Problems with SGP and Autofocus

What else is new?  Tried to go out and run Sequence Generator Pro with Autofocus and while I could get autofocus to function, it often shot past best focus and gave me out-of-focus stars.   I tried for about an hour before I gave up.   I can't figure out if it's some backlash issue or something else.

Overall, I felt I wasted time.   But not really.  I'll have to go out and try again.

I did have some success in getting better guiding in PHD2...that is, until I tried to Polar align
and had the scope bang against the pier really hard.   WHAT THE HELL!   Infuriating that
I didn't react quickly enough when I saw the scope heading towards the pier.

Up until that point, I was getting the best guiding I'd ever seen with RA aggressiveness set to .7 and Dec aggressiveness at .65.   I was getting a total RMS in the .6 to.8 range consistently.

After banging the scope, I'm pretty sure I knocked polar alignment out of whack AND probably introduced some extra gear mesh issues.   DAMN!   I had spent about an hour getting that
polar alignment nailed.   RA guiding went to crap and I had crazy oscillation numbers up to 1.1
in PHD2.

Next time, I need to really get the right angle polar alignment scope configured so I cut down on these 1-2 hour polar alignment routines.

I suspect I'll need to remesh RA and possibly DEC.

I want to have a go at the Angel Nebula (IFN) which is North of M81/82.   Looking at my preliminary pics, I believe I need to center the image on NGC 3343 (or NGC 3348) using the 135mm lens and the Canon T3i.    I believe I need to collect about 75 x 15 min exposures which will be a 5 night affair.

I think I can start exposing at 12:30.   If I'm smart, I can start the evening shooting the Angelfish Nebula (Meissa) over those same nights.

As I don't have a provision for autofocusing that lens, I'll need to do this manually.  Ugh.