Hello,

I have been enjoying astrophotography for nearly a year now, but I am still trying to improve my guiding in PHD2, which is often above 1.5 arcsec for both RA and DEC (rms).

One of the factors might have something to do with poor polar alignment in Ekos*.

I polar align with my main scope, which is a C9.25, equipped with a QHY168C camera. My mount is an iOptron CEM40. I use OAG with an ASI 174mm mini.

I noticed there is almost always an inconsistency with my alignment. After the second or third iteration of PA following the installation of my mount in my backyard (on concrete stables) I usually manage to bring down the error to nearly 0.

However, if I start another alignment cycle, I usually get around 30", and sometimes nearly a minute, of error.

If I bring down this number again to 0 it will most likely swing back to 30" after the next iteration.

Therefore, I usually don't bother, but since I would like my guiding to improve, I thought this could be a good place to start, even though there are probably a thousand factors influencing the guiding process.

One possible culprit is that I do not lock the azimuth and the latitude screws after alignment.

As anyone encountered this inconsistency before?

Thanks!


* Even though PHD2 guiding assistant usually does not indicate a poor polar alignement.

EL

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