just renewed my pro license so thought I better get out tomorrow night and do some EAA live stacking!
For EAA i use a sky watcher virtuoso GTI on a goto alt/az mount. My biggest pain is the alignment process. I Use the syn scan app and try to do a 2 or 3 star alignment but quite often I cant see the listed stars because i live in an apartment and image between buildings. hence i always waste way too much time on this.
So, i was wondering if rather than going through the star alignment process on synscan app, can i just point to several locations in my visible sky and just select plate solve and sync? Will each click of plate solve and sync add a sync point to the model allowing for tracking?
it depends on the software running inside the mount/handset, but I suspect the answer is no. The sort of procedure you are describing is used to create a pointing model on some (typically higher spec/priced) mounts, but it is not really a replacement for the initial alignment procedure.
What I'd suggest is trying to use the 1-star alignment on your mount if it has a 1 star mode. In that mode you should be able to pick a first star that is visible to you. While the 1-star mode gives the lease accurate alignment, it shouldn't be *too* bad as long as your mount is initially level. Then, as you move to different targets around the sky, use the 'Plate solve and resync' option in SharpCap to re-center the target even if the initial goto is a few degrees out.
it depends on the software running inside the mount/handset, but I suspect the answer is no. The sort of procedure you are describing is used to create a pointing model on some (typically higher spec/priced) mounts, but it is not really a replacement for the initial alignment procedure.
What I'd suggest is trying to use the 1-star alignment on your mount if it has a 1 star mode. In that mode you should be able to pick a first star that is visible to you. While the 1-star mode gives the lease accurate alignment, it shouldn't be *too* bad as long as your mount is initially level. Then, as you move to different targets around the sky, use the 'Plate solve and resync' option in SharpCap to re-center the target even if the initial goto is a few degrees out.
cheers,
Robin
Unfortunately when using the plate solve and resync function the plate solving is successful and the app says it going to move the telescope but it doesn't move at all regardless of how far off the target it is.al az arrow keys all function properly though. I have attached a log in case it helps.
I can tell from the log that the ASCOM driver is ignoring the sync command (the co-ordinates are not updating after the sync command as they should be). This may be something that can be dealt with by adjusting the options of the ASCOM driver, but it is not one that I personally use, so I' not sure.
Alternatively you can work around this in SharpCap - in the settings, go to the 'Plate Solving' page and change the 'After solving from telescope controls...' choice to 'Offset the mount position to center the target'. This should work, but note that in this mode using the button a second time will not refine the position further - instead it will throw the position off by the distance it moved on the first solve attempt.
