Tracking?

[LaVey]

Hi guys... me again !

Finally got all my new gear together, camera power supply, etc...

Did a rough polar align as usual, did the goto align and added 2 calib stars - all as usual.

Connected it all the gear up the scope (reducer - filter - adapter - tring - camera) and did some 2 min exposures of bodes m81... and got this:

When I piggybacked the camera and used the 18-125 lens I could do 2/3 min exposures without any trailing - i'm guessing my polar alignment is off (excentuated by now adding the camera to my scope) ? Will a polar finderscope fix this or should I drift align? (still not 100% on drift aligning tho )

[SteveL]

drift align, or WCS, or PoleAlignMax

[Ant]

Polar alignment is vital - I cannot stress that enough!

Steve mentions 3 bits of software, WCS is good - not used the others.

Ant

[LaVey]

have just purchased WCS.. now to get my head round using it... need a clear sky for that...