Dadek182 Do I manually point the OTA to some constellation I can see like Cassiopeia (as seen on picture 3) and let ASIAIR platesolve?
David,
I would start with the RA axis pointed with azimuth close to true north and altitude equal to your latitude -- this is where you will end up after the polar alignment.
Do not yet connect the mount to ASIAIR in the Mount Settings panel (physical cable is OK to leave connected).
Turn off power to the mount.
Unlock the clutches and move the OTA so that it is directly above the RA axis, with counterweight down. Lock the clutches, and from that point on, never move the OTA again, except by using ASIAIR's GOTO or arrow keys.
Now turn on power to the mount.
Do a single star alignment if the mount needs it to open a connection to a computer.
Now connect the mount to ASIAIR Mount Settings window. The connection slider at the right will turn green.
Using the arrow buttons of ASIAIR, position the OTA so that the FOV sees a completely clear patch of sky somewhere above that crane or the tree branches.
At this time, you can also check that about a 60º counter clockwise turn of the RA axis will also give you a clear view. Just use the left/right arrow buttons to move just the RA. If not, experiment around so that both positions give you a clear FOV.
Make sure the tree branches and the crane are not in the FOV, otherwise you may not be able to plate solve with them as shadows at night. The aim is the start with a declination of the mount as close as possible to 90º, since the accuracy of ASIAIR's algorithm suffers as the declination departs from 90º.
Once you are satisfied, return the OTA to the first position (above crane or tree branches) using just the left/right buttons.
You can actually note down the RA and declination (in mount settings window) so that you can repeat this easily next time with a GOTO and not need to fiddle with the arrow buttons. But remember to note down the hour angle (HA = LST-RA). Next time, with a different Local Sidereal Time, you can set the RA to the same hour angle (I.e., RA = LST-HA). I do that with mine (in my case, I GOTO declination = 89.5º and RA = LST+4 hours; yours will be different).
You should now be able to proceed to the automatic polar alignment procedure.
When you are done, I recommend that you slew the mount using the arrow keys back to its home position (OTA again is above the RA axis, with counterweight towards ground). disconnect the mount from ASIAIR Mount Settings, toggle power to the mount, and reconnect to ASIAIR Mount Settings (do a fake star alignment if your mont needs it to connect to a computer).
The reason for this last step is that the 60º rotation could have moved your mount from pier west to being pier east. That could confuse a mount -- you read all the time of people who can't get the GOTO to work after the polar alignment. By repowering the mount at the home position, you are telling the mount to start with the correct pier side.
That should be about it. Once you are used to it, it should be just a minute or so, plus the time to tune in the altitude and azimuth bolts.
Remember that all movements needs to be done using the ASIAIR GOTO or slew buttons. Do not loosen the clutch since that is the formula to get the mount to loose sync with the ASIAIR location, and you end up pointing the OTA into the ground, etc.
The first time you do the above, be sure you are right next to the telescope, in case you have a mount that make a wild 60º slew. Stop the mount manually if you think it is not slewing correctly, to prevent harming your OTA and instrumentation.
You have lots of sky to use the All Sky polar alignment in v1.8.3. However, with its current accuracy, I don't really recommend it. Use the new algorithm as a last resort, but keep exposures below 2 or 3 minutes, and stopping and restarting autoguiding after each exposure.
Chen
