michael8554

That was my conclusion. I don't remember whether 8 bit was deemed drastically worse than 16 bit, but you don't have a choice ? Michael

Lots of mentions on the PHD2 Help forum that the 16 bit driver drops out to 8 bits, I should have thought of that from the onset. Michael

I ran a similar setup for many years on W7, so I don't think you necessarily need to upgrade. As well as the timeout setting, you should look at the Power setting in Device Manager / Universal Serial Bus controllers / USB Root Hub / Properties / Power, and Power Management. You may find that the way the USB sockets are connected inside the USB chips, that you have all of your devices on one Root Hub. Michael

For Planetary you can do lossless video with many DSLRs in Crop Mode, or 5X LiveView mode: https://www.astropix.com/html/equipment/canon_one_to_one_pixel_resolution.html So until you get serious, you have the benefit of a large sensor for DSO's, and a small FOV for Planetary, all from one DSLR. Michael

The manual says: "To adjust the exposure time individually, remove the tick mark from „Auto Exposure“ and choose a different exposure time from “Exposure target“. You will need a very long focal length scope, such as the C11 in rnobleeddy's link. Michael

Only if the Volumes are turned up to 11.......... Michael

As you're not guiding, the Periodic Error in RA of the mount may be part of the problem. Michael

That looks like GBRG isn't the correct debayer . Michael

That's a common FL and camera combination that should work well. Use the HFD readout in the PHD2 Star Profile window to improve focus - on a star of course. Michael

This is guiding with ASIAir, PHD2 comparisons may not be valid.......... ! Michael

"Happiness, is a warm mirror, yeah yeah yeah " Michael

First check the camera maker's website for the power requirements. That will determine what current the camera will draw, and hence the fuse rating. Then look for what size cable is rated to take that current. Michael

Depends on the rotation of the guidecam. "to the right" could be Dec if the long side of the guidecam sensor is at 90 degrees.

Oops ! And a Beginner's mistake too ! Michael

When you switched to the ASI224, if you were still using the FR then yes, you had to make up the FR Back Focus to 55mm with the extra spacers. Removing some of that spacing gave you Coma, which is what caused those "seagulls". And that 42mm should have got you very close to the focus position you had with the DSLR. Swapping the camera for a parfocal eyepiece would help to find a star to focus on, but difficult if your connections are all screwthread. If you have a Guidescope, then add shims to tilt it to make the FOV concentric with the ASI224 FOV. Then a star central in the wider guidescope FOV should be central on the ASI224. Plate Solving would most likely reject stars with that much Coma. M27 would have filled your FOV, not a very pleasing framing. M57 would have been better. Michael

You are ST4 guiding, which is fine in itself. But means that unlike an ASCOM connection, your Guide Rates and RA/Dec positions aren't reported in the Logs, which makes diagnosing more difficult. Your first Cal with a step of 2000ms gave 12 steps in the Cal, which in PHD2 would be correct, so stick with that. You are only guiding in RA, so PA has to be good. The logs report that PA Error is at least 5arcmins. Yes ASIAir is reporting only 2 arcmins, but that amount of drift is apparent in the logs. That would be good enough if you were guiding Dec, not not good enough without. So what is happening ? You managed to guide for five sessions of 10 minutes or more, then RA went "wild". I believe that during that period the guidestar has been horizontally central in the guide box, but the unguided Dec has been drifting vertically in the box, due to that PA Error. Eventually Dec drifted vertically out of the box, and guiding failed. There are flaws in this theory. In the log the Star Mass remains good, and often many RA corrections are being sent. Perhaps the Auto Select has move to another star ? Despite that, it would be worth seeing what happens if you improve your PA, or stop/start guiding every 10 minutes or so, to reset the star position ? IMO the sudden jump in Dec at 01:25 is an isolated event, not seen anywhere else. Your image scale is 6.45arcsecs/pixel, it would be worth Binning X2 to reduce that to 3.27 and entering that into ASIAir. RA guiding is very choppy, but lets see what guiding is like after these changes. Michael

These magazines are all aimed at different niches, if you're lucky one of them will fit your profile. I have Astronomy Now, and Sky & Telescope. Michael

I'd guess that you need to De-Bayer / De-Mosaic the "B&W" video , to construct a colour image. The Stacking software that you use , Autostakkert etc, should do that for you. Michael

Okay, gotcha. Are you're saying it's too tight to unscrew with long-nose pliers, because there's not enough leverage ? You could make a pin spanner. Find two twist-drills that fit snuggly in the holes - the plain ends that is. Get a length of 2" x 1" and drill two holes near the end, the correct distance apart, using those twist-drills. Push the drills into those holes, and then insert the pin spanner into the holes in the plug/flange. Here's a real one to help visualising:

Reload the Firmware ? Michael

I thought that was self-explanatory, but here goes: RA starts off with a 3arcsec lurch to the east. Correction causes a 3+ arcsec overshoot to the west. From then on guide error stays mostly to the west, resulting in an about 2 arcsec RMS result (red line). That's about all that can be said, based on a short duration screen shot. Your settings are preventing effective guiding. What are those settings ? Zero information provided. What exposure ? Most guide systems have a minimum Move and Aggression settings to be at all effective, what are your settings ? Does your guide system provide a GuideLog that can be analysed ? Michael

An common websearch "fix" is to place a piece of thin card between the battery and the battery door, to improve the battery connection to the camera. Worth a try............ Michael

I don't see any mention of a flange/plug in those instructions, so what are you referring to ? Michael

I assume you've tried with no lens or scope attached ? Does LiveView work ? That raises the mirror and opens the shutter, similar to Bulb actuation. Michael