In the above photo I'm polar aligning my original Move-Shoot-Move rotator/tracker by pointing its attached laser to the Polaris or the North Star. If I was in the Southern Hemisphere, I would replace the laser attachment with a Polar Scope and align with Sigma Octantis. I could also use a smartphone attachment and the Sky Safari 7 plus app. The advantage of the Polar Scope is greater polar alignment accuracy (for both Northern and Southern Hemispheres) when you are using telephoto lenses to track deep sky objects.
Old-school Tools—Compass & Protractor: However, for the vast majority of your astro-landscape photography, when using a wide angle, you don't any of these special alignment tools — all you need is a compass and a protractor! Off course, I'm referring to the digital compass app on your smartphone, and a digital protractor that show degrees of inclination. Here's quick DEMONSTRATION VIDEO by my friend, Benjamin Barakat on how that is done. This is a technique I've been teaching my workshop students for years.
Why should I learn this method of tracker alignment? Occasionally, the polar region is obscured by a mountain, clouds, or you might be photographing the Milky Way through the mouth of a cave. In these situations, this old-school method of aligning your star tracker really comes in handy. Besides, these old-school procedures are also good workflow practices for pre-aligning your tracker, even if you follow through with more sophisticated alignment methods. They also provide you with a backup in case other methods fail.
How accurate is the "Compass & Protractor" alignment? Benjamin claims he has gotten accurate alignment using lens focal lengths up to 135mm, with 2 minutes of tracking. I have used this procedure for focal lengths up to 85mm with up to 3 minutes of tracking.
GEAR and APPS for "Compass & Protractor" Alignment:
1. Head Leveling Base. You will need to level your tripod head. The fastest and easiest way to do this is with a "head leveling base" on your tripod. Some tripods, like the Benro Tortoise Columnless #3 Carbon Fiber Tripod (highly recommended for the features/build-quality to price ratio) have this feature built in. If your current tripod does not have a head leveling base, you can purchase an add-on leveling base for about $100 that will fit most tripods. Move-Shoot-Move carries a leveling base that is about one-half that price, but its payload specs are also about half that of the Leofoto leveling base pictured below.
Rotating leveling base. Jurgen Lobert made this suggestion: "In addition to being able to level without having to adjust tripod legs, this gives you one more degree of freedom and lets you rotate the entire head assembly to roughly align with the pole without having to move the tripod (which then needs to be leveled again). You level the head, then you rotate it to roughly align (without losing the level), then you fine-tune the alignment with laser or scope. Here's the one I use."
Jurgen makes an excellent suggestion. If you're using a 3-way geared tripod (see below) that rotating feature is already built into the bottom axis of the geared head; however, a rotating leveling base adds the benefit of super fast and easy (fluid) rotation. Besides, one can never have too many movement options!
2. A Wedge or a Geared Tripod Head for aligning or pointing your tracker to the correct polar region. My Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro package came with a wedge. You can purchase the MSM wedge separately or through one of several Move Shoot Move Nomad package options.
I Prefer a 3-way Geared Tripod Head to a Wedge because the geared head offers virtually the same function (precise polar alignment adjustments), but has many other uses as well, for only a little more money and weight. I've used the Benro 3-Way Geared Head for years; however, the new MSM geared head has similar specs, and it includes a 360 Degrees Panning Base under its Arca Swiss Plate. Both geared heads are about $175.
3. Compass App. If you're using an iPhone, the Compass app that comes with your phone is perfect. If you're using an android phone, I recommend Digital Compass.
4. Protractor App. This app will show the angle of inclination (above a level horizon) for which your tracker is pointing. For the iPhone, I recommend Protractor 360, which is actually listed on the App Store as an "Angle Gradient Inclinometer." I also like Bubble Level 2022, where you use the "y" axis degree readings. There are plenty of similar free apps for the android (but I'm not able to test them). Just be sure you test the app's accuracy against several known angles, because I found many iOS "bubble" apps gave false angle of inclination readings!
STEPS for "Compass & Protractor" Alignment:
1. Level Your Tripod Head with a head leveling base. Many photographers skip this step. It only takes a minute, but it will help to insure greater tracking accuracy, especially with longer tracking exposures and longer focal length lenses.
2. Attach your star tracker to your tripod UNDER a wedge or a 3-way geared head. Rotate the tracker and point it in the general direction of your polar region. Elevate the tracker's general inclination to the degree of latitude where you are located. If I was shooting in Bryce Canyon National Park, which has a general latitude of 37.6º N, I would angle or elevate my wedge or geared head to about 38 degree (even a rough 45º angle would work for now).
3. Align Tracker with Your Smartphone's Digital Compass. Both my Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro and my MSM Nomad trackers have flat surfaces where your can place your smartphone and be perfectly parallel with the tracker (where both the phone and the tracker are pointing in the same direction). The MSM Nomad was designed to have multiple flat surfaces, just for this purpose (the 3rd photo shows the smartphone and the Nomad in an even more accurate position, because the phone is using an even larger surface area against the Nomad). Now rotate your wedge or geared head until your compass reading is True North or True South. Be sure to note the latitude reading (which in this case is reading "40º 37' 49" N). This latitude will be used in the next step.
Improving Compass Accuracy: Make sure your compass app is set to True North and not the magnetic north. It's also very important to re-calibrate your digital compass regularly (especially just before this step). You can do this by rotate your phone several times in a large figure eight motion (keeping the phone parallel or level to the ground as much as possible during these motions). Here are additional suggestions for greater accuracy. Re-calibration of your compass also affects the Milky Way planning accuracy within apps like PhotoPills and Planit Pro.
4. Adjust Tracker's Latitude Heading Using Digital Protractor: With your smartphone against your tracker's flat surface, adjust the angle of inclination of your wedge or geared head until the angle reading on your digital protractor (or "bubble level" app) reads the correct angle of latitude for your location. YOUR TRACKER IS NOW ALIGNED TO THE POLAR AXIS!
NOTE: My GPS reading in step 3 was 40º 37' 49" — so technically I should have rounded this up to 41 degrees (because 37-minutes is more than one-half of 60-minutes). Don't make that same mistake (forgetting that we are working with fractions of 60 and not 100)!
5. Attach a ball head and camera/lens to the tracker. Compose your shot. TURN ON THE TRACKER AND START TRACKING & SHOOTING! I usually check my alignment one more time to make sure nothing moved, or I confirm my alignment with a laser pointer or refine my alignment with a polar scope for even greater accuracy. However, in most of your tracking situations, this simple polar alignment technique WORKS perfectly!
My Tracking Setup typically includes the Benro Tortoise Columnless #3 Carbon Fiber Tripod with its head leveling base. Above that is the Benro 3-way geared head. If I'm backpacking and concerned about weight, I sometimes will replace the geared head with the MSM Wedge (this doesn't happen too often because my geared head is so useful in all my photography that I'm willing to carry the extra 0.9 pounds or 408 grams). My little MSM Nomad tracker is mounted above that. It's much stronger and better designed than the original MSM Rotator/Tracker, and can carry loads up to 7.7 pounds (3.5kg). For most tracking situations I attach the MSM ball head directly to the tracker (at the red collar), and I use the laser pointer just to double-check and confirm my compass and protractor (latitude) settings. Occasionally, I will use the MSM Z Mount (or the "V" Mount) when the Milky Way composition is at an awkward position, making the ball head nearly impossible to use when it is attached directly to the tracker. The "Z" and "V" Mounts (designed by the late Alyn Wallace) are amazingly strong, stable and super versatile. I often use them when I want to do tracked panoramas because they provide a bubble level platform to attach the ball head, which can be easily rotated at its base for each pano/stitch exposure.
DISCOUNT CODE: If you plan to order any of Move Shoot Move (MSM) products, be sure to use my friend, Benjamin Barakat's code (BARAKAT5), at check out and save yourself an extra 5% (I also have a discount code, but I thought we could use his, since we featured his demonstration video).
