[dmill1220]

HI Dave,

To simplify the Drift align process with the DSI on a EQ wedge, you must not use a focal reducer!. First Roughly polar align and Auto 3 star align with a medium power eyepiece and no reducer, then you install the DSI.

The longer focal length means shorter waiting periods to see which way a star drifts in the field of view of the DSI, in between wedge adjustments.

The camera orientation will depend on whether you image with or without the diagonal, the sketch I made for you, shows you how the DSi should be placed when viewing South, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, and with a diagonal, and with or without the focal reducer installed.

Without the Diagonal when imaging, the Usb port may need to point to the left.

When you focus using a Hartman Mask your settings in the DSI should be set to: Deep sky, MONO, Dark -subtraction is not enabled, the live view box is checked, with the exposure in the live view box set at 1 second, and the Auto contrast should also be checked.

when you start the actual drift align process with the DSI installed, you need to pick a star at your meridian and the Celestial EQ that is bright enough to register in the Camera's live view mode.
The settings I gave you give you the best sensitivity to accomplish this and in Mono, it helps to reduce noise on your screen.

I Do not use the Zoom Function when focusing with a Hartman Mask.

If your camera orientation is correct, and once you have an alignment star centered in you live view screen, draw a centroid box around a star and then place your mouse cursor over the + that is in the middle of the centroid box.

Do not move the mouse! and notice which way the star drifts you will see the centroid box center moving away from your cursor placement.
Ignore any left to right drift, the drift up or down becomes evident very quickly in this manner.

You then adjust your EQ wedge in azimuth, to get the star to move in the direction of the drift, when you adjust the wedge in Azmuth, the star will also move in RA, so you will have to keep it centered in the live view window with the RA drive axis of your hand controller.

Continue with the Drift align process for the Declination adjustment move the wedge up or down depending again on which way the star drifts without rotating the camera in the holder, just move the wedge in declination towards the direction of the drift, and keep it centered with the hand controller RA axis again.

Repeat this whole process all over again to correct for any minor misalignment from the last step, again do both the RA and then the DEC axis in the same manner.

After you have drift aligned you must repeat the Autostar 2 or three star alignment just for goto accuracy, every alignment star should be centered in the DSI live view window again, this time youre not touching the Mount, you are aligning the software to an accurately polar aligned mount.

The final step is to remove the DSI, install your focal reducer, and refocus using the Hartmann mask again.

When you start an imaging run Select two bright stars at either end of the screen for image de-rotation, and keep the combined box checked. adjust your sliders and shadow enhance, to a level that you like with a preview full length sub. if you plan on 30 second subs set your first preview to 30 seconds, and hit the preview button.

With this option Autostar can stack an image more accurately than third party software.

I will get into better color accuracy on another post with the DSI.