AstroMuni

Its a good distro and is slowly but surely becoming more main stream. I tried it when it was in its first few releases and faced issues where the updates would break the OS and it had to be reinstalled from scratch. So as compared to Astroberry or Stellarmate its still in its infant stages but fast getting there all thanks to its maintainer...Hats off for his efforts.

You might just get away without one. I need a CC for the ASI533 with 130/650 scope.

As a Mac user you could also try Kstars/Ekos which runs natively on Mac & Linux based devices. This software also provides the tool for PA.

Anyone who can use a phone to respond in forums is still young... ha ha After doing a 2/3 star alignment the synscan app is trying to tell you how far off you are from a perfect polar alignment. If you find you are way off then start the process again (without using the hand controller). I wouldnt worry too much about it if you have visually checked the location of polaris in the clockface. I never get perfect PA and can still manage to get decent images without star trails. So dont worry.

This post may help https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/639135-synscan-goto-alignment-precision/

Sorry, whats this??

@TiffsAndAstro The advice above makes perfect sense to me, but as its causing some confusion in your mind lets keep it simple & try this again from scratch.... - To align your polarscope reticle try this https://www.myastroscience.com/polarscopecalibration - Do NOT use your handcontroller for these steps - Position your mount so that Polaris is visible in your polarscope - Rotate the axis until the clockface is right side up (i.e 12 or 0 is up and 6 is down). Personally I am not fussed about the numbers themselves as long as it resembles a clock (eg. 3 maybe in 6 o'clock position) - Use the al-az knobs, latitude bolt until polaris is in the right position in the clock face. You can get the location from any polar alignment app on your phone - You can now start using the hand controller to do star alignment etc. DO NOT move your mount or adjust any knobs after doing star alignment! Hope this makes sense 🙂

NINA (for windows users) and Ekos (for Mac/Linux/RPi users) Ekos certainly does this.

Looks like you have a similar reticle to mine. If you look closely you will notice 3 circles in the clock face. The years tell you which of the circles to use for aligning Polaris. At the moment its the central ring. I wouldnt worry too much about parallax error. I have been doing polar alignment using the polarscope and my images havent been badly affected using exposure times between 30-60s without guiding. Good luck.

Also play around with this tool https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability to see which camera is best suited for your scope. Assuming you have already purchased this scope, the FL is 750mm so the only variable factor is pixel size. A lot of modern cameras have pixel sizes between 2.9-3.75um and you can see from the calculator that getting a camera with 2.9um is more favourable as you can also bin 2x2. Ultimately I think its your budget that will help decide which camera to go for. I started my AP journey with an ASI224mc.

ttttt = Lots of tomatoes working together? 😉

My understanding is that the telescope/lens will dictate the FoV. The camera sensor can only limit this view (assuming the sensor is not large enough). So in the examples below, for the same scope you could get larger sensor cameras and get more of the object into the view.

Or a focal reducer $$$ 🙂

You could still do that with the images you have gathered, dont have to wait for clear skies 🙂

Thats definitely the situation due to the weather here 😞 and by the time I get to the stage of going out and setting up the scope my planning is out of date ! Technology has helped me a lot in this regard. I have an RPi sitting outside in the cold and I can remain inside the house remotely accessing it. This would not have been easily achievable (say) 10 years ago, if at all.

Thats a great image.

Suggest you get familiar with tools such as NINA which can assist with polar alignment, imaging, managing the mount etc. If you are a Mac user try Kstars/Ekos.

Or purchase https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/sw_heq5_dual_saddle.html 🙂

And if you cant be bothered to manually place the markers, use GraXpert AI 🙂 In fact I recommend using this when you have a lot of nebulosity. It does a much better job than RBF.

Didnt know that it fits completely inside the head. Good to know 🙂 On mine it came separately.

Welcome. In your picture I cant see the counterweight bar or the counterweights. Assume you have those somewhere. If not you need those.

What shall I call this peak? 😉

I also realised that you have what appears to be the primary showing up for guiding purposes. Am I missing something? I have a 30mm guidescope with ASI120 mini attached to it

Thats useful. Thanks. I am a big fan of Ekos too. Could you share your config page. Also useful to know where in the sky do you prefer to calibrate the guiding. Is there a reason its only on RA? Anything to do with polar alignment or other factors?

Put Polaris in the middle of the circle and then adjust the alt bolts so that Polaris now moves vertically up. That should be 12 O'clock. You could do the same downwards to get 6 O'clock position. Mark the position on your ring/body of the mount so you know the home position. Note: if its a new mount, I would double check that the Polarscope reticle is correctly aligned as well. Read https://www.myastroscience.com/polarscopecalibration