Hi Rahul!
OK, everybody has slightly different methods, And why not, we all have slightly different equipment. ;^)
Here's mine, not to confuse, but to give you another idea that may work easily for you.
I started using Sharpcap at Brian's recommendation. At first I had difficulty because I didn't understand the relationship of my Camera to Sharpcap. It is not Plug and Play.
It's more like fiddle, fiddle, fiddle, and come back another day. Fiddle, fiddle, Fiddle, come back another day.
But finally, with a 4 second exposure, after checking my focus beforehand, I began to get results like most folks get right out of the gate.
And because Sharpcap gives me the option of carefully adjusting and trying to get 00-00-00 to 0x adjustment, I like to take my time and see what I can do.
The atmosphere often messes with that and the figures can bounce a bit. But the more I did it, and the more I got use to doing it repeatedly the same way, the better my results got. 8^))).
Then I got into a discussion with a young guy here, and he brought up using the guide scope and camera to do my PA. So he convinced me to at least to try it.
I have a HD guide camera, ASI290 MM mini, so I gave it a try and it worked great. So I've been using my Guide Scope and Camera for a couple of weeks or so.
I don't have any of the difficulties I had using my Atik Infinity Main Imaging Camera. And it is easier to bring it into great adjustment. My best so far was 00.00.00 X 00.00.02. I considered that fenominmoninal for me.
OK, once Polar Alignment is good, and I consider anything single digit as great, I shut down Sharpcap.
Then I turn on my GM811GHD, open Gemini II and connect, and my Camera, PHD2, my focuser, and Stellarium.
Using my Main Telescope Camera as my Aligning view, and my Guide camera as my finder view, I use the Gemini II hand control to do a mount alignment.
Were I differ from most, is I do a lot of alignment stars in the Western and Eastern skies. What is "a lot"? 10-12 and even 15 just to fool with it.
Rene, who wrote the program suggests 10 stars. I was doing many before Rene` mentioned a number. So his recommendation solidified my "overachiever" method.
(With my old mount I could only do 2+4 star alignments. But I always wanted more to "fine tune" the alignment. Now... I can do as many stars as I feel like doing.)
It appeals to my sense of giving the Gemini II as many reference points as I can.
OK, so there is my methods of PA, and of Modeling (alignment).
Now then, I have to bring in my mount when I'm done with it, which means I have to set up every night as well.
But I convinced her I could leave the tripod set up, aligned on Polaris, and assemble my Mount and Telescope on the preset tripod. That really helps to speed up the PA and Model building afterwards.
But I always do a Polar Alignment first. Then build a model from a cold start, because I'm always disturbing the mount by dismantling and carrying it in and out.
I did try a warm start once, and it fooled me into thinking I was going to get away with it.
But I wound up going back and doing it the right way. In my opinion, warm starts are for guys with piers in observatories that can park and nothing moves until they come back another night.
Anyway, good luck and keep working with it. And don't expect a two star alignment to be great for imaging. It's good for visual, but not fine enough for imaging.
Have fun!
--
SonnyE
(I suggest viewed in full screen)
