Starflyer

I've never heard this one before. My two VX10's were both bought second hand (they're an absolute bargain if you can wait for one to come up on ABS) and I've bought bits and bobs from OO for them over the years. I recently upgraded to a CT10 and I'm so happy with it.

Can I throw in the Orion Optics VX10? I've loved the two I've owned. There's some images on my Flickr page, link in my signature, taken with these scopes. Upgrade the focuser and add auto focus for around your budget.

Peter Shah's star reduction is good

Guide rate in EQMOD set too low?

No word on this @Grant ? When I booked I requested one of these on the Oaks close to Lou and Ian in their caravan.

Your old, prolific chipset based cable no longer works due to a recent Windows update. There's an old thread somewhere on SGL that goes through a method of getting it working using an old prolific driver. I suffered with this a few years ago, I battled with Windows to force it to use the older driver, and gave up in the end when new windows updates kept on breaking it. Do away with the handset, grab a new FTDI based cable from FLO, they just work.

Have you ticked the box to see visually the corrections that PHD2 is making? With PEC off you should be seeing a lot more corrections than with PEC enabled. This is an easy sanity check that PEC is actually being applied. What algorithm are you using in PHD2?

That's driven by the current fad for CMOS cameras surely? It doesn't mean they're better than CCDs. I haven't been dragged in by the hype, the amp glow problems and the need to faff around with settings puts me right off. Why go for CMOS when CCDs are plug and play? A 460EX at under £1000 is a true bargain!

Are there tent-friendly hard standings in long meadow? Having used one of these for the past few years I can say they make camping in rainy / muddy conditions bearable.

I'm not sure this is true, can you quote a source where this is discussed? I thought the theory was to offset balance whenever you've got backlash. Surely there's backlash still present between the worm and worm wheel in a belt driven system, unless you've got a fancy zero backlash mount. Ian

I hear that v4 is due to launch in beta in the coming months, maybe worth holding off for a while.

I gave up trying to get mine working, it'd work for a bit and then the next Windows update would wipe it out again. Save yourself a load of pain and get an FTDI lead, they just work.

I use 0.3x with my 10" newt, my reasoning is that I wanted 'gentle' corrections as it's a big scope to move around quickly and it overshoots easily. 0.5 sounds good for your newt, maybe 0.7 for your frac. I believe the reason the lodestar should be binned is that it's an interlaced sensor. Each download at 1x1 only downloads every other pixel row, so if you have a star with the centroid over a number of pixels it will appear to PHD to jump around. At 2x2 you download the whole sensor image every frame, you're also getting less latency between what your camera is seeing and what your mount is doing.

Try setting your history to a lot more than 50 data points and your target to more than 100 data points. It won't improve your guiding but will give a better idea of what's happening over the full six minutes or more. As tooth_dr says, the shape of your target point spread should mirror what you're seeing in your stars. But over the 150 seconds in your history the RA and DEC RMS errors are equal, this should mean round stars. It is possible to get flex in an OAG, my SX OAG was useless to begin with, the stalk would rock back and forth. I fitted a tiny grub screw into the stalk holder and now it's solid. I'm not saying yours is the same, but something to check.

Is that from the newt, from the centre of the frame Craig? Asking as I don't see any difraction spikes. There's some elongation but it's not terrible.

You should be able to get yourself a second hand EQ6 Pro for £600. If you plan to image with the 200p, then you may struggle with the HEQ5 when you add the weight of camera, guidescope etc. I'd focus on the mount first, this is where you'll get the biggest improvement in your images for the money you spend. If you compromise on the mount and upgrade your optics at the same time then you'll see less of an improvement than just getting the best mount you can afford.

I used to use it, and paid for it. The author hasn't created this to get rich, although I hope he's getting some reward from it. It's an impressive piece of software and a massive amount of work has gone into it and it continues to be developed and improved all the time. It's a bargain at the price it is, comparing it to other software I'd class it's worth in the £100+ price bracket. If you use it, and can afford it, do the decent thing and pay for it, it's only the price of a few pints of beer.

My two observations from using a lodestar for almost ten years. They need a good power supply though USB to work, using them with a low quality cable or an unpowered hub rarely works. I gave up trying to use a (high quality) USB 3 hub, the lodestar just want reliable with it. Sometimes I'd get a night with no problems, more often I'd get several total drops of the camera requiring physical unplugging to get it going again. I moved to a Startech Industrial USB 2 hub a couple of years ago and since I changed it I haven't had a single drop.

If this doesn't solve your issues try updating the Atik drivers. I had this with my 460EX / EFW2 about a year ago after a Windows update and the latest drivers fixed it.

That's the correct camera to choose in PHD2. The only recommended setting is to choose bin x2.

CMOS sounds complicated Craig 🤪

Following, I always struggle with blobby noisy backgrounds.

I use two Lakeside motor focusers with great success.

9 seconds of backlash is pretty big, something must still be wrong, things to check / consider; Belt tension - slack should just be taken up and then a tiny bit more, too much and you'll wear out motor bearings etc, too slack and it'll show as backlash. Worm adjustment not quite right, especially in DEC. Pulley grub screws not tight / not tightened onto flats on the shafts leading to rocking back and forth. Too much grease - I've done this, it shows up as stiction, your guiding tries to move an axis, there's no response and suddenly it gives and you get an over correction. It also shows itself as stiff, hard to balance axis. Particularly bad seeing, the recommended min motions look quite big to me. Is it a finder-guider your using? Did you enter the details correctly in PHD2? Polar alignment could be better, the better the PA the less work your guiding has to do. If you're setting up every time then you can do this as you're waiting for it to get properly dark. Hope you get it sorted, Ian

Great news, sounds like you're getting there. Remember, in the winter, when things contract a little you'll have more backlash than at summer temperatures. If backlash is a problem in the autumn / winter months then it may need a slight tweak again.