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Polar alignment at low latitudes
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:50 am
by nm1213
Hi - I've read that the polar alignment tool works to within 5 degrees of polaris. I'm not sure if it is possible to use this tool at low latitudes (1.3 degrees) given I can only dream of seeing Polaris.
Is there any way to expand the range to more than 5 degrees? Will this help at all?
Re: Polar alignment at low latitudes
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 4:54 pm
by admin
Hi,
in SharpCap 3.1 the database of stars goes out to 7 degrees from the pole, but going any further than that requires me to re-write the plate solving code to deal with spherical geometry (approximating to cartesian co-ordinates isn't sufficient any more). Even if I made that change and included a bigger star database, the primary problem is that the accuracy drops the further your center of view is from the pole, so it probably wouldn't be very successful anyway.
sorry,
Robin