Issue: Centering frames trailed

I recently added a new OTA with a much longer FL (1000mm vs 432mm with my previous scope that is working fine with SGP, and with which I never saw this issue).

I’m noticing that when I use centering of the object before starting the sequence (which I always do), the plate solve frames are a bit trailed. It’s very obvious that the OTA is still moving when the frames are taken. They are still clear enough to solve, and the centering completes (at least it has the times I’ve watched it so far), but the trails are very noticeable visually.

I think with my previous short, light OTA and at the more forgiving focal length the system was working just fine, but now with a much longer (mak-newt) OTA with a lot more weight and focal length, the mount (via eqmod, it’s an AZ-EQ-6) is reporting that the slew or nudge is complete, but there’s still some small movement taking place perhaps just through inertia of the long OTA.

It would be better if SGP could wait a bit longer to quiesce the mount before taking the next plate solve frame and continuing the centering process. Can we add an option please to wait an extra few seconds (or perhaps there’s already one and I’ve missed it) after nudging the mount before taking the next frame to solve.

In Control Panel/Telescope there is a “mount settling time” parameter which you can use for this purpose. On my AZ-EQ6 I had that set to 15s but increased to 20s after sometimes getting trails on the first plate solve after the initial slew to target. I don’t see any trails on the fine adjustments but my scope is only 700mm FL. I’m OK with the 20s delay which obviously slows down the centering process but reduces the risk of the plate solve failing because of trailing.

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Perfect, thanks for the pointer. I had that set to 0 (the default it seems) which is enough with my small refractor. Going to try 5s initially for the bigger one and see what happens, perhaps I will also need the longer settling time like you.