Quote:
Originally Posted by Dilsh
Hi all,
I had a question about polar alignment.
I am very much a beginner and I do not even have a mount as yet (
I am still waiting for Eq6r-pro stock.)
Was reading about plate solving in APT, mainly in the context of 'star aligning' the scope.
The process for aligning to scope in APT seems to be
1) Polar align the scope
2) Slew the scope somewhere random away from the SCP and start tracking
3) run Point Craft and blind solve for this position and then sync with the mount (analogous with a one star alignement)
4) goto++ for desired imaging object.
I was wondering for polar alignment if these steps would work
1) roughly align scope to SCP
2) run blind plate solve
3) move alt-az based on results
4) redo above two steps till polar aligned.
Am I missing something here (i feel like I most certainly am) or can this work for polar alignment.
Cheers
D
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Kind of sounds like you're effectively using your imaging scope as a polar scope, and platesolving to bring the pole to centre. The issue that I can imagine is that you're not getting feedback on the adjustments that you're making, and I can imagine many, many, many iterations to get sort of close.
Like Ken says, sharpcap is great for this. You go through a 1min RA rotation procedure and once done it gives constant feedback on your adjustments to alt and az, its doing a similar thing, solving continuously as you adjust. This method brings PA to under 15 arc seconds on each axis within a minute or two. And the final adjustments to get it to that level must be less than 1/100th of a turn of the alt and az knobs. Often the last 10 seconds of adjustment is just tightening one knob "a bit harder" against a stop that is not moving.... its very precise!
Your idea shows that you have the concept of it on lock, which is a good sign. (and reading APT doco before your mount arrives, to boot!)