First try at drift alignment.

[merlinxlm]

Hello everyone, as I've decided to leave out my EQ6 Pro mount permanently on its pier. I'm going to have a try with drift alignment to make sure that its properly polar aligned. My understanding is that, if I do a proper drift alignment, then leave the mount out without moving it, then it should stay polar aligned, is this correct? The equipment that I'll be using are as follows:

1. ST80 guide scope, fitted on top of my main SW 80DS Pro

2. QHY5 guide cam, PHD guiding.

3. SW EQ6 pro mount.

I've been using this set-up for about 1 year and I'm very happy with it.

But I've seen some graphs shown on the forum in the past and they look very flat compared to mine. Would people mind posting their PHD information, regarding the camera and scope information? Also what is the best and easiest program for precise polar alignment? Can I use PHD for drift alignment, if so how?

Thank you for looking.

[kookoo_gr]

if you polar align and leave the the mount as is the PA will be the same. but from time to time you should check the PA for errors especially if you remove the telescope. you can use phd for difrt align and there are some topic here on how to do it. the best way in my opinion (and the one i use) is with the use of your ccd/dslr.

first point your scope south near the meridian and find a star not very bright or dim. set your mount speed to 1x or sidereal. then you need to take an exposure of 125 sec in the following way. the first 5 secs or 4% of the exposure will create a start reference of your star. then for the next 60 secs or 48% move your mount east or west with your hand controller/gamepad/pc the last 60 secs or 48% move the mount at the opposite direction. if you are not accurately polar aligned then the image of the star will be an angle. use the azimuth bolts to adjust the mount to remove that angle, make the adjustment with the bolts and then repeat the exposure. when you are done repeat the same at a star at the east/west but this time you move your mount north/south and you adjust the altitude bolts. when you are done check again the azimuth direction.

it is a very easy and fast method and within 10 mins you are done. also note that if you have a small field of view then you need to use smaller times e.g. for my 8'' newt and atik 16 ic i used 34 secs

there are other programs like wcs polar align (with the help of a webcam), k3ccd tools, pempro but i find this way a lot easier as i said before

the flatness of the phd graph also depends an how good your seeing is, how well your mount is tuned and the balance of your scope along with any flexure you may have so you have to pay attention on all these