Do I keep tracking feature on while drift aligning/aligning camera

[mrjonathanbrown]

Hi guys like the topic title says, I would like to know when I am drift aligning do I keep the tracking feature on or off? Also when aligning the camera? 

Many Thanks, Jonathan 

[Vega]

Hi Jonathan

Yes, keep the tracking on as the drift align test needs to check for errors in the mounts tracking while it's running. As for aligning the camera, I'm not really sure what you mean so I'll presume you mean centring it on a target, in which case yes, keeping tracking on means the target will be easier to spot as it won't move out of frame.

Let me know if I presumed wrong on that one, happy to help

[opticalpath]

Hi Jonathan.

When you say 'tracking feature', do you mean the motor drive on the mount's RA axis?  If so, yes, that needs to be running while you drift align.  I'm just making sure that you don't mean auto-guiding - i.e. using a second camera and optical system to track a guide star and make constant automatic small corrections to the basic tracking.  That needs to be turned off for drift alignment.

When drift-aligning, you want the telescope RA drive to be running, but no other manual or guider adjustments happening, while you monitor the image of a star and look for gradual drift in the field of view up or down in declination.

Adrian