1. Capturing images with a tracking mount—advanced
Geoff Smith

2. Overview of this talk Polar alignment of an equatorial mount revisited
Guide camera setup
Software for guiding

3. Polar Alignment Refresher
Approximate polar alignment
Use the south polar region quipment-reviews/polar-alignment/

4. Polar Alignment Refresher
Approximate polar alignment
Point the eyepiece at Polaris, or more precisely, at the NCP serving/daylight-polar-alignment/
Can be done in daylight

5. Tuning Polar Alignment
Near the meridian
Errors in azimuth dominate
Near the horizon
Errors in altitude dominate

6. Tuning Polar Alignment
Point telescope at a star near the meridian
Tweak azimuth
Point telescope at a star (30° altitude) near the horizon
Tweak altitude
Repeat as necessary

7. Tuning Polar Alignment
Do it manually.
Slow but works well. See reviews/polar-alignment/
Numerous free/cheap software programs. Just Google “Polar alignment software”
I suggest using PHD for tuning your polar alignment. See a tutorial here

9. Guiding
In the old days guiding was done by looking through the guidescope and keeping the guide star centred on the cross hairs for hours at a time, using the hand paddle.
Digital makes it easier—do 10 min, take a break, do another 10 min, take a break, do another 10 min, take a break, … … … Then stack the pictures.

10. Manually guided images with a DSLR
4 x 5 min, 10 x 30 sec
5 x 5 min
3 x 10 min

11. Autoguiding You will need A computer A guide camera
A guidescope or an off axis guider (See Session 4 for details)
A USB connexion from your computer to your camera
A connexion from the guide camera to the autoguider port on your mount
and/or
Preferably a connexion from computer to mount (usually a serial connexion, or typically a USB/serial connexion) which enables the computer to control mount movements
Guiding software

12. The ASCOM Platform
It is a highly desirable minimum to install the ASCOM platform and the ASCOM drivers for your mount.
This enables your computer to control the telescope movements.

13. Autoguiding software
I recommend PHD2 (Push Here Dummy) to begin with, unless you already have another package
It is free and easy to understand.
Loads of tutorials on YouTube
Make sure you look at PHD2, not V1

14. Autoguiding setup—Camera connexions
Connect the guide camera to computer usually via USB
Two options
Option 1: Connect the guide camera to the autoguider port on your mount using the supplied ST-4 cable.
Option 2 (Preferred): Connect your mount to your computer using a serial cable (or USB to serial adapter)

15. Autoguiding setup—Connect equipment with PHD2
Select “On Camera” if using autoguider port.
Otherwise select your mount

16. Autoguiding setup—Select a guidestar

17. Autoguiding setup—Guider Calibration
The exact orientation of the autoguider, the focal length of the guide telescope optics, and the speed of the motor drive all affect the movement of the guidestar on the camera chip.
The software moves the telescope East-West and North-South and notes the effect on the star position.
This is guider calibration

18. Autoguiding—When to calibrate
If you are using the autoguider port on the mount and no computer connexion to the mount
Every time you change declination
Every time you change the guide camera or its orientation
You will have to tell the software if you do a meridian flip
If you are using a computer connexion to the mount
Once near the celestial equator—good for multiple sessions
Every time you change the camera or its orientation

19. Autoguiding setup—start tracking

21. Successful Autoguiding
Autoguiding is not as simple as sellers of software and guide cameras make out. Here is an in-depth article on autoguiding
Don’t spend too much time on this article at this stage. As you get more experience with the vagaries of autoguiding there will come a time when it will be useful.