SharpCap Forums

I will be shocked if this one hasn't already been suggested, but I can't figure out how to search "just" the Feature Suggestions thread for previous entries.

In my opinion, it would be helpful to implement three-star polar alignment in SharpCap, so that mounts can be polar aligned easily without requiring access to a celestial pole.

I currently use N.I.N.A. to perform 3-star polar alignment when I have no access to the North Celestial Pole. Functionally, this works well. However, I'd prefer to be able to perform 3-star polar alignment in SharpCap and avoid having to switch tools.

Hi,

my experiences with 3-star polar align were not good. Admitedly this was some time ago with other software, and before I had the belt mod done to the EQ6, so more backlash. I found that running the 3-point align procedure repeatedly would give me different results each time, I believe that this happens if there are any inaccuracies in the GOTO movements to the align stars. If the GOTO is off by 1 arc minute due to backlash in the mount movement perhaps, then the measured adjustment to center the target is out by the same amount, and that feeds through into the polar alignment calculation. For that reason I'm not keen on implementing it, as I think it will always struggle to work well with lower specification mounts.

cheers,

Robin