P r i m a L u c e L a b S . p . A .
E A G L E L E U s e r M a n u a l
Drift Alignment using PHD Guiding
In order to record the best astrophotography pictures it’s important to record pictures with exposition times as long
as possible. In order to do that the equatorial mount’s polar alignment is fundamental. Here you find a great way to
precisely polar align your mount using PHD2Guiding pre-loaded into the Eagle. Note: this guide is from Open PHD
Guiding. All rights reserved.
The drift align tool in PHD2 can be used to quickly obtain a precise polar alignment of your equatorial mount. The
process takes a little bit of practice, but after doing it a few times, you should be able to obtain an accurate polar
alignment in minutes.
Preparation
• Make sure your mount is reasonably level.
• Make sure your scope is balanced and ready for guiding.
• Try to get your mount's polar axis roughly aligned by using your mount's polar alignment scope if it has one.
Otherwise, make sure the mount's polar axis is pointing towards the pole, and the altitude setting corresponds to
your local latitude.
• Make sure you can see your computer screen when you are standing at the mount.
• Start PHD2 and connect your equipment.
• You should be using an up-to-date version of PHD2, preferably version 2.3.1l or newer.
• These instructions assume you have an ASCOM connection to your mount so PHD2 knows where your scope is
pointing. You can still drift align without an ASCOM connection, see Note about ASCOM.
• Calibrate on any convenient guide star, preferably at a low declination.
• Make sure your PHD2 settings have the correct values for your guide scope focal length and your guide camera
pixel size. (Brain => Global tab for focal length, Camera tab for pixel size)
• Now you are ready for drift aligning.
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