Polar Align Prevents Proper Plate Solve and Sync

[Rocket_Guy]

Hi Robin,

I think this is a bug, but if I am misunderstanding something please forgive me. I have an Orion EQ-G mount (which I think is equivalent to a Skywatcher HEQ5 mount). What I am encountering is this:

1) I setup the telescope and power on.
2) Perform a "Good" polar alignment and set the scope to its home position
3) Run through the initialization sequence on the hand control and request a 1 star alignment
4) Pick a star and slew to that star
5) Star is a few degrees out of view so perform a "Plate Solve and Sync"
6) Plate solve is successful but scope slew is non-existent or imperceptibly small ... not good

BUT IF

7) I now power off the mount, manually reposition the scope to its home position, and power the mount back on
8) Again run through the initialization sequence on the hand control and request a 1 star alignment
9) Pick the previously selected star and slew to that star
10) The star is again a few degrees out of view so again perform a "Plate Solve and Sync"
11) Plate solve is again successful but this time the scope slew is perfect and the star comes into view
12) I center the star and successfully complete the alignment ... yeah!

It seems like the polar alignment routine is somehow interfering with the ability of the mount to perform a successful slew after a plate solve. What is going on? I would think that this is incorrect behavior.

I could probably save myself some time if I simply performed the polar alignment, cycled the power to the mount off and on, and then executed the initialization process. I have not tried this approach yet though. It would seem that I shouldn't have to worry about when to turn the mount on and off to do a successful alignment but maybe this is the way it is supposed to be done. Thoughts?

Best, Bill

[Rocket_Guy]

Have never gotten any kind of response. Someone please respond. Thank you.

Bill

[admin]

Sorry, I remember reading this one and then it probably got put aside while I thought about it and I never came back to it.

I don't quite understand why it would happen like that, unless somehow the handset software behaves differently if you move the telescope around (for the polar alignment) before the home position/1 star alignment?

Do you get an actual error in the first case, or does the Sync and re-GOTO seem to happen without an error but not do anything?

What ASCOM driver are you using for your mount (The Skywatcher Synscan.App driver had issues with sync until a recent update).

I must admit that I polar align by unlocking the clutches and spinning the RA axis by hand. I have a marker so that I can put it back to the correct position when I am done.

cheers,

Robin