Large Polar Alignment Error

[Ashis Govind]

Hi,

I am new at this and having some trouble getting polar alignment. 

I have a 60mm (190mm focal length) guide scope with the ASI 290mm-mini.

I am using PHD2 for guiding and Stellarium as my planetarium.

I have an EQ6-R Pro mount,

I am in the southern hemisphere.

When I setup my mount I am pointing to the south celestial pole as accurately as possible using a magnetic compass and adjusting for the magnetic vs celestial pole.

Assuming I have reasinably accurately aligned to the south celestial pole,, I then begin calibration in PHD2.  Using the guiding assistant I get a vey high Polar Alignment Error of 1068.1 arc-min.  I dont know what this really means or the cause.

This is the output from PHD2 is attached.

Any help on what I am doing wrong would be appreciated.

Regards

 

[David Kerber]

How are you judging your altitude on your Polar Alignment? Are you sure
you're applying the magnetic variation adjustment in the correct direction?

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[Brian Valente]

Hi Ashis

Visual polar alignment is probably not going to be accurate enough for imaging. You should try using any of the polar alignment tools in PHD, such as Drift Align to improve your polar alignment accuracy

Brian

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Brian Valente

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[Ashis Govind]

Hi Brian,

I have tried using the Drift Align, however calibration is required first and it is there I get a large Polar Alignment Error.

Regards

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[Ashis Govind]

Hi David,

The altitude I am using the inbuilt scale on the mount and am in Brisbane AU, so around 27 degrees.  The south celestial poly is around 10 degrees east of the magnetic pole, so adjust the mount to point to the pole.

The mount when skewing to a star, roughly goes to where that star is, but of course not precisely. I can see the star on the PHD2 screen bout not centre.

  I think what I am doing is right, but I just cant get accuracy on PHD2.    

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[Ken Self]

Try the Polar Drift Alignment (PDA) tool first. It does not require a calibration to work. Make sure the mount is tracking when you use it.

Video tutorial at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQvmVoMS3gIJ1AaiIzIGwbutr2z_yabD8

[Wes Atchison]

If you have a Smart Phone install a Level AP.  You can use that to set the Elevation angle on you mount a lot more accurate that the scale on your moiunt.

Wes

WA5TKU

[Ashis Govind]

Thanks Everyone,

I'll try again with the tips you provided as soon as its a clear night.

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