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Traditional Drift align combined with PHD 2 Align Graph


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Last night or should I say this morning :grin:  I was feeling chuffed with myself as I managed to solve my guiding issues.

I established that my cables were ever so slightly pulling on my scope and once anchored in a position that had no effect on the guiding my Graph became consistent again. I was suprised by how much effect just a  small amount of cable pull can have, I advice others to really check this if they have problems.

  I decided to try PHD2 drift align software out more out of curiosity than necessity.

In the end I found my traditional method of placing a 5mm reticle eyepiec in a 2x Barlow the quickest .

I did find however that allowing the Drift to start in PHD2 and inspect the drift graph, especially the trend line quite hhelpful

I did the following:

Started testing drift with my barlowed 5mm Reticle eyepiece and then I started PHD2 Drift align tool and clicked the drift icon and watched it for a minute or to to check the drift line. The trend line  was about 2mm off center and I already knew which way to compensate as I was doing a traditional alignment anyway. I found the trend Lign gave a very quick and accurate visual clew as to how far off I was.

I managed to get about 0.03' error on either axis.

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Very nice report. I have just started using PHD 2.3.1 and I was quite surprised how much the drift align protocol produced an initial error very similar to that reported by the Synscan software. I have used the drift align now on 3 occasions and very quickly I got used to tweaking the mount in the correct direction cutting down my PA routine time considerably. The trend lines from my HEQ5 pro take around 4 minutes to settle from when I can make the Relevant Alt/Az adjustments. After only a couple of iterations I can achieve about 8 arc seconds of PA error. To be honest I think I'm probably at the limit of my mounts capability. In all I find it quite an easy routine to follow.

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I use the PHD 2 drift align regularly..in fact all the time, i don't have a Polar scope fitted to the EQ8,  i find it easy because i don't have to remove the CCD, and it auto selects the best star for drift and it only needs one calibration.

i have heard good things about align master but i believe that uses  an eye piece to visually align the stars.

Phd2 gives me a good alignment, usually within 1 arc sec but better if i work at it,  i do find however that it can take some time on occasions..for e.g If my tripod is not well aligned initially!

Ray  

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I use the PHD 2 drift align regularly..in fact all the time, i don't have a Polar scope fitted to the EQ8,  i find it easy because i don't have to remove the CCD, and it auto selects the best star for drift and it only needs one calibration.

i have heard good things about align master but i believe that uses  an eye piece to visually align the stars.

Phd2 gives me a good alignment, usually within 1 arc sec but better if i work at it,  i do find however that it can take some time on occasions..for e.g If my tripod is not well aligned initially!

Ray  

Hi Ray,

You use can use ccd camera to polar align using AlignMaster

Steve

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I found this link very useful, hopefully others will too 

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/472874-drift-alignment-with-phd2-the-bookmark-technique/

Ray

Nice link. I also use the bookmark feature to approximate error with level of adjustment at the mount. I find that's fine for azimuth adjustment say 1/8 th turn approximates to a PA change of .1 arc min, but for Alt it's more hit and miss and I'm sure this is down to the crude adjustments on my HEQ5 pro. It also forces me to be disciplined with my drift star position choice. I know not everybody is a fan but I like it a lot.

Now does anybody know if PHD 2 will work with Yosemite.........hmm?

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Last night I could see a few stars but due to High stratus imaging was not on the agender.

I had a play with PHD2 Drift align.

I have to say that I like it.

I kept the procedure simple by just adjusting 1/4 of a turn my AZ adjuster knobs at first let it drift  for 2min until the trend line stabilized and then 1/8 of a turn and then a few mm until I got to 0.01-0.06. The same fofr the Alt adjustment.

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I found this link very useful, hopefully others will too 

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/472874-drift-alignment-with-phd2-the-bookmark-technique/

Ray

Frankly, I don't think it's that complicated (in fact I know). I don't use bookmarks, trend line is all that matters.  After few sessions one should know how much adjusting is needed. For 30 min subs @ <1000 mm, <2' is precise enough and that can be achieved in 15-20 min.   

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