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Star Alignment via Ekos with EQDir USB adapter for NEQ6 pro Skywatcher mount

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Hi,
I am trying to do the star alignment via Ekos using Stellar Mate with the EQDir USB adaptre for my Sjywatcher NEQ6 pro mount.
When starting Ekos my active devices are the autoguider Lodestar X2, my Sony DSLR and the NEQ6 mount.
My mount is in the park position looking to polaris. Then I unmount, right click betelgeuse star and do "slew to target" and then "capture & solve".
My DSLR takes a photo but nothing happens with the mount. It does not move to betelgeuse star.
For sure "EQmod mount" driver is enabled in the settings.
Is anybody able to help?
Thanks in advance,
Armin
5 years 1 month ago #35178

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There are 3 options in the align module.
Sync
Slew to Target
Nothing

Assuming your plates are being solved properly, you need Slew to Target to iteratively center the target.
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Last edit: 5 years 1 month ago by Andrew.
5 years 1 month ago #35181

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I have these options: Sync, Slew to target, Nothing.
I do "Slew to target" and then "Capture & Solve".
But the mount, which is looking to Polaris, does not slew at all.
5 years 1 month ago #35188

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5 years 1 month ago #35190

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5 years 1 month ago #35191

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Do you have the red circle on the screen titles EQMOD to show where the mount is pointing, which should be near Polaris..?? This will show Kstars is communicating with the mount
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5 years 1 month ago #35193

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Does your EQDir cable pass through the hand controller, or go directly to the mount? If it is passed through the hand controller, you have to enable PC Direct mode within the controller, and maybe use the Synscan driver.
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5 years 1 month ago #35201

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Correct procedure is as follows:
Unpark Mount
Point to Betelgeuze in KStars (right click pop up menu appears)
In the popup menu click on Eqmod -> Track
Wait until the mount stops moving

Then go to the align tab en do capture&solve
Use the sync option that works better that than slew to target
Then you will see in Kstars the mount is not on Betelgeuze anymore but in the neigbourhood.
Right click on Betelgueze again -> EQmod->track and you should be spot on

Paul
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5 years 1 month ago #35208

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One small comment to the otherwise correct procedure: I do not necessarily agree that Sync works better than Slew To Target. I use Slew To Target all the time and it works great. One additional benefit of Slew To Target is that you only need to tell the mount to slew to an object once. Slew To Target will keep on taking images, solving and slewing until the target is within a certain limit of the center of the field of view. This limit is set to 30 arc seconds by default but can be specified. Don't set it to 1 arc second though, that may be too tight a limit.
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5 years 1 month ago #35211

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Had it several times that the slew to target kept on going forever. (Think there is even a warning about it somewhere on the site) That's why i changed to sync, no problems then (except solver does not always work, but that is most of the time my own fault. Forgetting correct telescope info, exposure time ...)
Regards,

Paul
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5 years 1 month ago #35212

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Yes this happened to me in the past as well but in the past few months this problem has disappeared again. In any case, Armin now has several options to choose from :)


Clear skies, Wouter
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5 years 1 month ago #35214

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@ Astronerd: I will check this evening, if there is the red circle. I don´t remember at the moment.

@ Ihoujin: Jasem told me that using the EQDir cable the hand controller is not needed any more. So I connected the Eqdir cable directly at the serial interface of the mount connecting on the other side via USB to Stellar Mate.
Therefor I use the Eqmod mount driver.

@PDB: I did also the way you described, but after clicking “track” nothing happened.

@ Wvreeven: Jasem also told me, not to use Sync, better to use slew to target.

Thanks for all answers so far!
5 years 1 month ago #35218

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