How to Track?

[powerlord]

I keep finding this out when Im imaging then forgetting to ask until next time, and I have the same problem.

Looks like possibly moon imaging thu night and by some miracle I have remembered this time..so here goes.

asiair, eq6r, guiding, etc.

Planning to try my 300pds.. maybe with 2x barlow, with asi1600 and asi224 too.

And the issues I've had before when I've tried this with the moon, is that lunar tracking (vis sidreal) does not seem to keep moon in same position very well at all. If I'm shooting wider feild say, and fill the screen with  the moon and start a capture - it'll have drifted to the edge in under a minute.

Now, stating the obvious - but I'm PAed great, able to get 10+ min deep sky perfect. 5mins without even guiding. So .. is it just that lunar tracking rate is an approximation and always a bit rubbish or is there something I'm doing wrong ?

And afaik there's no way I can actually guide with asiair. Maybe if I swap not only the camera over to sharpcap on a PC, but also mount, guide camera, etc then can sharpcap do it ? Would that solve the issue if it can guide on a surface feature ? feels like if its that bad on lunar tracking, guiding will be rubbish too ?

stu

[vlaiv]

19 minutes ago, powerlord said:

5mins without even guiding. So .. is it just that lunar tracking rate is an approximation and always a bit rubbish or is there something I'm doing wrong ?

Lunar rate is as good at tracking the moon as is sidereal for stars.

If your stars don't move in 5 minute exposure - moon should sit within FOV for literally hours.

I think your lunar tracking rate is somehow messed up - maybe it is not activated or something like that.

[powerlord]

huh. though that sounds good, I don't see how it can be messed up. I mean it's an EQ6-R pro. it's just selecting lunar in asiair. what's to go wrong ? but everytime I've tried this is what i've found. if lunar didn't work I'm sure asiair would have fixed it.

hmm.. maybe I do need to try faffing around with ascom and windows and sticking the mount onto the laptop as well as sharpcap when I'm doing the moon then - see if that sorts it.

stu