(I assume you are using the newer Polar Align where the scope does not need to be pointing at the pole)

I usually start near the meridian and typically Declination 60° or so (but the declination is totally unimportant). I start near the meridian because the most important thing is that the polar align RA rotation must not *cross* the meridian (it seems to ignore all safety stops and will happily just keep going and crash the scope into the tripod). So if I happen to start on the east side, the rotation must be to the east and vice versa.

Sometimes there are clouds in one part of the sky, so I polar align on the other side. Some people might also have a tree or a building in the way on one side, so they need to be able to specify the other side.

Thanks for the explation on East of West side.

@Hy
Ok, I bumped up the logging as you indicated. I've attached a screenshot of the settings.



There is a problem here. The log file named was not created. Why would this be? Is there a bug so some other setting change I need to make?

Anyhow, regardless of the logging problem, here is a screenshot of the results of the polar align



This is actually a big improvement over the previous night's results. The solve still failed with a whopping error as seen in the screenshot, but this time, the "blind image scan" that followed worked quickly. On previous occasions, it went on for minutes without coming to a solution. This, I attribute to my more careful efforts to point true north. Even so, I see none of the information shown in the clip you posted, the blue, green, and yellow lines, which would enable me to fix the alignment. And why is the error so big?

Steve,
As I mentioned in the other post - the plate-solve error will always be very large close to the Pole.
This is not relevant to the Polar Alignment. It's OK.

That's how I do my Polar Alignment.
-- the scope is pointed to the Pole (i.e. Home or Park position depending on your mount)
-- then just run the Polar Align routine
-- East/West doesn't matter
--- your speed is set to 1x - it needs to be set to Maximum speed!
-- Three images will be captured while the mount does two rotations
-- After that select "Move Star.. Calc Error" (not Platesove) and hit REFRESH button
-- do your alignments

Based on the screenshot, scope focal length is wrong: your input was 300, but the blind solver detected 2000!. So, what's the real focal length of your scope? One thing you must consider it that plate solve is normally "not blind", i.e. the solver is fed with approximate pointing data to speed-up the solve. Moreover, solving success it strongly related to the selection of correct index file, which, in turn, is related to FOV and so to sensor size and scope focal length. If this data is not correct, solver will fail.

@maxthebuilder

>>After that select "Move Star.. Calc Error" (not Platesove) and hit REFRESH button

I do not see either of these options on my screen (see screenshot. Are we using the same Ekos version? Mine is 3.6.7

the mount needs to complete rotations before you could see that

@Matteo

Grrr. I would think this would be set from optical the train, as it is on other screens. thanks for pointing it out. In any event, I was not able to edit this field before starting. What IS the source of this data on the screen?

@Matteo Actually, you were right all along. I had set my focal length, and aperture size, but I lost these settings when I upgraded to the latest AstroArch. Once I reset them correctly, the Polar Alignment Tool quickly took its three captures and came up with its alignment triangle. The process now required me to fiddle with the altitude and azimuth knobs, something I was unfamiliar with. I am going to have to fiddle with them just to gain familiarity with it and try again. I continue to make progress, very slowly. Thanks everyone.

I believe the source is the optical train.
Can you post your optical train info?

For example, here's the optical train I'm using for Align (you can get that by clicking on the pencil next to the align optical train menu




and clicking on "Telescopes and Lenses" at the bottom-left of that menu shows the definition of the telescope selected in the optical train




So you can see that i have entered that I'm using a 2000mm focal length telescope with a 250mm aperture for my "Primary" optical train, which is the optical train I've selected for use in Align.

Jasem has a video on how to setup optical trains.

Hy

Thanks again for all the advice here. It's all starting to come together now.Tonight, for the first time, I achieved my EAA goal of (aside from initially turning the equipment on), doing an observing session entirely inside.Last night, I completed the Polar alignment down tofollowing the excellent advice from Hy and others. I used the Plate Solve method, as indicated by Hy, and found it easier than the triangle method. There is one thing I would like to see in future versions: Showing the last two "Updated Err" values so you could tell more easily what your last adjustment achieved. Anyway, with Polar Alignment out the way, I was able to slew to, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon and take my first decent quality capture through the thing. Now I have to learn some astrophotography stuff.



LIke, why is the caputre of the moon so sharp and clear, while, with the same focus settings, Saturn is so blurry and unimpressive.

Assuming those images are displayed at the same relative scale, I guess that it implies Saturn is over exposed somewhat by comparison. Looking at the background suggests that your exposure was longer for saturn and therefore subject to more atmospheric distortion (seeing).

My 2 cents, but others would have better answers.

Cheers