More Alignment/Guiding Fun

[scitmon]

Hello all.  I'm new to the world of guiding (going through my second attempt at the moment) and polar aligning.  I had the most success with APT's DARV alignment, which is yielding the attached results.  If I am reading correctly my RMS Error is 0.77"?  Which is not bad?  What should I be aiming for?

 

 

 

[newbie alert]

.77 arc secs rms is really good....you can do extremely long exposure at that guiding figures..which mount are you using?

[scitmon]

I'm using a Skywatcher AZEQ6.  That's good to hear... I've been having a hard time trying various drift alignment tools, then I tried DARV and the star trails where a single line straight away.  Which I found odd because I had tried 60 second exposure while not guiding and found fairly significant star trails, so I was expecting my aligning to be quite a bit out.

[newbie alert]

Looks like you found something that works for you..ive heard of the DARV method but not familiar with it..good to hear it works

[MarsG76]

0.77" is good... That level is near the actual seeing star movement in most cases, and is around my accuracy most of the time using the CGEM when I'm imaging at 2032mm.

To determine the actual tracking accuracy and amount caused by seeing, turn off guide commands and see what PHD2 reports in about 60 seconds. If your PA is good than in 60 sec there should be no drift yet.

Best tracking I've had and sustained ever was 0.38", one of the rare super still nights.