Quote:
Originally Posted by ericwbenson
HI Pete,
Here is an idea to maybe isolate the problem to either software or mount electronics/mecahnicals as the culprit.
Firstly keep everything as simple as possible as you have done previously, turn off PEC and Protack and have no model loaded, nothing just stock out of the box setup, just good polar alignment (you are sure this is the case right!?!)
-With tracking on, center a star on the CCD about an hour or two from the meridian. Take a short unguided picture (10 sec?), with something else than TSX would be good because of part two below. While leaving tracking on, disconnect the TSX from the mount, and close down the app completely.
-At some time later, before going into the flip zone and long enough for you to be sure you could detect drift, take another picture. Note the amount of drift.
-Now repeat the whole thing, but with TSX connected the whole time, start with a new star that is in the same position of the sky as the first one was when you started, so from a mechanical flex point it's the same.
You essentially need two stars at about 7th mag at the same declination about 1-2 hours apart in RA.
There will be drift over the hour from tube flex, mount flex, imaging train flex, mount gear/electronics "badness" etc. But the *difference* in the amount of drift between the two runs must be due to software/PC clock/OS clock interaction. No difference between the two runs means the problem is in the mount.
Good luck,
EB
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Thanks for the suggestion Eric.
I was thinking last night whether I could take TSX out of the equation which is not that far from your idea.
Its a bit tricky for me as I'm 6 hours drive away. I may give this a go if I continue to have issues.
Pete