Now bundled with Cyclops Optics PM-ST Universal Portable Mount Adapter (US$49) at no extra cost for limited time period! 

Polar alignment has never been this quick and accurate

Accurate polar alignment in under 5 minutes and no more neck, back and knee pain. Works at both northern & southern hemisphere with atmospheric refraction correction.

Includes

• PoleMaster x1
• Cyclops Optics PM-ST Universal Portable Mount Adapter x1
• 1.8m USB cable with locking screws x1
• Screws and allen keys for installation
• Optional: Metal adapter of your choice for large equatorial mount
• Optional: PM Quick Plate

Advantages

• Accurate polar alignment in 5 minutes
• No more neck pain, ankle and muscle strain
• One star alignment to enable accurate goto instead of 3-star-alignment
• Now autoguiding on single axis portable tracker finally works

Features of Cyclops Optics PM-ST Adapter

• Fully compatible with QHYCCD PoleMaster and portable trackers;
• Delicately CNC machined from T6061 aluminium alloy billet;
• Anodised to champagne gold and CNC engraved logo for a luxurious feel;
• Knurled on the side for enhanced handling;
• Innovative design for comprehensive ease of use;
• Designed for all levels of astronomy enthusiasts;
• Optional Cyclops Optics PM Quick Plate is available for purchase, compatible with your existing PoleMaster adapter.

Hear what our customers say

The PM-ST adapter and Polemaster have allowed me to get the best performance out of the Astrotrac. The original polar-scope was very poor, and I simply could not collimate it accurately enough. I can now get 3-4 minute exposures at 400mm+ focal length lens on my Nikon D7200. I am very happy with the purchase. Astrotrac should simply offer this as an option! The tracking performance of Astrotrac is excellent once aligned, and your adapter allows me to do this quickly, and without much effort!

 -- Darren, USA

Say goodbye to the knee/back torturing polar alignment nights

Many of us have faced varying degrees of challenges to polar align our equatorial mount. Be it neck pain, stress on the knees or accidentally kicking the tripod, you must have had some of these frustrations down the road. PoleMaster allows you to do polar alignment at the comfort in front of your computer to a high degree of accuracy. While it will not help you align your mount mechanically, you can easily tell the true north position from your screen and adjust your mount accordingly without squatting, kneeling or whatever difficult pose to look through the polar scope. 

PoleMaster is very simple to use. Simply attach it to the RA axis of your mount with mount specific adapter, with Polaris and the surrounding region visible, PoleMaster software will do a plate solve and show you the current pointing of RA axis and the true north position. Overlap these two circles and you are good to go. The entire alignment procedure can be done in 5 minutes while some of our users have done it in shorter duration.

How simple is it to use PoleMaster? Deadly simple.

Simply follow the steps prompted by PoleMaster software and you will have a very precise polar alignment. 

Polar alignment without neck pain, ankle and muscle strain

With PoleMaster, you can do polar alignment at the comfort of sitting on your chair and looking at your computer screen. Cruching down and trying hard to peek through your polar scope is now in history. 

Accurate to 30 arcseconds of true north pole 

PoleMaster will first prompt you to do center axis calibration and then rough alignment which yields an accruacy around 5 arcminutes. Next, you will be asked to do fine alignment which PoleMaster will plate solve against the known stars. The accuracy after this step is approximately 30 arcseconds, much better than most polar scopes' 120 arcseconds (2 arcminutes) accuracy. 

Allows more accurate tracking with portable tracker limited to single axis autoguiding

Portable star trackers such as AstroTrac's and Star Adventurer do not have motor on the DEC unit. Therefore, the tracking error in the DEC axis caused by poor polar alignment can not be guided out. An accurate polar alignment could virtually eliminate the drifting in the DEC axis. Combined with autoguiding in the RA axis, you can dramatically improves the tracking performances of these portable trackers and enable the use of even longer focal length lens or longer exposure. 

Some hard facts:

Some examples of using the universal portable mount adapter PM-ST

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer	AstroTrac	Vixen Polarie

Cyclops Optics PM-ST Universal Portable Mount Adapter allows you to use PoleMaster on various portable trackers such as those shown above and any that has a 1/4" or 3/8" screw thread.

Compatible mounts (non-portable mount requires additional adapter)

• AstroTrac (via PM-ST Adapter)
• Astro-Physics AP900, AP1200
• Celestron CGEM, SkyWatcher NEQ6
• Celestron CG-5, AVX
• Geoptik GK300
• iOptron iEQ30, iEQ45
• iOptron CEM25 / ZEQ25, CEM60
• iOptron SmartEQ Pro
• iOptron SkyTracker (via PM-ST Adapter)
• Losmandy G11, GM8
• MESU 200
• Paramount MX (circular polar cap version)
• Paramount MX+ (rectangular cap version)
• SkyWatcher AZEQ5
• SkyWatcher HEQ5, HEQ5Pro, Orion Sirius EQ-G
• SkyWatcher EQ6, EQ6Pro, NEQ6Pro, AZ-EQ6, Orion Atlas Pro AZ-EQ, Atlas EQ-G, Meade LXD55, SkyView Pro
• SkyWatcher EQ8
• Star Adventurer (via PM-ST Adapter)
• SWAT200, 300 (via PM-ST Adapter)
• Takahashi EM-11, EM-200, P2-Z
• Takahashi EM-400, EM-500
• Takahashi NJP
• Vixen Polarie (via PM-ST Adapter)
• Vixen AP
• Vixen GP, GPD, GPDX
• Vixen SXD, SXD2
• Vixen SXP
• Pentax MS-4 (3D printed plastic only)

Mounts on the same line share the same adapter.

Select "Others" if your mount is not on the list. 3D printed plastic adapter will be supplied for mounts when metal adapter is not available yet.

Currently available metal adapters

EQ6, NEQ6, AZEQ6, Atlas EQ-G	iOptron CEM25 / ZEQ25	iOptron CEM60
iOptron iEQ30 / iEQ45	SkyWatcher HEQ5 / Orion Sirius EQ-G	Celestron AVX
Celestron CGEM	Takahashi EM-11/200	Losmandy G11 / GM8
AZEQ5	Vixen GP series (GP, GP2, GPD)	Vixen SXD, SXW, SX2, SXD2
Paramount MX	EQ8	Geoptik GK300

If you do not see your mount here, you can contact us and we will guide you on obtaining the measurements to have your custom made adapters.

Buy additonal adapters here — PoleMaster Adapters

Adapters in progress

• AP Mach1GTO, AP600E, AP1100GTO
• Celestron CGE, CGE Pro

Downloads

PoleMaster English Manual 1.0 (last updated: 29 November 2015)

PoleMaster Driver 20150915

PoleMaster Software v1.32 beta 8 (Windows 7 & Above)

PoleMaster Software v1.32 beta 5

• Added: [+], [-] buttons for step adjustment in stars matching template rotation
• Enhanced: New user interface for friendlier usage under dark sky (since beta 3)
• Fixed: errors in prompt message
• Fixed: unable to obtain polar position on some computers (since beta 2)

PoleMaster Software v1.3.2.3 (Mac OSX)

Past Versions (for reference only)

PoleMaster Software v1.08

PoleMaster Software v1.10 (with native Japanese translation)

PoleMaster Software v1.14 beta

• Added: Atmospheric refraction correction
• Added: Southern hemisphere support
• Improved English instructions
• Added: Zoom image to fit window
• Improved: image quality of the zoomed image

PoleMaster Software v1.16

• Fixed: sometimes the displayed image could be all black;
• Updated: range of pressure value now expanded to 90~110 kPa;
• Added: now user can select unit of pressure value;
• Added: control the tracking pole with mouse middle wheel;
• Added: parameters of astronomical refraction are now saved;
• Improved: Japanese translation of astronomical refraction correction interface.

PoleMaster Software v1.20

• Added: Italian interface 

PoleMaster Software v1.31

• Added: Russian interface
• Added: Korean interface (v.130)

PoleMaster Software v1.32 beta2 

• Updated: Star database till June 2025
• Added: French instruction (thanks to Jean-Luc Colas!)
• Fixed: '2016/11/23 is not valid date' bug
• Fixed: Pole monitor screen anomaly