Fwiw, this looks like the older polar scope, not the one they're currently shipping with kits. The new scope doesn't fit all the way through the bracket (only through the front half) and is definitely more difficult to work with than the one featured in this video. Just fyi.
Great video Alex and very very helpful. I have just received the Polar scope B (specifically for the southern hemisphere). I used your video to calibrate the scope. Yes it did take a little while, ... about 2 hours over two days. Anyway, I did notice a few points I found that may help others. 1. When looking from the eye piece end along the barrel (scope) there are the set of 3 grub screws, then there is 3 larger discs followed by another set of 3 grub screws. I used the first set of grub screws closet to the eye piece for my calibration. Not sure what the second set are for. (I have noticed that the middle disc, has a mark at the '3' position) 2. Prior to rotating the scope through the 180 degrees, ensure that each grub screw is firm (not tight) against the reticle, otherwise during rotation it may move out of position slightly due to gravity. 3. I found it a little hard to move the reticle vertical (I didn't want to use too much force), that is to 'push' it up, so I made a note of the grub screw, rotate the scope til that screw was at the bottom and then made my adjustment by slowly loosening the screw, allowing 'gravity to help bring the reticle down (up) 4. I also noticed that when "backing off some pressure" from the grub screw, the reticle would move slightly. This I assume was due to uneven tightness/pressure on the grub screws. So try to use the same pressure across all 3x screws. Cheers
Thanks again Alex. I have MSM and Star Adventurer and did not know I had to check calibration in the Star Adventurer. I will be checking and adjusting both now!
That's one of the most helpful videos I've seen. Had the scope for a while but never really figured out how to properly use it so it stayed home most of the time. Followed your process and suddenly it seems much more usable. Will take it along next time. Thanks!
I just ordered a complete Move Shoot Move setup with the Alyn Wallace Z-Bracket. I got both the laser and the scope, I'll be following your great videos for instructions once I get it. I also have the Olympus E-M1 Mark III with an 8mm f1.8 Fisheye Pro Lens. I'm also going to get the 17mm f1.2 to go with it for my hikes into the mountains to get some great astro shots.
I just centered my polar scope on my new EQ5 pro synscan mount with the new reticle. My reticle was rattling around inside the polar scope when I set up the mount for the first time. QA fail
Hi Alex, I'm going to purchase the scope, so this was a really helpful video, many thanks, not sure the wife is going to like all the swearing when I'm doing this 😅
@@chasingluminance that would be great , different mm etc and how many needed etc , new lense’s are said to be better ??? BUT how much , more exposure needed on old etc , think it would make a great video and loads of us wanting a Non basis test . Thank you
Nice video! Although MSM shippes another Polar Scope... one that does not fit into the holder completely (only the first inch!). This makes it movable during and after aligning, I glued mine in place! After that I calibrated the scope...
@@svaphrodite I glued it vertically as straight as possible in the holder and calibrated after that. With the holder secured you can use the "focusser" to turn the crosshair and adjust until the crosshair stays centered in all directions, 180 degrees to the left and 180 degrees to the right... you'll loose a bit focus but it will still be sharp enough to see.
Is your polar scope pushed to one side of the mount? I’ve tried this, but it’s quite challenging when you can clearly see the scope is aimed to left quite a bit due to the loose tolerances of the mount. I’ve tried mounting the it both ways, but there is A LOT of movement between the scope and the mount. I’ve been struggling with trails, and I think it’s because the scope and the MSM are nowhere near square.
Hi Alex, I saw another method on the MSM facebook channel regarding this which i thought worked well. With the laser aligned and calibrated, shine it onto a piece of paper in the distance and mark the spot where the laser hits, then insert your polar scope the correct way into the bracket and adjust the reticle until the cross hairs are on the dot on the paper. As far as i can see, if your laser is on polaris then so should your scope be. Hope this makes sense
What if I don't have a iOptron Skyguider to spin it in? I'm also reading that the newer polar scope doesn't completely go through the mounting bracket. Only halfway. Can it be calibrated in the MSM bracket itself?
Oh yeah, especially that new scope. So it going only half way in is just fine. In order to calibrate it simply unscrew the barrel of the scope slightly. As you spin it you can see the display in the scope rotate.
Great video but I have a question: How do you get the reticle AND the distance to be in focus at the same time. My star adventurer is either - or. I can have a crisp reticle and blurry distance or a crisp distance and a blurry reticle. If anyone reading this could shed some insight into how to get both a crisp reticle and a crisp focus on the distance, I'd really appreciate it. I need to back out the eye piece almost completely to get an in-focus distance object (stars) and then turn the eye piece clockwise until the reticle stencil is in focus but I end up with totally out of focus distance (stars)
hey alex thank for the video, great information but I am having lots of issues trying to align the scope I spent a couple hours trying to it, taking breaks of course since it tedious , lol, I actually broke one scope, actually the plastic ring inside of the scope it just broke after playing around with the screws, is just a headache trying to do it so i got another scope and im playing with it now but no luck I loosen up and tighten up the screws and just no luck i dont know what else to do...and I live in L.A so i dont want to use the laser, Im just giving up lol....
@@januszciechowskiphotograph7297 I do it about once a year and it seems to just need small adjustments. I like to think we're easier on our gear than the UPS process
Thanks for this as I’m suffering with star trails after PA several times and thinking I’m missing something . I did do what you said and it worked perfectly so thanks !! However, it started to go while taking shots so I think it’s adjusted and I need to do th8s again but tighten the screws more. QQ, while doing you adjust in the video you mention change the base - what base were you referring to and how? Also, when you turned the reactions 180 deg you only moved the reptile back half way ans not to the roof top point hey is that ? Thanks but any help would be very much appreciated!! Simon
Hello my friend. The polar binoculars that come with the MSM device look very different from the binoculars you are currently working on. Also, I cannot calibrate the binoculars that come with the MSM device. Even if I loosen and tighten the screws, nothing changes.
i´m wondering the same, i also got my MSM just recently and the polar binocular has a different screen design than here, so i´m a bit confused now where to place polaris since i have 2 different sized circles in my polarscope?
@@ChrrZ Calibrating the binoculars is very difficult or seems impossible. I spent days trying to calibrate this scope, but without success. I'm definitely seeing deviations. If you find a solution for this, please let me know, my friend.
any idea on how to achieve collimation with the new polar scope? it doesn't fit into the bracket very well and i'm hoping to use an 85mm lens so i'd like a good alignment =\
Yes, I know it seems like it shouldn't work… but it does. My advice is to keep the plastic screw tight so that there is tension on the screon the scope so it doesn't spin… but you can spin the redicall by actually unscrewing the threaded part of the scope. It's not an elegant solution but it works
Watched your video on MSM's web sight on Polar Scope alignment, but I can't find the "Polar Finder" app you referenced anywhere in the App Store. Do you have another recommended app that will work with the MSM Scope B that I have ordered?
A…..the MSM polar scope I have has three adjustment screws nearer where you look thru the scope…then where the two pieces of the scope are put together ….there are three more adjustment screws on the other side of of them two pieces …I expect I want to adjust the screws closer too the viewfinder..??
Polaris is approx 0,8 deg off the north pole. In reality the 2nd brightest Star at UMi (Kochab) stay in a line with Polaris and the north pole. So polaris circle around the pole during night, like the rest of sky. Therefore a quick near perfect polar alignment could be done by "Kochab Methode": A Polarscope normally invert the view, so in this case Polaris and Kochab stay at this line and 0,8 deg after Polaris is the North pole. So you need to look with one eye to Kochab and at Polarscope you put at the ring was shown around the Centre Polaris in a line to Kochab. There are also Calculators where you get the exact deg for your time and position for the position of Polaris. With a perfect centred Laser towards Polaris, you are not good enough aligned to north for more focal length. Anyway: If your alignment is not good enough, and you process your stacked deep exposed images (what we need to do for deep sky) you will get walking noise / shades and you can't correct. The Stars (small one!) may look near perfect on the single Lights, but during an hour the framing moving to one direction to the not so precise Polar alignment. Therefore we should also do dithering. After some frames we move a bit the Framing randomly for some pixel on Sensor. Greetings Siegfried
great video that's a lot! quick question. after you loosened a couple of screws and tightened one... did you leave them like that? to be clear, you didn't tighten them all up when you were done? thanks again! got my star adventurer in the post! 🥳
Thank you for this helpful video. When spinning the clutch 180 degrees on my Ioptron Skyguider, I also observed that the object placed at the crosshairs changed the position. Any idea, if the Skyguider polar scope then needs calibration, and how this is done?
Hi Alex, Nice video and thanks for the tips, so one question, to calebrate the polar scope on MSM the only thing is rotating the polar scope it self and confirm that the point location remain as is, yes?
Bothe my laser pointer and polar scope are off. Pointer is off by a mile, scope not so bad. My problem is that the holder fit is so sloppy that if I loosen the tension screw and rotate it jumps all over the place. In fact, if I loosen the tension screw and simply relighted it, it will be in a different place all together. Trying to adjust anything would seemingly make it worse. I've had my MSM kit about five months. Is there a better fitting mount out there?
I would say keep trying with the laser. Loosen the screw just a tiny bit - enough to release tension but not let it wobble. Msm is coming out with a new bracket
@@chasingluminance I noticed that the other night and am going to order one! I like the idea of having both the laser and polar scope attached at the same time. Thanks!!
Thanks for the video, but sadly moveshootmove includes another scope in the kit, and as i saw they have 2 scopes... This seems to be a very minor problem, but i just simply dunno how i should calibrate this thing... You attached it to something else to rotate it, but I don't have anything seemingly to which i could attach my scope and rotate it accurately... The mounting bracket is everything just not accurate.... Another thing, that I have absolutely no information on how to focus this shit... Maybe the neighbour roof is too close to me (aprox. 30 meters), I rotated a whole bunch but tha roof keeps staying blurry af. Otherwise the product is pretty neat, but I just dunno how to overcome these little things mentioned.
I have that scope 2 now... there are ways, both of them involve finding where the 2 halves screw together and unscrewing that part a bit. I might put up a short video
Good video, Alex. I've noticed with my Star Adventurer 2i that the image looking through the polar scope is upside down (like in your video). Do you still put Polaris on the circle where the app tells you or is an adjustment needed for the flipped image?
Hello my friend. There are a few things I'm wondering about. When calibrating the scope, how tight will the small white plastic screw holding the scope be? Or how loose will it be? Does it spin comfortably or spin a little tight? Secondly, what I'm wondering is, there are 3 hex screws at the tip of the binoculars. When you loosen and tighten these screws, does one go down, one go up, and one go left and right to guide the scope?
