QHY PoleMaster with adapter for HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Mounts
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 QHY PoleMaster with adapter for HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G MountsQHY PoleMaster with adapter for HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Mounts 

QHY PoleMaster with adapter for HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Mounts

£269.00
  (4 Reviews)
✓ 2 year warranty

:  

8x in stock shipped 1-2 working days

About this product

Model:  qhyccd_polemaster_heq5

PoleMaster - a high precision, easy to use electric polar scope.

Includes adapter for HEQ5 / Sirius EQ-G Mounts

The QHY PoleMaster is a modern solution to an age-old problem. With only a few simple, easy-to-follow steps you can achieve perfect polar alignment in minutes, with an accuracy of up to 30 arc seconds! 

"We think that QHYCCD have come up with an excellent product here which really takes the sting out of having to polar align. The accuracy of the device meant that polar aligning with the Polemaster was more a pleasure than a chore" Pete Lawrence writing for 'BBC Sky at Night' magazine Sep 2016.

How does it work?

Polar alignment sounds simple enough. You find where the pole is, determine the mechanical axis of rotation of your mount, then make the two coincide. PoleMaster makes use of a sensitive wide field imaging camera along the axis of RA to monitor the polar region in real time (not only can it detect Polaris, it also finds the dimmer surrounding stars). From the positions of these stars PoleMaster determines the position of the true pole and compares that to the mechanical axis of RA rotation. Polar alignment is now a simple matter of moving the two centres of rotation so they overlap. Easy!

FEATURES

  • Speed and convenience: No need to move the telescope to specific place to unblock the polar scope. No need to kneel or crick your neck to see through a polar scope. No need for fully dark adapted eyesight. No need to level your mount and no need to enter the date and time in your handset then figure out where to rotate the mount to coincide with the current pole star position.
  • Accuracy: PoleMaster's sensitive camera provides accuracy not achievable with naked eye. The camera's 30 arc second resolution means the best polar alignment that can be achieved by PoleMaster, in the order of 30 arc seconds. 
  • Wide angle view of the polar region: A wide field view of 11x8 degree makes it easy to locate the pole star
  • Easy to install: PoleMaster can be easily installed onto any equatorial mount through mount-specific adapters, even on mounts without polar scope.
  • Real time polar alignment checking / adjustment: Using PoleMaster you can monitor your polar alignment in real time. In the event that polar alignment is lost, you can bring it back quickly and easily without starting from scratch.
  • Three star alignment is no longer needed: Once you are polar aligned, you only need to perform a one star alignment - a real time saver.
  • Perfect companion to single axis mounts: When used with single (RA-only) axis mount, good polar alignment will minimise drift in the DEC axis therefore maximising the performance of your mount.

Mechanical Dimensions

What's in the box

  • QHY PoleMaster
  • Lens Cap
  • USB Cable
  • Mount Adapter

Specifications

Resolution Approx 30 arc seconds
Install method Three M3 screw to mount adapter
Interface mini USB2.0
Software QHYCCD PoleMaster Software
Rough precision Approx 5 arc minutes
High Precision Max 30 arc seconds
Weight Approx 70g
Dimensions See mechanical drawing
Power Consumption Approx 0.35 watts  / 70 mA
Available Adapters
  • Sky-Watcher EQ6/AZEQ6 HEQ5
  • iOpton CEM60 ZEQ25/CEM25 iEQ45  iEQ30 AZEQ5 
  • Celestron AVX  CGEM 
  • EM200/EM11

Downloads / Manuals

The following manuals and downloads are available for this product:

Unofficial Manual

Steve Richards has kindly put together a manual for the PoleMaster which you may find is much easier to understand and follow than QHY's own manual.

PoleMaster User Manual (English, UK / Northern Hemisphere) - by Steve Richards (PDF)

Manuals

QHY PoleMaster Manual (HTML)

QHY PoleMaster 3D Drawing (DWG)

Software

The latest QHY PoleMaster Driver and Software can be downloaded from the QHY CCD website.

Customer reviews

Average Rating (4 Reviews):  
Write a Review and share your opinions!

Rating (max 5):  
A very neat solution to a very real problem
13 November 2023  | 

With age-related vertebrae issues I could use a polarscope only with great difficulty - and even then needed a right-angled eyepiece; it was literally a pain in the neck every time I carried the kit out of my garage to set up. Using the routines written into some popular astrophotography software packages works (for the most part, though not always) when using my 80 mm refractor, but what to do when using my 150 mm Newtonian - FL 1200 mm - which has too small a field-of-view for this method? The answer is one of these electronic polarscopes: my very first trial gave good polar alignment in 15 minutes or so. I so wish I'd gone down this route from the start.


Rating (max 5):  
QHY Polemaster
11 January 2021  | 

I've been doing astronomy for a number of years now but have never really managed to nail polar alignment to a satisfactory accuracy. Prior to this I had tried Sharpcap etc but still had issues. I have to say that the Polemaster has revolutionised my ability to polar align. The hardware is well made and easy to fit and the software is intuitive. First attempt took a little longer as I had to get everything set up (my initial polar alignment prior to fitting the Polemaster was very poor. a note here, when using the Polemaster, it is still necessary to do a rough visual polar alignment using the polar scope). The second time out, accurately polar aligned in 5 minutes! Definitely a thumbs up from me, and of course FLO's service was bang on, as always!


Rating (max 5):  
Makes Polar Alignment A Breeze
19 November 2018  | 

I live in a heavily light polluted area (16-32 nanowatts /cm2/sr) and can hardly see Polaris with the naked eye. In fact I don't think I have seen Polaris since I bought my PoleMaster. However despite this I have managed to use the PoleMaster to make accurate polar alignment in less than five minutes to a high enough accuracy that my tracking mount shows no sign of star trailing even with five minute plus exposures. This is going to save me hours of time and just for the saving in aggravation is an excellent product.


Rating (max 5):  
Love it
25 April 2018  | 

Amazing.
The one thing I really hate is polar alignment on my HEQ5 as I have no permanent setup. I'm class 6 Bortle light polluted, and for me, it's all too time uncomfortable and time consuming.
Even I can look at a laptop screen and make manual mount adjustments to put a square and circle together on the screen. It really is that easy and extremely accurate.
The one problem first time out was the polemaster progeam kept freezing, but there is a document on the main page of the polemaster site advising a simple windows setting change to do with USB 2.0 and all is then perfect.

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