Drift Aligning

[BigBlueOne]

Hi everyone,

The hour is nearly upon me, the drift align shakes just wont pass.

Its like being told you,ve got the dentist today, now dont forget.

Seriously though my problem is one of view, the eastern sky I can

get up to say 35-40 deg from celestial plain, but from my zenith

heading south maybe 25-30 deg could I still get a reasonable

alignment.

Im pushed for space and my garden slopes up, so I,ve got to go

with what I have.

Thankyou BigBlueOne.

[MartinB]

Still ok for drift aligning, the reason for getting down to the equator is that the drift is faster.

[Merlin66]

90% of the observers in Oz Drift align each session....gets easier with practise....

[BigBlueOne]

Thankyou Merlin66 and MartinB,

You,ve explained the reason for going that low much appreciated.

BigBlueOne.

[James]

It took me years to bother to get round to doing drift alignment - after doing it a couple of times it was easy and I do it every time when I'm not set up on my pier. For the 15-20 minutes it can take I get pretty good guiding for the rest of the night.

It's a bit like collimation really - scary as hell but not so bad once you've done it a couple of times.

James

[BigBlueOne]

Thankyou James,

Its my next big deal on my learning curve, so im checking all

points for the big event.

BigBlueOne.

[Earl]

I have not bothered with drift aligning, I just did a EQmod polar align and use PHD for guiding, I have got 20min subs fine.

Im i missing something?

[Spikey]

Same here Earl, I use EQMOD to polar align - takes 2 clicks of the mouse to set the bubble in the correct place. Then PHD for guiding and I get 20 min subs with a good PHD graph. I've never tried past 20 mins yet, more down to the weather than any other reason but I can't see why I wouldn't get 30 min subs.

[BigBlueOne]

Hi Spikey,

I think in time that will be my next purchase a guide camera

with phd. but for now I would like to get the drift align under my belt.

BigBlueOne.

[Black Knight]

I have not bothered with drift aligning, I just did a EQmod polar align and use PHD for guiding, I have got 20min subs fine.

Im i missing something?

I used to drift align every session using WCS to varying degrees of success (more a problem with me I suspect rather than the software ).

These days I use the DARV tool in APT to drift align after using EQMod's PA routine. And TBH, EQMod's PA is so good, that I haven't had to adjust anything after drift aligning. Not even once. Spot on every single time! Excellent! Saves me no end of setup time. So Chris, if you're reading this major props to you!

[IvanT]

I second EQMOD PA align being voted as the best thing since sliced bread. Hats of to Chris!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[studio1one]

Third for EQmod align here.

[beamish]

FWIW when I regularly used EQmod & PHD, I still drift aligned- the reason being increased accuracy and less work for PHD and the mount to do !

[Black Knight]

I still drift align as well (old habits and all that ) ... I just haven't had to make any altaz adjustments at all after performing PA in EQMod. So ... I'm a very happy bunny