first try at drift alignment

[Gerhard]

Hi all!

Yesterday good weather, so had my first go at drift alignment with my new reticulated eyepiece.

I took my time to figure out well the various steps in the right order, etc...

At one time, pointing a star in the east, I think I overdid the correction on the Altitude, because the star started drifting a lot, so I started again from the beginning...

As always a learning curve! :-)

But I had fun doing it.

It took me a lot of time, but finally I got to shooting some subs, and these are the results:

M57 @ 38 second subs:

M13 @ 63 second subs:

The usual coma problem is visible, but I am nevertheless quite satisfied with this first try... The stars look pretty good, if not enlarged too much ;-)

Opins? Any feedback would be appreciated!

Gerhard.

[xtreemchaos]

great shots mate, keep up the good work,thanks for sharing.

[Earl]

I recommend the Drift align tool in PHD 2 well worth playing with. just remember its the red line you need to get flat.

[Gerhard]

As I gather, PHD 2 is an auto guide software?

Unfortunately I'm not into auto guiding yet... Doing all (apart from the GOTO and tracking) by hand... :-)

[Earl]

As I gather, PHD 2 is an auto guide software?

Unfortunately I'm not into auto guiding yet... Doing all (apart from the GOTO and tracking) by hand... :-)

AH yeah

Still worth keeping a not of for when you do go that route.

I just spent a few nights refining, then again refining mine with PHD2, Never got it very good manually,

[Steve Ward]

Give this a go , should get you much longer subs ... http://www.cloudynights.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1

[Davey-T]

Don't think you can browse CN without logging in ?

Dave

[Gerhard]

Give this a go , should get you much longer subs ... http://www.cloudynights.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1

in fact I need to login.

I might just subscribe... :-)

[Gerhard]

awaiting validation now... :-)

[Gerhard]

Give this a go , should get you much longer subs ... http://www.cloudynights.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1

ummm, i tried it, now I'm signed in on CN, but it gives an error...

[Steve Ward]

My bad , try this ... http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/articles/darv-drift-alignment-by-robert-vice-r2760

[Gerhard]

My bad , try this ... http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/articles/darv-drift-alignment-by-robert-vice-r2760

Better! :-)

Very interesting, although one question comes to mind: at step 6 he says put the star on the right side of the sensor... But I can put my DSLR in any orientation on the eyepiece holder.....

I might be dense and missing something... :-)

[kens]

Better! :-)

Very interesting, although one question comes to mind: at step 6 he says put the star on the right side of the sensor... But I can put my DSLR in any orientation on the eyepiece holder.....

I might be dense and missing something... :-)

He assumes that you have  aligned the camera so that RA runs left-right and Declination is Up-down.

He probably should have said to put the star on the east side of the sensor

[Gerhard]

He assumes that you have  aligned the camera so that RA runs left-right and Declination is Up-down.

He probably should have said to put the star on the east side of the sensor

hmmm... I'll have to give that a try...

[Gerhard]

I had another go at processing the subs, this time without the stock flats I have. IMHO these are much better.

I also discarded some subs, that were definitely below par...