ASIAM5 Polar Align

[admin]

Hi Jerry,

really glad to hear that you got there in the end. The plate solve setting does default to be the 'recenter target' option, so I suspect that you changed it at some point in the 'lets keep trying things to try to get stuff working' stage and then forgot about it. For those who might encounter this thread at a later date and have issues with 'what settings have I changed and forgotten about', SharpCap does have an option to reset to defaults (at the bottom of the settings window).

The change from an SCT to a refractor is a big step to making imaging easier - the SCT has a lot of advantages like a lot of aperture in a small package (and looking very hi-tech too), but the long focal length and slow f-ratio means that imaging with it takes more skill and knowledge than imaging with a simple refractor. Even the focus knob on an SCT which you can turn about 50 turns means that finding focus is harder. With a barlow, your SCT would be at about f/20, which would I'm sure raise red flags in your photographers brain when thinking about low light photography!

cheers and clear skies,

Robin