Hello.

I having some problems with the pointing accuracy and tracking of my telescope.

It was relatively poorly polar aligned because it’s very hard to do with a scope like this.

 

After I initialised the mount on Vega, I made a 30 point platesolve model with PointXP. Based on this the telescope should absolutely never miss no matter what, however when I slew to a target on the western part of the sky, it misses by a lot! Targets are out of view (0.3°x0.3°). On the north-eastern near zenith it works well.

 

I don’t think its backlash because the photo is still, the moment telescope arrives to the destination. Here is a photo of my worm mesh. https://imgur.com/a/bSGUUS3

Now I did make a lot of points really close together. 0.2° away from one another. Could that be ruining it? What else other the PA can I try?

Thanks, Matija.

On Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 11:12 PM, Matija Sircelj wrote:

Hello.

I having some problems with the pointing accuracy and tracking of my telescope.

It was relatively poorly polar aligned because it’s very hard to do with a scope like this.

 

After I initialised the mount on Vega, I made a 30 point platesolve model with PointXP. Based on this the telescope should absolutely never miss no matter what, however when I slew to a target on the western part of the sky, it misses by a lot! Targets are out of view (0.3°x0.3°). On the north-eastern near zenith it works well.

 

I don’t think its backlash because the photo is still, the moment telescope arrives to the destination. Here is a photo of my worm mesh. https://imgur.com/a/bSGUUS3

Now I did make a lot of points really close together. 0.2° away from one another. Could that be ruining it? What else other the PA can I try?

Thanks, Matija.

 Because you don't have absolute encoders on the mount the pointXP modeling won't be perfect. A mount model is not magic, it can't make a poor performing mount perfect. What a wonderful world it would be :).
As I suggest earlier forget about modeling. Simply platesolve and reposition your telescope until your target is centered.
You can see how good or bad the model is by looking at your RMS value. You can see it when you start Sitech. What is that value?

Hi.

Ok so today in a few hours I will try to polar align the mount perfectly for the first time using NINA’s 3point polar alignment. Then Ill initialise on Vega and make a single platesolve for the load cal star. Then Ill try tracking and pointing accuracy. If that works well Ill add more points and hope for the best.

Im just really confused as to why it hit a target on the north-eastern part of the sky near zenith hut not low down west.

Also my motors DO have encoders. Not sure if they are absolute tho?(they are the original Sidereal Technology ones)

Thanks.