Polar Alignment Plate Solving with Edge 8" at 2032 Focal Length

jsg

Hi,
Last night was clear and wind was at a minimal. No moon, no neighbor's lights. Polar alignment plate solving started fine, but as soon as I got closer to fine tuning the alignment, plate solving kept failing. I tried increasing exposure to 10 seconds and then decreasing it, all the way down to 1/2 second.

Weird thing is before plate-solving failed it said it detected over 4000 stars. That doesn't seem right. If it were detecting that many stars, why would it fail? I tried both telling ASIAIR the focal length (2032mm) and also putting "0" as the focal length to let AAP figure it out. Neither seemed to succeed in finishing the plate solving.

Any help is much appreciated. I've had no problem plate solving with my 100mm and 130mm refractors. My camera is the ASI2600MC and I checked the FOV and it's within spec for the ASIAIR Plus to plate solve..

Thanks,
Jerry

PMTeam@ZWO

Did you use a filter? We do not recommend using too long an exposure time, as there is a risk of star points turning into lines. It is recommended that you do not use a narrow band filter for PA, and the exposure time should between 0.5-3s

Based on your focal length, I suspect the hot spot is included in the 4000 stars, do you remember what the camera temperature was? It is recommended to wait until the camera reaches the cooling target temperature and then try again.

jsg

PMTeam@ZWO

I used a filter, but not narrowband. I used an Optonlong L-Pro broadband filter.
The temperature of the ASI2600MC was -10c.

I think this might be a focusing issue. I don't have any trouble polar aligning or plate solving with my 100mm and 130mm refractors, only with the Edge. I'll try again soon and keep the PA exposure time shorter..

Thanks,
Jerry