Stellarium inaccuracy help

[Simon Dunsmore]

Hello people, 

If you live in the UK I hope that you're all enjoying the clear skies of late. 

I have a question that I am hoping you good folks may be able to help me with. 

I have recently moved to controling my heq5 using Stellarium. Here is the process I use. 

Manually polar align with polar scope 

Tweak alignment using Sharpcap 

Start Stellarium and Stellarium scope

Using EQMOD Centre on alignment star and sync

The problem 

No matter how many alignment stars I use the slew is always conserably off target. 

Last night I did this again and for ease chose the moon as a target, although the scope was pointing in general the right direction, the moon was not in the eyepiece at all. 

I would appreciate any advice you could give. 

On another side note, anyone ever concerned about dew on their laptop. After last nights session it looked like I had taken it swimming 

Thanks again 

Simon 

[wxsatuser]

If your setting up each time, no permanent position, it's likely the you are moving the position of the DEC and RA relative to the home position.

[Johns22]

Hi Simon,

Are you syncing Stellarium after you align each star? Once aligned in the eyepiece, you should go back to Stellarium and press CTRL-3 (by default) to align Stellarium to the actual star/object.

I also put the laptop in a plastic box with clip on lid to avoid dew issues.

Cheers

John.

Edited April 4, 2020 by Johns22

[Simon Dunsmore]

Hi John, 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I sync after each alignment. Good shout about the box, I'll try that 

[Simon Dunsmore]

22 minutes ago, wxsatuser said:

If your setting up each time, no permanent position, it's likely the you are moving the position of the DEC and RA relative to the home position.

Hi, 

Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Could you elaborate a little please? 

Thanks again 

[wxsatuser]

The home postion in EQMOD is not the same if you move DEC or RA  when taking down or setting up.

If setting up each time you need to reset the home position and delete all synchs.

In any case the very first star synch will more than likely be a fair bit off, the next should be closer.
I always found 3 synchs normally put the object in or near the centre.

[Anthonyexmouth]

Stellarium doesn't need stellarium scope anymore. grab the latest version. 

platesolving is the way to go for accuracy here too, APT platesolving goto is a game changer for minimal expense. 

[wxsatuser]

2 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Stellarium doesn't need stellarium scope anymore. grab the latest version. 

platesolving is the way to go for accuracy here too, APT platesolving goto is a game changer for minimal expense. 

Sounds good.