StarSense comments

[hrgreen]

I've been using an SSA on my CGEM 925 Edge for about 6 weeks, and am now getting good results. It looks for plate matches in four blocks of the sky, and if any rejects, it is usually smart enough to try a substitute. No need to do more than a rough polar alignment, and takes only about three minutes.

There were two problems I ran into. One was when calibrating the camera to match the OTA, it is possible to accidentally set its logical center outside the sensor, killing Aligns. The clue is in the cal numbers, which should be less than 1000 or so. This can only be fixed by a new Calibrate Center operation, preferably on a star near the zenith.

The other was inconsistency in Auto Align of up to two degrees after removal and replacement of the camera. I traced this to something I should have investigated sooner; the large camera mount dovetail didn't seem to fit the other half smoothly or completely. This was caused by spikes of metal left sticking out of the screw hole machine work. A file and emery stick fixed it.

Hal