WCS, Polar alignment

[Ant]

Downloaded V2 of WCS yesterday and decided as it was clear but misty to have a go at drift aligning using WCS.

Managed to find a nice star close to the meridien, entered the Declination details into WCS and clicked on start. Well after what seems like an age, not a lot happened. I had a star on the right hand side of the screen - but it wasn't a live view of a star, it was the first frame forozen.

Closed down WCS and then went into K3CCD to make sure that the webcam was working correctly - which it was, used the cross hairs to centre the star and align the webcam to horizontal.

Back into WCS, but had the same problems...

1. What could be the cause of not seeing a live view in WCS from the webcam?

2. The minimum PC requirements is a 800Mhz machine, my old laptop is only 697mhz - could that be a cause.

3. Would anyone have an older version of WCS that would require a lower spec PC?

4. Any other thoughts.

After about 2 hours of this the clouds started to roll in and I packed everything away. I was actually fairly happy just being back out under the stars!

Cheers

Ant

[MikeP]

Ant,

If you PM me your email address, I can send you a copy of WCS 1.33. Its a 1.7Mb zip file.

I gave up with WCS because I gave up with my web cam - I roughly point north for visual or drift align for imaging.

Since I'm pretty useless at it, I'll be polar aligning with EQMOD when they make the feature available - it's almost complete now. When complete, the process will be to do a 6 star align after which the software will allow you to slew to a star, centre it and then it will slew to an offset position. The idea is that you recentre the star with the alt-az adjusters and hey presto! A further one star align should have you in business.

Mike

[Ant]

Hi ya Mike,

That would be grand!

I hope that the required specs for V1.33 are lower than that of V2

Ant

[MikeP]

Ant,

Found the following in the PDF.

Mike

WCS requires installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 1.1 or higher. If this is not

already installed on the computer, it may be downloaded free of charge from Microsoft®. In

addition, it requires a sensitive webcam with a video resolution of 640 x 480 pixels (e.g. Philips

ToUcam Pro or Meade LPI).

Also required are a computer with an AMD or Intel processor, 400 MHz or faster, at least 196

MB of system memory, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

[Ant]

excellent news - I like the 400mhz part best

[blinky]

Ant,

Have you been on the WCS Fourum? There is a link on the main page. I was out again last night and after 3 hrs finally managed to get my RA bang on! It should only take a few mins but this is the first time I have really had a go with it!

The application does have a couple of bugs that pop up from time to time. Last night for instance I adjusted the gain down to make the star smaller, unfortunalty for the rest of the night (even after reboots) changing the gain control made no diffrence.

Overall though it SHOULD be easier to get a good polar alignment when using this software and I do intend to stick with it!

[RobH]

WCS also works with the DSI range of cameras now....I think you need the WCS-DSI version.

I've managed to get my RA pretty close with it but never had any success with DEC. The last time I tried, a coupke of weeks ago, I ended up a lot worse than when I started. Now I just plain drift align!

Cheers

Rob

[Ant]

cheers guys...

Craig, yep have joined the forum now and asked a question... Looks like it'll be V1.3 for me!

Rob, I'm going to give this a go as I do not have an illuminated EP. The best that I can do is use the cross hairs in K3ccd. So it's WCS for me I think...

Ant

[beamer3.6m]

I have the same problem with WCS as my laptop is only 700mzh.

Could I also have the link to v.1.33.

I was really dissapointed when I could not use this software as it appears to so useful and I thought it would solve all my tracking problems.

Cheers guys.

[Ant]

V1.33 works a treat, cheers guys...

Ant

[blinky]

Have you managed to get a good polar alignment with it? I am still trying to get used to it, finally managed tonight to get something pretty decent but mars still drifted a bit accross my ToUCam's screen in 3 mins I am wondering if it was due to the mount not being level

[Ant]

No, even though it was clear last night. When I informed the wife that I was going outside and I could be some time...her reaction was, don't you like spending time with me now?

FFS

So the V1.33 works a treat means that it's installed on my machine and the webcm works OK - unlike V2.

The mount being level is actually not vital - but it does make polar alignment easier. Do not forget just how small the FOV is when imaging planets.

Ant