Previous iterations of the Ekos PAA would warn if you started within 60 degrees of the meridian, headed that way. E.g. if you were pointed at azimuth 160 and had "West" and "30 degrees" selected, a dialog would pop up, warning that the alignment might not be valid.

I happened to violate this "rule" last night by a few degrees, and no complaint. And a really good alignment, too!

So can I rely on this now? The field of view from my yard is quite restricted, which is why I'm aligning pointed south in the first place. If I can count on straddling the meridian with the three exposures, I'll be able to routinely use 30 degrees and so can count on more precise initial alignments.

If so...thanks folks! I just updated last night and the PAA worked like a dream, just chugging through with nary a hiccup. Well, OK, when I tried to wedge a 60-degree arc from just west of the meridian, it wasn't wild about plate solving the image of my neighbor's garage. I can be patient about including their garage in the catalogs, I guess.

The first time I got a successful run I did not see the updated polar alignment figures during the "refresh" cycle; the second time, the figures appeared, which was helpful.

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