Drift align is worth it

[martin_h]

After spending a few nights getting this nailed the Dec graph in PHD is near flat!

[adamsp123]

Cracking result, which method did you use?

I used the PHD method which works nice and quick

[martin_h]

I used EQAlign EQAlign Project

[ollypenrice]

Well worth it!!

Olly

[vdb]

Well it depends,

I don't have a permanent setup, and with my polarscope I get an alignment that when I do not guide move's one block up on the whole axis chart ... so that guides easy out, maybe one correction every 10 seconds ...

For me the issue is RA, with guiding I can get it to 3.5 arcsec with 1 second guide image exposures ... will that be good enough ... I will be imaging around 2 to 2.5 arcsec/pixel ...

If you take 1 sec guide exposures, is there a rule about deducting seeing, I don't have a clue about what it was tonight, a bit hazy ...

Seeing your graph, would result for my setup I think around 1.5 arc sec ... I use 500mm guidescope + 6.45 micron pixels ...

Yves.

[PhoenixRising]

So far, Ive found that Ive only been getting any real joy with a setting of 1/2 second at the most. Course, it depends on the length of your exposures.

[zipdrive]

That's a great result!

[adamsp123]

I use 3 secs normally so I don't chase the seeing, plus I set the min pixels from 0.15 to 0.8 which has smoothed out the guiding no end and improved the sub quality significantly....see article http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=48229

[vdb]

I use 3 secs normally so I don't chase the seeing, plus I set the min pixels from 0.15 to 0.8 which has smoothed out the guiding no end and improved the sub quality significantly....see article http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=48229

Thanks for the link I'll read it in detail!

Yves.

[samir_ansari]

I'm new to all this and would just like to know what kind of improvement you would get in possible exposure time with drift aligning - is it a sizeable difference?

[star_chaser]

morning all i live in a building no garden no balcony. would drift align method be ok for someone like me who has to set up there scope every time they go out to observe. or is this method for those with fixed scopes. as i want to start taking some pics so would be looking to polar align scope quick and easy .if there is such a way

thx star

p.s sorry for the slight thread hijack

[martin_h]

Well there is no real quick way to drift align, it depends on how close you need to get it to "perfect". The closer you can get it to alignment by other methods the less time you need to drift align. If you are doing it by the webcam method you can start at twilight as long as you can get a star on the screen, and allow yourself 1/2 an hour(ish) for alignment.

[martin_h]

I'm new to all this and would just like to know what kind of improvement you would get in possible exposure time with drift aligning - is it a sizeable difference?

That would depend on how far you are out you are to start with. If you are perfectly aligned ( and I meen 100%) then all the guiding has to do is correct for any errors in the mount RA drive gearbox. So the closer you can get it the less work the guiding has to do by shoving the mount around, so better shaped stars and less drift.

[blinky]

Using something like EQAlign or WCS (What I use) you can do a software assisted drift align in about 30mins or quicker. It is worth it if you are guiding with a longer focal length than say 500 or 600.... Below that I would not personally bother as it should be able to be autoguided out.