Guiding woes, wasted nights.

denababy

Hi I'm looking for he.p and advice. My guide scope is a skywatcher evo, with a focal length of 242, last night was just as tonight guiding not even poor it was worse. I checked focus, reset everything and after successful polar align I slewed to my target (m101) set up my imaging plan and started to image. I was horrified to see the guiding so poor so I stopped it, started guiding again but it was just the same. The skies were clear although it was a bit misty and I could see plenty of stars.
I checked all that I could but could find no reason as to why the guiding was crap. As I say the last two nights guiding has been crazy, previously my guiding has been OK so I cannot figure out what the problem is, I checked and double checked my settings stopped the guiding a couple of times and even checked the battery (jackery was at 66 percent), anyone help please.

Lain402

Hi,

what does « poor guiding » means ? We need numbers.
what mount do you use ?
what guidecam ?
doublecheck guidecam focus.
doublecheck mount level.
doublecheck your PA.
doublecheck your RA and DEC balance.

denababy

Thanks Lain402. The numbers go from -8 at the bottom up to the top can’t recall those, top, numbers. My mount is a Skywatcher eq3-2 go to, yes I checked both the main camera and guide camera for focus. I levelled the tripod earlier in the day before putting the mount on, didn’t recheck the PA but did check the balance in both ra and dec. My guide cam is a zwo 120 mini.
Everything worked previously, a few days ago,