Guiding during the eclipse

[JacquesTalbot2]

Hello
I tried the other night the SharpCap guiding on the moon and it when nuber one The moon was full and used feature tracking. I also tried center of mass on the sun. I am thinking of using that during the partials phases of the solar eclipse, but if use feature, it will lock on solar spot and they will gradually blocked by the moon and there will less and less feature... If I use center of mass I don't know if it correspond to the center of curvature or the average of visible part. If I have time I will try with a moon crescent to see where is the center of mass.
Do you think SharpCap guiding will do a good job to keep the sun beeing eclipse centered?
Thanks

[admin]

Hi,

the center of mass tracking will definitely try to center the bright crescent in view during the partial parts of the eclipse, which will push the sun off-center and probably isn't what you want. If you have surface detail visible (sunspots, etc) then the surface tracking will probably do a better job during the partial phases, although you would probably be best keeping an eye on it to re-initialize it if necessary. Once the crescent becomes thin and there aren't many features left visible then it may struggle (haven't tested that situation!).

If you have the opportunity to test beforehand with the sun and feature tracking then I would definitely recommend it.

cheers,

Robin