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Hi Terry,
OK, I think we will be able to get you there.
After reading all this thread, I think you are very close.
Alignmaster will act as the 'goto' software in this case as all you are doing is aligning the mount which has nothing to do with looking for stars, deep sky stuff etc, that is different and comes
later. Don't use any other software at this point.
You mentioned the Ascom driver and that is the clue because Alignmaster uses this so it knows your mount and communicates with the computer.
Only Alignmaster, a compass, your mounts hand controller, an Ascom camera so you can see the star to centre, I use PHD software with the bullseye in conjunction with the camera to centre the star
and a computer is needed to polar align.
1. You need to align your scope as best as you can with your hands, (position of mount on the ground), using a compass to point to celestial south, not magnetic south. I'm not sure what that
setting is for you for your location, but for me on my compass the setting is 172 degrees. You will need to find out from your mount manual, which way to point your mount so that it is correct.
Somehow work out how to tell by the compass that you are correctly pointing as best as you can with a compass. NOTE: If that is not done correctly, nothing will work after that. Once done,
Alignmaster is there so that you can fine tune the mount for much better polar alignment than what you can achieve by eye. Also you need to as best as you can set the correct height of the mount
according to your location. For me it is 35 degrees. I'm in Adelaide Australia.
2. When the above is done and some stars are in the sky, you start Alignmaster and PHD so you can see the stars in your camera view, pick a set of stars from the list and MANUALLY slew with your
hand controller to the first star. Once you have centred that star in the PHD software, (use the bulls eye overlay in PHD to help get it centred), press the next button and Alignmaster will ask
you to slew to the second star. Do this with your hand controller and again centre this star. Make sure you know your stars and are pointing at exactly the correct stars or all will fail. It is
easy to find the wrong star in the sky, (I do that from time to time, and you will get big errors).
Then at that point, Alignmaster will communicate with your mount, (Ascom), and slew away from the last star you selected, at this point watch very carefully which way the star moves off the PHD
screen as you will have to bring it back by adjusting your mount manually, NOT USING THE HAND CONTROLLER and NOT by loosening your mounts bolts, but using the mounts alt/dec adjustments, (not sure
what your mount has), and physically bring the star back to the centre line in the PHD screen. Most likely it can't be centred in the middle, but as close to the line it is heading for when you
bring it back. Now I'm not sure what adjustments your mount has to do that but you are only doing one axis at a time. Also don't overshoot the line in PHD, if you do, start again and do it very
slowly. Once done, then Alignmaster will ask you to do the other axis. Again Alignmaster will talk to your mount and move your mount a little and the star will shoot off from centre again and you
will then have to bring it back into view using the OTHER axis adjustment on your mount.
NOTE: Sometimes depending on how good you were with manually lining your mount up with the compass, will depend on how far the star slews
away from PHD screen, the better you are it will be always somewhere in view, the worse, it can shoot right off the screen view, that's why you have to watch it.
So once the above is done, then repeat the process, Alignmaster will ask you if you want to do that, and start again by selecting the same two start from the list in Alignmaster, NOW, this is the
good bit, Alignmaster will remember where these stars are and instead of using your hand controller to centre the stars, there is a little button in Alignmaster called goto, press this and your
scope will slew automatically to the first star, once done, use you hand controller to centre the star and click next. Again, Alignmaster will ask you to slew to the second star as before, and
again, use the goto button in Alignmaster and it will slew to the second star. Centre this star and click next.
NOW at this point don't do anything else until you observe the numbers at the bottom of the Alignmaster screen, these will tell you how good your polar alignment is. If they are good, then you do
not need to adjust the mount anymore. See earlier in the post as I have already explained that bit.
If they are not all zeros except the last 2 digits on both axis, then repeat the whole process as before by selecting the same stars again in Alignmaster. You may need to do this a few times to
get the numbers down but by being careful, it will work. I do it about 4 - 5 times and it only really takes about 1/2 an hour ish.
Once done, you are aligned.
NOTE: when doing the manual alignment with the compass, do it in the daytime and once done, wait for dark when you can see the stars to use Alignmaster.
Now you are polar aligned, you will need to synch your mount, (if it has that feature, you will need to speak with someone who has one of these mounts or get the info from the mount manual), to the stars in the sky and either have a GPS thing or manually put in location/date/time etc and then slew to the object/s you want to
photo and use PHD or whatever you use to guide.
I really like Alignmaster, as once you crack it, it is so easy and quick to use compared to drift aligning.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Damien.
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