Refinment of Polar Alignment

[Gerald Sargent]

Having Polar Aligned using PAM, which is pretty good, I have a CCD
atttached to my OTA. Can anyone advise on a simple procedure (or
programme) that would enable me to refine the alignment using a drift
procedure using the CCD ? I know that K3CCDTools is good, but that
requires that I change the CCD for a Video device of some sorts and
that I do not wish to do. Gerald.

[mtodman]

What CCD Camera do you use?
I use WCS to polar align which seems to do a reasonable job.
http://wcs.ruthner.at/index-en.php
It supports some non webcams (eg, Meade DSI & Imaging Source cameras). Failing that, perhaps Pempro would help?

[rogerg]

My "simple procedure" is to have the cross-hairs displayed in CCDSoft, position the star accurately on an intersection of the cross-hair lines and time accurately the drift using a normal stopwatch or similar. Using accurate timing ensures I can make accurate and repeatable changes.

Roger.

[DeanoNZL]

Gerald, you could try this method also, provides great results.
http://www.skyinsight.com/wiki/index.php/CCD_Drift_Method