Drift Aligning on a Sunspot

[JamesF]

I know that some people do this when there's no alternative, like when you've had no clear night-time sky for weeks and want to do some solar imaging.

Does it work exactly the same as for drift-aligning on distant stars, given that you don't have much choice about what you get to align on and that you can't chose different stars for alignment?

James

[themos]

It's tricky because if the sun is in the southeast and you notice a north drift, say, do you correct the altitude or do you correct the azimuth?

[JamesF]

Quite. Hence my wanting to know how people do it

James

[themos]

trial and error, I guess.

[Steve Ward]

Trial and error , I shot early in the morning and treated it like a star in the East , then again at 1pm and treated it as a star in the south , adjusting accordingly.

Didn't go over the top with it as I use the EQ3-2 for my solar shots and it's got no dedicated solar tracking rate so you still get a little drifting but nothing un-tweakable on the handset.

To keep the disc central I bring up "Mire de Collimation" and pop it over the disc in the Quick Preview box , easier to see the drift that way , I use a 1.8 x Barlow and it doesn't leave much "wiggle room" above and below the disc to the edge of the frame.

Steve.

[JamesF]

To keep the disc central I bring up "Mire de Collimation"

I'd not seen that before. It looks quite useful.

James

[Steve Ward]

It's brilliant for collimation , I use a webcam and this to sort the secondary , lets you adjust the flat and see what's happening as it happens without all the back and forth palaver......

[Steve Ward]

PS . I use " Al's Reticle" to drift align , I bought a very nice Illuminated Reticle eyepiece but this lets you DA with the camera in place and Liveview on.

Steve

[daz]

I'd not seen that before. It looks quite useful.

James

Ditto!

WIll give that a play tonight!