I had a list made of photographic targets for tonight - M16, M8, NGC 55, NGC 253. Did what I thought was a good polar alignment after setting up, and punched in M16. Off she went...to somewhere other than M16! I was in Ophiuchus instead. Hmmmmm. Spotted it with the finder, guided it in. Did 30 subs (with seemingly LITTLE movement between subs).
Decided good idea to re-align and re-GOTO align. Ran the re-alignment routine in Synscan, and was spot of elevation (seemingly) but out 2° or so in azimuth. Grrrr. Loosened the screws, shifted it over.
Went to do another 3 star alignment - first time ever the synscan told me that there was likely going to be significant error.
Back to square one.
This time I was out in alt and az - I am thinking either the south tripod leg was slowly settling (I had to adjust the height to get it level tonight), or the Synscan was being silly (more on that later). Tried again, and was not getting anywhere fast! The darned position I am in limits my alignment stars, so the Synscan was offering darned obscure ones (why the bloody thing won't offer Achernar, Canopus, or Antares most of the time frustrates I am sure not only me!), but thankfully, it at least offered me Markab for the northerly align.
Well, that kept on going - I was snowballing. The second one cloud rolled in, I told self it was a Divine Sign from the God of Astronomers, and packed up.
I REALLY wanted to hone my drift alignment procedure toight so I could finally break the 1 minute exposure comfortably... nope...
Time for bed.
