9 replies to this topic

[rsmith6621a]

A question for those who have their SW Alt-Az GTI in EQ mode.

Do you just do the polar alignment or once you get it polar aligned do you then do a Brightest Star/Three Star alignment.

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What is your aligment procedure in EQ mode with this mount?

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Also, how do you get rid of the play with the ALT adjustment with the SW EQ Mount.

 

Signed
Learning in Dakota 🙂

[Tapio]

I normally use NINA with the mount and do it the easy way - after PA just plate solve and sync.

 

Which wedge do you have?

I have the basic SW and I'm happy if I get less than 10' total with NINA's 3PPA.

[soundguy]

I use the AsiAir Mini to control the SW GTI wirelessly in EQ mode. To get it aligned I simply use the polar alignment facility on the Mini and then sync after plate solving.

 

I am using the Gti with a William Optics wedge as the SW version was difficult to adjust and eventually fell apart.

 

My use is for EAA with fairly short exposure times so I tend not to be super fussy about being dead accurate on setup. 

 

Even so I find that this setup is more than accurate enough for 60s exposures if needed.

[imahgin]

I have also a Alt-Az GTI in EQ mode with the SW wedge and using KStars+Ekos+Indi.
I use to polar align the mount and then GoTo to some star and, in align module, do a 'Capture and Solve' with 'Slew to target' as a 'Solver action'.

 

But for a few days now, I'm not able to align the mount anymore.

GoTos slews the mount to the opposite direction. Even if i move manually the motors and press the 'Sync' button, doesn't fix the issue.

I've tried to set the parking position to NCP and then conduct a GoTo and Plate Solving, but the error is so huge that it cannot determine where the mount is pointing to.

What's the proper way to force set the current position to NCP -assuming it's roughly pointing to that position-?
Do I need to clear the alignment model?
Should I try to do a 2 or 3 stars alignment from the SkyScan Pro app?

 

Thks in advance

[bmcclana]

To reset, you should put the mount into the home position yiu want and clear the model, then power cycle the mount. Then if you look at all the alignment parameters that should come up as zeros AND the encoder positions should show the home position.

[imahgin]

To reset, you should put the mount into the home position yiu want and clear the model, then power cycle the mount. Then if you look at all the alignment parameters that should come up as zeros AND the encoder positions should show the home position.

I followed your suggestion and it looks like it's working!!!
I cannot test it until this weekend, but j tried to point to the sun -the rig was indoor- and seems to point roughly where it's supposed to be.

So thks fot your help. I really appreciate it.

Before I was trying to force the parking position with 'Current' and 'Default' from INDI, but none of these work.

 

BR

[imahgin]

This raises a few questions for me.

How is the model being populated? With every plate solving? When conducting the polar alignment? Do I need to press the Sync button once the target is centered?

From where do I Sync the mount, from the 'Mount' tab or the 'Align', or are both the same?

In INDI there are two options for the park position, 'Current' and 'Default'. What's the default one, NCP? I guess I need to 'Write data' if I change the park position from here. But there is no option in Ekos mount tab other than 'Clear model', 'Clear parking' and 'Purge all', so I assume that that process in internally managed.

 

Thks in advance and sorry for these silly questions.

[akdwivedi]

I just point the mount to rough north, use asi-air to go to a star and then sync to mount. once the asi air has successfully plate solved and centred the star, I dont see much benefit in doing star alignment. after this I initiate the polar alignment from asi air.

 

i don't do any star alignment. I also have marked the points where I always set my tripod so that the mount is always roughly pointing to north.

[imahgin]

Yes, I never do any star alignment, but wonder if that was needed to solve my issue.
So you do a GoTo and sync and then plate solving?
After polar aligned I always do a GoTo to a bright star and do a 'Capture and solve' with 'Slew to target' as a 'Solver action', then 'Sync' the mount.
Maybe my 'before imaging procedure' is not the right one

[bmcclana]

I have seen where the model gets messed up after repeated syncs.

Also it seems that if the encoder position gets very far off from the synced position it leads to weird behavior. Clearing the alignment and adding additional sync points doesn’t change the encoder positions, the only way I know to do that is the power cycle.

This is also a problem if you power on in an odd position then move to home and reset alignment.


I have no proof for any of this… just my impressions from when it was working and when it wasn’t.