6 replies to this topic

[MikeTelescope]

It has found every other night time object I have entered and centered it well in the FOV.  The only problem it has had was with Polaris.  It said "object has been located," but Polaris wasn't even on the screen.  I could manually slew it in.  Then I had it go to Kochab nearby, and it did that just fine and centered it.  Then told it to go back to Polaris.  Polaris was at the edge of the screen, and it said, "object has been located."  

 

Then I had it go to Capella, which it did just fine and centered it.  Then back to Polaris.  This time it correctly found Polaris and centered it.  

 

Is there any particular difficulty it should have in locating and centering Polaris?  

 

Why would it announce that "object has been located," when the object isn't even on the screen, i.e., plate solving obviously failed?

 

 

[Psion]

I'm just asking what's the point of looking for Polaris, do you want to shoot anything there?

[rj144]

I haven't used an Alt/Az outside of planetary, but isn't it nearly impossible for an Alt/Az to track to track near the pole?

Edited by rj144, 19 November 2023 - 04:12 PM.

[Psion]

Yes, around the pole, the Seestar will have trouble working.

[MikeTelescope]

I haven't used an Alt/Az outside of planetary, but isn't it nearly impossible for an Alt/Az to track to track near the pole?

Yes, stacking around the poles is difficult for an Alt/Az due to field rotation.  But the problem I was experiencing was the Seestar locating Polaris, not even getting to stacking.  And it was intermittent.  Sometimes it would find it, sometimes it was way off.  I did try again after the latest SW/FW update, and it seems to be able to find it more accurately now.  

 

Nothing of deep-space interest near Polaris for a scope like Seestar.  More to test the limits of the seeking and tracking capabilities.  

[jprideaux]

Yes, stacking around the poles is difficult for an Alt/Az due to field rotation.  But the problem I was experiencing was the Seestar locating Polaris, not even getting to stacking.  And it was intermittent.  Sometimes it would find it, sometimes it was way off.  I did try again after the latest SW/FW update, and it seems to be able to find it more accurately now.  

 

Nothing of deep-space interest near Polaris for a scope like Seestar.  More to test the limits of the seeking and tracking capabilities.  

Out of curiosity, I tried a couple times with my SeeStar to find Polaris and it was off the 2 times I tried.  I then tried to find Polaris with my Vespera and it centered it no problem.  I don’t think Alt-Az mounts have an intrinsic problem finding things near the equatorial pole.  I think the Alt-Az difficulty is near Zenith.  I think the SeeStsr difficulty with Polaris is merely due to the software algorithms they use.  Fortunately there is not much of interest near Polaris anyway other than perhaps taking a time-lapse to see the stars circling around the pole…

 

Of course field-rotation after it finds and tracks it is a different issue.

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Edited by jprideaux, 19 November 2023 - 09:29 PM.

[Psion]

Finding Polaris shouldn't be a problem, just composing images there will be a problem. Try to find an object 10° from Polaris and then set the goto to Polaris. Unfortunately, I can't see Polaris from my place.