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Old 23-01-2011, 10:52 AM
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Rigel003 (Graeme)
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K3CCD tools and starshoot autoguider

Is there a way that you can get K3 to accept input from the Orion SSAG?
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Old 23-01-2011, 11:27 AM
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DavidTrap (David)
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No. There is a method using PHD to do your polar alignment - search the forum.

DT
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Old 23-01-2011, 04:10 PM
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It would be very very handy Graeme, but as David has pointed out, no. Many's the time I've wished it did when wanting to show people how to polar align using K3 and OSS or the Qhy5
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Old 23-01-2011, 09:48 PM
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Yeah, its a real bummer....
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Old 24-01-2011, 06:42 AM
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I have a Lumenera Skynyx that it will work with but it has a smaller sensor and it's just one more bit of gear to take along. Bigger and heavier than the SSAG.
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Old 25-01-2011, 09:19 AM
adman (Adam)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidTrap View Post
No. There is a method using PHD to do your polar alignment - search the forum.

DT
have a look at this link - will get you started. very simple and fast to do polar alignment using PHD. Love it.

Adam
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Old 25-01-2011, 11:24 AM
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Thanks for posting that Adam. I sent the last post from my phone - attaching the link would have been possible, but...

Cheers
DT
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Old 25-01-2011, 02:03 PM
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have a look at this link - will get you started. very simple and fast to do polar alignment using PHD. Love it.

Adam
there are a number of processes where you can use PhD to drift align. I would like to just highlight a couple of errors in the method described in the link.'

1. you never drift align using RA drift. It has nothing to do with it. The author says "To check the RA alignment chose a star at 0° elevation close to the meridian." This just doesn't make sense. For a start you can not see a star at 0 deg elevation. He is in fact talking about checking the Azimuth adjustment and you choose a start at 0 deg declination but close to the meridian.

2. The author then says for the Dec to select a star as close to the horizon as possible. Once you get below 15 deg elevation to the horizon refraction plays a big part in the apparent position of a star. Preferably select a start at 0 deg (+/- 5 deg) dec again and between 15 and 20 deg elevation. This star is used to adjust your mount elevation.

3. in step 2 ignore what he says and replace with my comment in 1. above.

4. Step 9. No you do not have to recalibrate. My suggestion is setup your initial calibration, stop guiding, go into the brain box and tick disable guide output. This way the graph will still work but no pulses will be sent and only drift (and PE) will show on the graph.

I've not used the Dx/Dy. I can't see the benefit. If you watch the graph the dec line of the graph will start to drift almost immediately if polar alignment is out.


To make all this process much simpler I would recommend that when you put your guide camera in and get it started, turn on the bulls eye reticule and press your up and down buttons (dec) on your hand controller (prior to callibrating). Rotate the camera so that when you press the up button the star moves up parallel to the reticule and the same down. If you are using a star diagonal then it must be orientated vertically along the centerline of the scope. (or at 90 deg pointing left or 90 deg pointing right. I suggest straight up and down.)

I'll reiterate something that I seem to say over and over when showing people how to drift align using PhD or K3.......... IGNORE RA!!!!! It has absolutely NOTHING!!!!! to do with drift alignment. You are adjusting Elevation and Altitude to remove drift in DEC ONLY.

Last edited by [1ponders]; 25-01-2011 at 02:40 PM.
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Old 25-01-2011, 03:06 PM
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Nice one Paul

Thanks for clearing that all up.
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Old 25-01-2011, 03:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by [1ponders] View Post
I'll reiterate something that I seem to say over and over when showing people how to drift align using PhD or K3.......... IGNORE RA!!!!! It has absolutely NOTHING!!!!! to do with drift alignment. You are adjusting Elevation and Altitude to remove drift in DEC ONLY.
god he can be bossy at times.

But it's all very good advice.
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Old 25-01-2011, 03:50 PM
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Old 25-01-2011, 03:58 PM
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Thanks for the link, Adam, and the extra clarification, Paul. I had already read this tutorial and understood the essence, despite the details you referred to. On the one occasion I tried it, it wasn't all that much quicker for me than my usual visual drifting with a star, 12mm reticle eyepiece and 2.5x barlow. Maybe the seeing was really off but the graph was going all over the place and it took some time to see a clear drift up or down - there were so many ups and downs. Have you been saying that K3CCD works more efficiently than this PHD method?

Quote:
Originally Posted by [1ponders] View Post
You are adjusting Elevation and Altitude to remove drift in DEC ONLY.
Do you mean adjusting elevation and azimuth?
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Old 25-01-2011, 04:07 PM
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yeah that's it Thanks Graeme. Poor proof editing gets my dander up
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Old 25-01-2011, 04:16 PM
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I just had a thought. Maybe by increasing the exposure time in PHD, to say to 5 secs, the small fluctuations in the graph caused by seeing will be less noticeable and a drifting trend more obvious in the graph.
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Old 25-01-2011, 04:34 PM
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you could but it would only slow you down Graeme. The seeing effects really don't come into it. The graph will go up or down, noticeably at first, but once you get close the scintillation from seeing will average out pretty quickly. I use K3 with a ToUcam 840 with 5 f/s at 1/25th exp and it works fine.
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