Hi,
Still no luck
(1) With CCDSoft/Maxim DL depending on the measurement time in step 2 of the wizard I get star trails but when i click on the start and end it says the value is too small and not in range max to min. The value is around 0.03.
I ignored this step and looked up arcsec/pixel for my TV85/0.8 reducer/SBIG 2000 and got 3.2 arcsec/pixel which i entered.
I am not sure of the camera angle to enter. With the scope in the home position and the camera plugged in straight up and down, what should the angle be? Then will this angle change when i slew to the meridian or does it just mean the angle of the camera when i am trying to polar align?
(2) No matter what I do CCDSoft cannot seem to find a star for tracking. Note that there is no convert to mono option for CCDSoft. Maxim DL can find a star easily. However, sometimes I get a good pinpoint image when I watch the maxim dl preview while tracking, and sometimes it goes all grainy. It does not seem to matter if i select convert to mono and pick LISSAA or high quality RRGB, sometimes grainy, sometimes sharp.
(3) Pressing on, at least Maxim DL does track, (note I dont have the autoguider cable) so assume EQDIR is doing the tracking, etc. The adjustments I get are all over the place and I am reasonably close to the pole. When I say reasonably close, maybe a few degrees and close enough to get a reasonable alignment visually in 30 minutes. For example it says 100 arcminutes west, then i adjust and it might then say 200 arcminutes west or even east and then back to west again.
maybe its the wrong camera angle; and the fact that sometimes the image is grainy and sometimes not. Anyway I am buggered and definately need some help
Cheers
Paul