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Hello Paul, Brian,

Attached here is an image of the comet taken with the tracking function of gemini telescope.net version 1.1.17

.It worked, there is a star trail but the comet nucleus seems slightly stretched.

It is about 5 mn of exposure.

Photo taken February 11 at 11:14? p.m. French time?

(Light_ASIImg_300sec_Bin2_-4.8C_gain100_2023-02-11_231359_frame0001)

Here are the deviations:

In AD 448228

In DEC-59313718

Thank you for allowing me to do this test

.Cordially

Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for posting your result!

Tracking comet using the new Small Objects feature is a bit tricky because it changes tracking rates based on the predicted motion of the comet, not the actual movement of the comet in the FOV of your telescope. Things that can affect the quality of tracking include: polar misalignment, periodic error (in both axes!), flexure, backlash, refraction, etc. In other words, all the same issues that you might encounter when trying to take a long, unguided exposure while tracking at Sidereal rate. For this reason, you may want to add auto-guiding on the comet nucleus while tracking at the comet rate. At the very least, try to take up all the backlash before starting to image, as the mount will now need to track in DEC as well as RA axes, and make sure you have a good polar alignment. Any backlash in DEC will result in a sudden jump/change of direction sometime during the first image or two, so best to eliminate it before start.

Regards,

? ?-Paul