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Thanks Terry
Its all a bit odd. I was keen to try TPoint so bought TSX Pro. It was all part of a general upgrade with a new PC to drive the scope and my lovely new pier.
Last night I had TSX, EQMOD and Maxim all talking happily. I did a 10 star run with TPoint and was told my polar alignment was off only 12 arcminutes. After adjusting it, I was able to refine it a bit (though the alt was then out).
Then I noticed that there was a difference between the RA/DEC recorded by Maxim as it slewed to a star and that shown for that star by TSX. Plate solve with Pinpoint confirmed the Maxim record. I then did a plate solve with MPO Canopus and it confirmed the Maxim RA and DEC.
All very odd. I found the difference was a few arcminutes - at times 10 arcminutes which made plate solving a real pain with my RC8 (it has only a 30x20 arcsecond FOV).
So my thinking was that Maxim took its RA/DEC from EQMOD. Perhaps there is a difference in time or site details. But this is unlikely as the PC time is used for all software.
I wonder whether it has to do with the sync feature. With TPoint, I synced the first star with TSX only. I then slewed to the next target star, centered it manually (using crosshairs on the Maxim image) and added that location in TPoint. However, later I used Pinpoint to platesolve an image, synced in Maxim and then used the centre function in Maxim to bring the relevant target star into the centre of teh image. I then added that star in TPoint.
Perhaps what is happening is that TPoint and EQMOD are developing different pointing models. While I am adding target stars happily in one area of the sky, all works well. But when I head to a new area of the sky, there is a difference between the 2 models, resulting in the difference between Maxim/EQMOD and TPoint.
I am connecting to TSX via the ASCOM/X2 driver and selecting EQMOD EQ5/6 in settings in both TSX and Maxim.
I'd welcome any thoughts on this.
Pete
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