Thanks again for the help on this topic! After switching from the SynScan driver to EQMod and using direct connect to the mount rather via the handset, I had the best guiding experience so far with this mount. So happy to avoid all setup in the hand controller as well!

No issues with slewing / time zones / plate solving and guide performance was the best I've seen yet (Total RMS was 0.49 - 0.82 arcsec and was usually under 0.6, all with only a rough polar alignment).

Previously: Guide performance was around 1.6 arcseconds with huge swings (over 2 arcsec) when using the SynScan driver + USB connected to the Hand Controller; even when I had excellent polar alignment before.

I still had ~15% of my 5m exposures with a little star elongation due to the nature of the bouncing around. Will do better polar alignment tonight and try again.

I think my conclusion is that folks should avoid the SynScan driver if at all possible. If you must use the hand controller, perhaps try EQMod with PC Direct mode set on the hand controller (though I have not tested this yet)

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