I was just interested in why the plugin appears to be less accurate than doing it manually, well, according to PHD2. I always start the setup pointing towards the celestial pole as my home position and plate solve to targets.
As you say, last night was definitely in a 'lucky place', especially as I have to move my equipment and setup each time.
Where you trying to go with this? 0.46 arcsecond error is good enough for my 1370mm RC. Right now, I have a bunch of cables dangling (I'm still testing my camera) and my polar alignment is questionable right now, and I'm happy for my 0.60 error. It doesn't even matter as much since my focal distance/sensor size allows gives me plenty of room since my resolution right now is 1.75 arcs/pixel. Zero star issues related to guiding performance.
NINA software just had a plug-in released for it called Three Point Polar Alignment written by Stefan Berg that can do polar alignment without even needing to have visibility of a pole star (Polaris, Sigma Octantis). If this can be looked at to possibly include at some point, it could be a game changer for some people.
Hi , @tech@zwo , have you guys put the "3-point polar alignment routine" into ASIAIR (Pro)? It seems that the original polar alignment in ASIAIR (Pro) is very similar to the "3-point polar alignment routine", so there should be no technical issue implementing it into ASIAIR platform. Freeing us from pointing the scope to within 30 degrees of celestial north pole will change our lives!
@tech@zwo#48682
Hi, have you guys put the "3-point polar alignment routine" into ASIAIR (Pro)? It seems that the original polar alignment in ASIAIR (Pro) is very similar to the "3-point polar alignment routine", so there should be no technical issue implementing it into ASIAIR platform. Freeing us from pointing the scope to within 30 degrees of celestial north pole will change our lives!
I've recently switched to NINA as my imaging software and I'm overall very happy with it. However there are a few things that bother me when it comes to polar alignment. I'm using the Three Point Polar Alignment plugin and it works quite well but I noticed that after I'm in the area of 3-4 arcmins of polar error and I just let go of the mount then the PA error stars to drift a bit either towards lower polar error or larger depending on which side of the actual NCP I leave the mount.
hello guys my first post here, i have an AM5 mount and I've been trying to polar align with the 3ppa plugin in NINA but with no luck. the question i have for you guys is regarding the initial positioning of the mount, do i have to point the mount roughly towards polaris ? or this plugin could plate solve even if i position the mount in any random direction i,e facing towards west?
Hello! I tried today to do the three point polar alignment routine in "manual" mode (setting "manual" to ON in the window in NINA) on my Star Adventurer 2i, using a ZWO Asi 120mm camera attached to a Svbony 30mm f/4 scope.
At the end, the program tells me how far off I am from the north celestial pole, and constantly updates the precision of my polar alignment by plate solving continuously and updating the error in azimuth and elevation.
I noticed that the procedure is very unreliable. For instance, it told me to change the azimuth and elevation to a point where I could not even see Polaris in the polar scope reticle anymore. I know my Star Adventurer is properly calibrated, so such a huge gap would not be possible (also, trying to test on an exposure showed that there was star trailing even at 1 minute with autoguiding).
Very excited here. I just picked up my new G11G Thursday with L6, set it up in my family room yesterday to get everything dialed in, set mount limits, configure ethernet, configure ASCOM, configure NINA for meridian flip, etc. Last night was the first night, in what seemed like years, that my SoCal house had no clouds AND no moon... truly the gods are smiling.
Very happy with guiding, flipping, go-to's etc. I know I'm going to love this mount.
The only thing I couldn't figure out was when I was trying to accomplish a 3-point Polar Alignment with Stefan Berg's NINA plugin:
Some of the Plugins are brilliant! I created a horizon in Horizon Creator, I use Ground Station to send a notification to my phone in the event of any failure and at the end of the session in case I nod off on the settee. The Three Point Polar Align plugin is also simple and accurate. I can polar align my CGX to within a couple of arc seconds in a very short time. It will lose a few arc seconds as soon as it slews but that still leaves you with a good polar alignment and I've got a pier now so that should improve.
N.I.N.A can be used to polar align the mount using one of the many plugins available. I find this feature very useful for locations where I have no view of Polaris (the North Star is used as a reference by most software via polar alignment scopes). N.I.N.A. uses plate solving, so the telescope can be pointed anywhere in the sky to work out your polar alignment error using three points.
STEP FIVE: Repeat. Now you simply repeat the whole process as needed to refine the accuracy. Once you can go 10 minute without seeing any declination drift, you will have very accurate polar alignment, suitable for very long exposures!
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