Help Wanted Please - Sky 6 - improving alignment

[niko]

sitting here waiting for the comet and trying to find sucker holes I thought I'd ask this question.

My polar alignment seems okay and PHD Guiding is working okay but when I slew to an object using Sky 6 I'm a bit out. Can I refine the "alignment" in the software to improve target accuracy? In other words tweak the pointing using the game controller I use through EQMod and then tell Sky 6 that that's actually where the object is not slightly out as it is doing?

thanks in advance for any suggestions

cheers

niko

here's to clear skies in 2012!

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Niko, TheSky tells the mount where to go and leaves it to do its thing. StellariumScope, C2A, CdC, HNS all do the same. If it is not winding up where it was told it is because the mount's alignment is not good enough. You might need some more alignment stars to improve the model so the error can be allowed for in the computations. If your mount has a polar align improvement function you could use that, or do a drift align.

By the way, PHD keeps the guide star in the same place in its image. It sends whatever RA and Dec corrections it has to to keep it there but will not stop field rotation caused by misalignment.

[g__day (Matthew)]

Tpoint or MaxPoint do the job with the Sky6

[Barrykgerdes]

I take it that you are using n EQ6 mount driven from the computer via ASCOM and EQMOD.

Is your problem precision or accuracy? Have you tested the program's "goto" with any other planetarium programs? Are you sending the information to the mount as a 2 byte or 4 byte word? Are the errors in both alt and dec.? If they are predominately RA then your polar alignment is probably good If not re-check polar alignment otherwise it is most likely that your star alignment may not be close enough , or not always approaching from the same direction to limit backlash errors.

Without "prompts" like Tpoint etc. Accuracy in specific areas is done by syncing on nearby known objects.

I hope this gives a few things to look at.

Barry