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  #21  
Old 10-08-2013, 11:34 PM
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gregbradley
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Not sure if you are using a camera but if so you can use Star Targ which is an overlay with instructions for your computer screen. You use the camera to do the drift aligning. Its easy and fast plus it has instructions built in.

Polar alignment can be a source of frustration so whichever method you adopt plan on being expert at it as its the basis of future imaging and without it as a skill good images will not be possible. So its worth spending some serious time mastering it.

Greg.
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Old 11-08-2013, 11:42 PM
johnnyt123 (John)
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Greg do you have a link to download Stat Targ from?
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Old 12-08-2013, 12:27 AM
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Tandum (Robin)
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Don't waste your time with startarg, if you have a guide camera, just use PHD.

Get set up with a compass and level, and turn the scope east (90 degrees to the mount). Start PHD, connect to the guide camera and the scope if you pulse guide and start capturing (1 sec exp). Raise the scope slowly on RA to about 20 degrees or until you see a star in PHD. Lock that star and press the phd button to get it to calibrate. Let it calibrate.

Once it calibrates, press stop, now press the brain button and disable guiding output, it's a tick box. Start capture again, click that star again, click tools / enable graph on the overhead menus. Move the graph as you see fit and then click PHD again for guiding.

Watch DEC on the graph, ignore RA, not important. If it starts to go up or down, adjust altitude to shoot the line in the opposite direction in which it's moving. Stop and repeat. Eventually the line will start going the other way, you have turned it too far. Get it close then :-

Move RA, not DEC, and point scope straight up. It should be pointing a little north and more or less straight up. No need to calibrate again but do the same as before, find a star, clear the graph, start guiding. Now if the DEC starts going down turn left/right knobs to make it go the same way faster, off the screen. Reacquire a star and repeat. It will eventually go the opposite way so you have gone too far there.

Repeat step one and two if you want otherwise close enough.
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