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PHD2 Polar Drift Alignment And Single Axis Trackers

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Is there any limitation to using PHD2's Polar Drift Alignment tool with a single axis tracker like my SkyGuider Pro? Also, should dither settings be set to RA only?

Thanks.
Last edit: 3 years 6 months ago by Phil.
3 years 6 months ago #60458

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Your best bet is to try it.

By single axis tracker you mean a mount that will only track the Ra axis, not the Dec axis I suppose? Can this tracker guide in Ra?
If so you should be able to configure PHD2 to guide in Ra only and that should be enough to enable the PHD2 drift polar alignment. If you can't guide at all then PHD2 may be unable to do anything.
3 years 6 months ago #60461

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Just set Dec mode from Auto to Off. You can do that at the bottom of the window or in the brain under the algorithm settings for Dec guiding. If you don't disable Dec, it will never complete calibration.
3 years 6 months ago #60523

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Thanks. Should the dither also be set to RA only?

Thanks again.
3 years 6 months ago #60524

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I don't believe you have to make any special settings for dither when in RA only. But you may want to consider manually moving the star tracker in Dec occasionally to avoid a drifting noise pattern.
3 years 6 months ago #60525

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Ha! I though that's what dithering would eliminate to begin with. Hmmm, so is using software to control dither with a single axis unit not practical?
3 years 6 months ago #60527

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Given the choice, always dither. Especially shooting with a noisy camera, be aggressive, 15-30 pixels on the image scale.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Phil
3 years 6 months ago #60528

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What focal length do you intend to image with? If shorter than, say, 250 mm then I’d not worry about very accurate polar alignment. Just use the polar finder of the mount and you should be fine. The other day we used a SkyGuider Pro and a 135 mm lens. Over the course of 4 hours there was significant drift in Dec but the stars were pinpoints.
3 years 6 months ago #60538

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I'm running an AT60ED into a MFT body, so yeah, alignment is critical.
3 years 6 months ago #60562

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You can use PHD2 Polar Drift alignment with an RA drive only mount. In fact, none of the polar alignment tools move the mount in declination. And even RA movement can be performed manually.
Without Dec corrections drift in declination could be an issue. PDA is not highly accurate for PA (within about 10 arcmin) so you might want to follow it up with a classic drift alignment or SPA.
3 years 6 months ago #60601

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Yeah, I don't find drift alignment attractive, but Ekos I believe has a good polar alignment tool, I can just use that.
3 years 6 months ago #60603

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