Hi!

Here I am again with a new question (I am soo happy that my previous "not performing Go To Bright Star" was solved!!!):

I'm trying to improve mu guiding (of course). So I'm experimenting a lot with PHD2, that is what I use for guiding. Now this is some results from an experiment yesterday:

I point the scope to the meridian, close to the equator, and run the guiding assistant. After some 3 minutes, it tells me the polar alignment error is 0.3 arc-min (farily ok, I'd say).

Then I do a meridian flip. Point again to the meridian (that is, slewing slightly to the east to compensate for the drift that now has occurred) . Run the guiding assistant again. This time it reports a polar alignment error of 16.3 arc min.

So: what might be going on here? If I trust PHD2, something must be shifting. But what on earth could that be? I mean, flex in the guidescope could not possible cause this, right? It must be something with the mount in that case - or am I wrong? Any suggestions on what to look for and further explore is welcome.

And yes, this is reflected in poorer guiding after meridian flip. Interestingly enough, guiding improves after recalibration, which again feels like a mystery. How could calibration be affected by MF, except DEC switching direction (and then it would go off wildly, which is not what happens - just some 50 % more RMS).

Best,

Magnus

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