ASIair Plus… I didn’t Polar Align and got great subs…

[Type1Turkey]

Can anybody explain if this is normal? Is it because the plate solving and guiding is so efficient?

I have an HEQ5 Pro mount with a Zenithstar Z73 (430mm f5.9), EAF, ASIair Plus and guidescope all working beautifully when I'm normally home based and polar align using the all-sky method as I don't have sight of Polaris.

The other night I knew would be good for imaging but I had to leave for a meeting in the daylight and could only set the mount onto pre-defined marks on my patio to set the scope pointing North - albeit roughly!

I then set up a Plan on the ASIair App on my iPad to run a sequence shooting 300s subs on The Pacman nebula. Part of this Plan was obviously to set guiding, duration, go to home after completion and finishing with a shut down.
 

What I didn't think would work though is the fact that I wasn't around to actually Polar Align at all and yet everything worked! How is this possible if I didn't Polar Align?

[Elp]

It'll still work if the base positioning is similar to previous. Where in the sky you image also makes a difference. Zoom right into your stars and do a star size analysis and you may find something else however.

[Rallemikken]

30 minutes ago, Type1Turkey said:

Can anybody explain if this is normal?

It is. As you said, the mount stood roughly where it should. Guiding is effective if the intervals ain't to long, and the short scope you used (430mm) is pretty forgivving. I have an obsy, and a HEQ5 on a pier. I did polar align, but only once. Three years ago. Don't think it matters that much as long as you guide and you'r not totally in the wild.

[Paul M]

When I used to use my NEQ6 Pro mount and 10" Newt for visual I was very rough at polar aligning. My tripod sat in the same general area but not at marked spots for the legs. I just eyeballed the who mount on Polaris and if it landed anywhere within the polarscope central field of view, as it usually did, synscan would goto and track very well.

I guess you fell lucky and plonked your mount in just the right spot, or at least near enough!

I do make a proper effort for imaging but guiding masks a lot of error in polar alignment. 

[TiffsAndAstro]

I've plonked my rig down on (near lol they not too good) a few times and had under 2arc minutes right off the bat

Edited Saturday at 19:19 by TiffsAndAstro

[Type1Turkey]

4 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

I've plonked my rig down on (near lol they not too good) a few times and had under 2arc minutes right off the bat

Yeah two nights in the trot I achieved the same, occasionally sub 1arc minute… I won’t rely on this method but it was never clearly documented that it was possible to this degree- I’m well chuffed!