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Damien,
Ok now we are getting somewhere
That’s about as tight as you can polar align that mount ( well under an arc minute )
Well done !!!!
What scope are you using on that EQ35 mount ?
In most cases with tight polar alignment on these Skywatcher EQ mounts you can only take up to 60 seconds ( maybe up to 90 sec if your lucky ) exposures before your Stars start to look eggy shaped or rice shaped.These mounts are not mechanically designed and machined as good as Swiss watches so it limits you to 60sec at best or 90 sec exposures if your lucky.So there are mechanical deficiencies in your mount whilst it tracks an object across the night sky
Here’s where Autoguiding steps in
Autoguiding assists your mount to keep pointing at an object with very high precision whilst the mount tracks across the night sky
Autoguiding allows you go beyond the 60 sec unguided exposure and successfully take 2 min , 3 min , 4 min , 5 min or up to 10minute exposures with perfectly round stars
PHD2 is the most popular and successful guiding software across the globe and it’s a free download
You will need a guide scope and guide camera connected via USB cable to your laptop to get started with guiding
Maybe read up on PHD2 guiding to get your head around it !!!
In the meantime just take 40 to 60 sec (unguided exposures ) to gain experience with imaging
Pick easy bright targets like Carina nebula , Omega Centauri cluster and other Star clusters to get some imaging time under your belt. Forget about dim targets like the Horsehead, galaxies etc.. with 60 sec exposures , they just won’t cut it
PS: As far as slewing to targets the Synscan handcontroller will never be perfectly accurate , it will always be off target a bit due to your mounts mechanical deficiencies and poor atmospheric conditions etc... just centre it
Alternatively you can spend more time on your 2 star alignment achieve more accuracy
Make sure you pick 2 bright alignment stars on the same side of the meridian, similar altitudes say within 20 degrees and not more than 60 degrees in azimuth apart
Last night I used Acrux and Regulus as my 2 star alignment stars ( Acrux was my polar alignment Star )
Cheers
Martin
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