Drift Alignment with an OAG

[gnom...@gmail.com]

Hi

I have used the PHD2 Drift Alignment tool to do my Polar Alignments up until now.  A while back I bought one of those Polmaster devices.  I tried doing PA with that, but when I went back to check with the PHD2 Drift Alignment tool, my PA was significantly out.  So I went with the PHD2 tool.

Having installed, the latest version of PHD2 - 2.6.5 - I was intrigued to learn of the new PA tools and so I watched a couple of videos.  In these videos, the presenter states that these new tools should probabaly not be used if you guide via an OAG.  Guess what?  I guide via an OAG.  This got me thinking about why the new tools would not work with an OAG, and this, in turn, led on to me wondering whether or not doing Drift Alignment with my OAG was a good idea ... Perhaphs the Polemaster was right all along!

So my question is: can I get an accurate polar alignment using PHD2's Drift Alignment tool, IF I am using teh tool via an OAG?  If not, what is my best option?

Thanks in anticipation of your assistance.   

[Andy Galasso]

For the accuracy of the polar align tools it does not matter if you are using OAG or a separate guide scope.   The new tools require a wider field of view, and an OAG field of view may be too narrow. 

BTW the presenter is Ken, the developer who implemented the tools and added them to PHD2.  If anyone has not yet checked out the videos, I'd definitely recommend them. The new alignment tools are really cool!

Andy