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Wayne
Glad to help
I noticed you are using a Skywatcher EQ6 mount ??
You mention about a 3 star alignment in your reply
Just remember that a star alignment and polar alignment are 2 different functions of your telescope mount
Polar alignment is to align the central axis of your scope to the south celestial pole or very close to , using the Azimuth and Altitude bolts of the mount
Star alignment is to provide your mount with a starting point in the home position ( or SCP position ) and input date , time, latitude data etc.. and move or slew it to 1,2 or 3 Stars positions on the same side of the meridian , sync it to each star position to achieve an accurate pointing model through sophisticated algorithms built into the memory of the mount. Once Star alignment is achieved it is saved. If your polar alignment is very poor with large error from the start , your Star alignment will also be inaccurate with stars outside the field of view and drift etc.., I’ve only ever used a 2 star alignment which is good enough for accuracy ( a 3 star alignment seems a bit unnecessary)
If you are using the EQ6 mount you don’t need a view of the south celestial pole to polar align with those damn neck breaking, eye squinting polar scopes ( I’ve never used the polar scope to polar align as both my imaging locations have no clear view of the SCP , so I’ve been using the Skywatcher Syncan Polar Alignment routine for 4 years now with great success
There are many capture software programmes which include a polar alignment feature but the Synscan is fine as you already have the handcontroller
Most times I can be be polar aligned to 1 arc minute or below in 10 to 15 minutes which is more than satisfactory for PHD2 guiding
Attached is my procedure for the Synscan polar alignment routine if your interested in using it ( I use my old DSLR in the main scope ( newt) and my laptop with BYEOS alignment feature ) Years ago before the laptop I used a wide view illuminated reticle eye piece to centre stars.
Hope I haven’t advised above things you already know , apologies if I did
Cheers
Martin
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