Another good night for observation.  Moon phase is full with sunset at 19:43 and moon rise at 19:41. Setup began at 17:15 and was completed around 17:50.  Rough Polar alignment is going a lot quicker now that I am no longer stressing over the mount being perfectly level.  I’m using a tool called Compass Steel with my phone.  It provides both sun and moon positions as well as sun and moon rise and set times.  It also gives true north heading, pitch and roll, along with GPS coordinates.  Pitch gives me the correct altitude setting for my location and roll should determine if the mount is level or not.  I tried it last night and tracking was pretty much spot on with 1 Star alignment by SynScan. I solved my issue with SynScan saying everything was under the horizon on Go To functions.  I had my time zone offset set to 6 instead of -6.  I hope to get the camera to focus again and try some plate solving. 

Sat down at 20:25 and said hello to Vega, Altair and Deneb.  Live focused on street light, live focus working. Manual slewed to Deneb, 10 subs, 10 seconds apart.  At 20:50 GoTo Vega, micro slow slew if moving at all, SynScan did not respond to the hand control at all.  Finder scope was slowly moving off of Deneb, unplugged and plugged back SynScan from mount while leaving power on remote.  SynScan started responding again.  Called it an evening at 21:21, the skeeters were horrendous and the full moon wasn’t going to be kind to any more imaging.

Checked the images taken, the first set of 10, they were 10 second subs 10 seconds apart.  Everything looked spot on for tracking, as far as I could see there was no shifting of the stars from image to image, focus was slightly off but that was to be expected.  I accomplished a rough focus on the street light.  Something nocked the focus off not sure what happened, the lens is an inexpensive Youngnuo and the focus ring is sloppy at best.  A piece of tape to hold it in place next time out.  I got one shot that was a decent focus.

So, all in all, it was another good night.  Camera controls from the SynScan work, Live Focus is working, my Polar alignment method seems to be working as well.  I use Compass Steel and set pitch to my latitude and roll to 0 with the compass pointing to true north.  I then confirm my GPS coordinates in SynScan with what Compass Steel is showing.   Then do a one star alignment procedure with the SynScan.  I got one good image that was in good enough focus to plate solve with All Sky Plate Solver, that, so that’s working.  I set the scope up in the office and tried Go To, it’s working.  Now that is on me for not trying to GoTo something after I power cycled the SynScan.  But it appears to be working now with no issues. 

Now it’s time to hone my skills.