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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Re:New Polar Alignment Scheme and Features

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Hello Hy,
I can confirm, that disabling tracking and enabling immediately after this, keeps the "Start" button enabled.
I slewed to the target with platesolve and slew to target enabled, maybe this is where the information of the movement gets lost. I will check, what happens, if I:
1. simply slew to the target
2. slew to the target with plate solve and sync.....



Regards

Dirk
3 years 1 month ago #67820
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Hello Hy,
Radek has just updated Astroberry to include KStars 3.5.2. so I have now been able to test out your new upgraded polar alignment with the right angle triangle of adjustment. Works very well - thank you for your intensive work on it! I have yet to try out your suggestion of using manual adjustment to turn the RA axis through 60° East in advance of the PA routine. This should compensate for the PA routine turning the RA axis through two 30° shifts to end up in the Park position where the right angle triangle will have horizontal and vertical sides and the hypotenuse should directly describe the adjustment vector. I am also yet to try PA elsewhere than at the NCP, not normally needed where I set up my equipment, but could have major benefits for a friend who lives in a bowl with no view of Polaris.
Thanks again, Ed
3 years 3 weeks ago #68024
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I could finally try the new polar alignment of 1.5.2 and it looks great. The circle which marks the star selected for the movement is of great help in case of correcting to fast.

However for me the alignment of the green and yellow line with Az/Alt knobs does not seem to correlate and I still follow the direct vector purple line. I would be keen to understand why that is.

The only idea I have so far is that it might be caused by the use of a dual mount where the main telescope and the guider and the main telescope are mounted side by side. So both are outside of the actual rotation axis (see attachement showing my 'home' position.)

  

Is it possible that my setup prevents that I can follow the vectors straight indicating the Alt/AZ corrections?

Thanks for any hints on what I should do differently or adjust to take full advantage of the new feature.

Alex
Last edit: 3 years 6 days ago by Alexander Weis.
3 years 6 days ago #69008
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If your mount begins the PA routine from the Park (or Home) positions, then, when you come to see the correction vectors, the scopes have rotated by 60° to the West (or East). Therefore Alt and Az mechanical adjustments will move the chosen star along lines which are 60° rotated from vertical and horizontal on your display. If you want to avoid this you should start the PA process from a pre-rotated start position 60° to the East (or West). I have tried this, but in the end I've just accepted that the green and yellow vectors are the directions of the Alt and Az adjustments. ,
3 years 6 days ago #69009
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Alex,

Could you explain a little more? You say your star follows the purple line when you're correcting polar alignment. Is that with the Alt knob, or the Az knob, or both? If you're pointed somewhere near the pole, those two knobs should move your telescope is orthogonal directions, so it would be surprising that they both move the star along the purple line.  If almost all of your alignment error is in one of the axes, then moving the offending knob, would, of course be pretty similar to the purple line.

As an experiment, you might intentionally misalign both axes by, say, 20 or 30 arc-minutes and see if you still get the same behavior.

FWIW, at least for my setup, I don't believe the numbers much for anything under 1 arc-minute, or perhaps half that. I wouldn't recommend thinking about arc-seconds. 

Thanks for trying it out,
Hy
 
3 years 6 days ago #69024
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Hello Hy,

Sorry, I was not clear in my description of what I think is the problem. I (myself) try to follow the purple line to the crosshair and use both knobs for this. So the workflow for me is basically like in the previous version. The movement of the Alt and Az knobs itself is at least close to orthogonal. So with a bit of trial and error I make my way along the purple line using the knobs for Alt and AZ.

With the split into Alt and AZ components in the display that you implemented  my expectation was that I could use this decomposition of the Alt and Az component for the correction. So when I select a star I expected to move only Alt along the yellow line to the edge of the triangle, then only Az along the green line to the crosshair. So only care about one direction at a time. But when moving my Altidude screw on the mount the stars do not move parallel to the yellow line. Same applies to AZ not parallel to the green line.

Wrong expectation that I could move the selected star along the indicated lines, separating the Alt and AZ correction? Do I need to slew back to home before using the hardware knobs as the calculation of the vectors is based on the first position?

Thanks!
Alex

In case this is relevant: I start in the home position and slew 30 degrees east with each step so when I start turning the hardware knobs the mount is rotated by 60 degrees. I could see Polaris from where I set up my mount and start close to the pole. At the moment I use my main scope for the polar alignment(432 mm focal length, camera ASI 533MC). I'm not  striving for extreme precision below an arcminute.
3 years 6 days ago #69030
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Hi,

could it be your mount is not level? You can perfectly polar align in case it is not level, but an adlustment in AZ will have impact on Alt. Looks like that is what you are describing?

Rgrds,

Paul
3 years 6 days ago #69031
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Paul,
I use the bubble level of the mount and align the bar with the double clamp with an electronic level. Might not be perfect but I assume it is not too far off.

Potentially anything to do with the fact that the clamp of the scope itself is turned by 90 degrees for fixing the bar? Do I need to enter this in some configuration setting?

Alex

Gesendet von meinem BKL-L09 mit Tapatalk
3 years 6 days ago #69033
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I was using this feature last night in the northern hemisphere and doing a polar alignment away from the pole. I found the correction vectors recommended wherein the wrong direction. Also adjusting say Altitude the star never travelled along the yellow line or anywhere near it. So what I ended up doing was looking at the length of each vector and then moving the star that length for the corresponding direction.
I am using a Celestron AVX mount connected via HC and a 6 " RC scope with an AA26C camera. KSTARS is 3.5.2 stable build.
Is there something I need to check or configure to correct this performance?

Thanks
Lenny
2 years 11 months ago #69572
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Do you have any logs? Hy is working on this issue and he suspects its due to image parity as reported by the solver. The log would confirm this.
2 years 11 months ago #69576
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As the problem that I experience is somewhat similar to what LKIERSEY  describes (when turning the knobs on my EQ6R the movement of the stars is not alligned to the vectors displayed): what log should be activated to be able to record helpful input here? The weather might allow me to have a session in the next days so I might be able to get some data that might be valuabe to help to narrow it down.

Alex
2 years 11 months ago #69578
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Sorry Jasem, I had no logs enabled last night. Will be trying again tonight.
2 years 11 months ago #69583
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