michael8554

Like others who've posted, I GoTo, Centre, and SYNCH on a star near the target, then the GoTo the target is in the middle of my DSLR FOV (LX200GPS 1280mm FL) That's what Meade High Precision does automatically. How far off is your first Alignment Star ? Should be visible, not necessarily central, in the finder. That's Meade-Talk for Permanent PE Correction, you need that to help guiding, as the uncorrected RA PE is usually rather large. But switch off the Dec PPEC !

Sorry to say Stuart, DSS will reject stars that aren't fairly round, stacking won't make them round If you look at the stretched sub, there are only about 40 stars, so "300 stars" will probably comprise hot pixels, not stars. If you open DSS there's their own comprehensive user guide (bottom of the side window), did you read that first ? Michael

Most of the recommended power supplies are 5A, I agree that's not the same as the mount spec. Michael

You've checked that with Settings > Location to ensure it matches your location ?

The Celestron spec says it will supply 5 Amps, which is what the EQ5 spec says is required. All I can suggest is a slightly loose and so high resistance connection, fine for low current but bottling out on higher demand. Or long cables made of thin conductors. Michael

As you have realised, NCP is slightly away from Polaris. So once you have Polar Aligned, if you really want to see Polaris in the FOV, use the handbox controls. Not the mount's mechanical adjustments, because that will, of course, mess up you PA. For Star Alignment, choose two or three other stars, not Polaris. Michael

Best to report what you actually entered (Location, Date, Time, DST) because an error in those settings is most likely cause. Michael

155 55W would appear to be a mis-read of 1 55 55W So following Mark's format you enter 001 56W Michael

If you want to stick with Meade, there's the LX850 mount. OR Search for "LX200 14" Remounted" https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/how-to-remount-a-schmidt-cassegrain-tube/ http://www.skymtn.com/mapug-astronomy/MAPUG/BestMount.htm Michael

Polestar used to be the Racing Dept. of Volvo, like Mercedes and AMG, but now it's their EV brand. The Polestar 2 is one of the few EVs that compares to a Tesla. And Tesla are years ahead of most other EV makers. Have you seen the Audi, Mercedes etc TV ads, all "concept car, not available to buy ......" Michael

From your latest post in the PHD2 Help Forum: Have you looked at what you have selected in the PHD2 Equipment Profile, is it similar to the images that Joera posted ? Michael

Old PHD2 Logs should be in the same folder as recent ones - unless you've deleted PHD2 at some point ? Don't do that. You loose all your settings and Logs. Just rerun the PHD2 installer, that refreshes the installation and keeps your settings. Michael

You have the Guide Rate on the default setting in EQMOD. RA Guide Speed = 1.5 a-s/s, Dec Guide Speed = 1.5 a-s/s Needs to be at least 8.0 arcsecs/sec https://github.com/OpenPHDGuiding/phd2/wiki/EQASCOM-Settings You have a lot of Dec Backlash, you must take that up before Calibrating - pulse the mount north until you see the star move, then Cal https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/ Guidecam isn't well focused HFD = 4.38 px Use the HFD reading in the PHD2 Star Profile window to get that to the lowest figure. In fact, read as many of the PHD2 Help Files as you can before you try again. Michael

I've always used AV on a Canon DSLR, with the light panel dimmed to produce exposures of around 1 second. If very fast exposures are used because the panel is too bright, the shutter can leave a shadow. The LCD on DSLRs shows a pseudo JPG display of a Raw, with the histogram at 50% on AV setting. If the Raw was displayed it would be very dark due to lack of the gamma correction that occurs in processing. With dedicated Astro cameras I believe the exposure is set to 50% of max ADU for Flats. So depending on the software used for viewing that image, it may have a histogram way to the left, or at 50%. Michael

Hi I think your GuideLog from 2 weeks ago would be useful to have too, for comparison purposes. From the Guidelog: Calibration got to 57 steps before PHD2 gave up, it should take about 12 steps. Here's a typical Cal: Note RA and Dec moves are at 90 degrees to each other, and it took 12 to 14 steps. Here's yours: On this display RA is blue, see how RA started moving North (from middle to position W5), at 90 degrees to the expected direction, shown by the blue line. I expect the answer is a setting shown in the DebugLog, but I'm not able to understand those logs I'm afraid. Upload both logs from the good and bad sessions to the PHD2 Help site, instructions in the Help menu (get the dates right !) https://groups.google.com/g/open-phd-guiding Some incidentals from the log: This Cal was at Dec = 19, not a game changer, but hence the suggestion from PHD2 to Cal at Dec = 0. RA Guide Speed = 6.0 a-s/s, Dec Guide Speed = 6.0 a-s/s. A little low, 8 to 15 is normally used, try 10 / 66% / 0.66X, a setting in your mount. Guidescope focus could be better, HFD = 4.35 px, use the Star Profile window in PHD2 to get that to its lowest reading. Michael

The advice from your post on the PHD2 Help Forum pretty much mirrored mine. Until you get a good calibration, at Dec = 0 not Dec = 90, it's a waste of time trying to guide. You can see in your first image that Dec and RA Cal steps are not at 90 degrees to each other, more like 20 degrees. So when you start to guide. PHD2 thinks that almost equal amounts of correction are needed on RA and Dec. Hence your guide graphs zoom off in opposite directions. And PHD2 has calculated your guide rate at about 25 arcsecs/sec. Normal rate would be about 8 to 15 arcsecs/sec. So Cal only took 4 steps instead of 12 - one of your settings is wrong. Shift-Click on the Guide button to start a new Calibration. Michael

Welcome to the Lounge The PHD2 message says "Calibration was completed". This means PHD2 was able to move the mount in RA and Dec. How well it moved RA and Dec is questionable - "RA/Dec axis angles are questionable" The way RA and Dec guiding graphs are zooming off in opposite directions is usually a sign that during Calibration RA and Dec were not moving at 90 degrees to each other. I don't have EQMOD but the screenshot suggests you were at Dec 90 - pointing at Polaris ? Post your PHD2 GuideLog. You'll find it in the PHD folder, check the date in the filename. Until you get a good Calibration, trying to guide is pointless. Also read this: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/ Michael

Bottom left stars are radially elongated. All the rest are elongated TL to BR. I'd sort that first - guiding ? Michael

If the stars are elongated radially from the centre of frame, then the FF is too close. The normal MPCC spacing is 55mm with the slim lockring, or 57.5mm without. Michael

As James said, but whatever stacking software you are using, you should read the instructions which will explain where to put your calibration subs. Michael

Your own figures say it all. 130PDS ....... 1.2" per pixel 250PDS....... 0.65" per pixel So you have nearly doubled your "magnification". 1.2arcsecs/pixel is an okay image scale for even UK conditions. 180mm guidescope with a 3.75um pixel guidecam, properly mounted, will work. But the 1200mm FL is crying out for an Off Axis Guider with a Binned mono guidecam. I don't know if that lot is too much for an EQ6 or not. Michael

A. You didn't start a new post, you took over someone else's. B. The settings had already been posted by Stub Mandrell, but you were too lazy to look in the Instruction Manual for "noise reduction". And then that "can't be bothered, I'm giving up" comment in your Profile ? We can't spoon-feed you all your life, time to grow up. Michael

You mention the NEQ6 is guided, so is your RA error twice your Dec error in PHD2 ? How good is your PE ? 30 seconds would be halfway to the peak of the mount's Periodic Error, if it's a 4 minute worm ? Michael

Hi Scotty From the GuideLog: Guide speeds are very low, "RA Guide Speed = 1.5 a-s/s, Dec Guide Speed = 1.5 a-s/s" Normal range is 8 arcsecs/sec (0.5X or 50%) to 15 arcsecs/sec (1.0X or 100%). In your first guiding session, RA and Dec are whizzing off at equal rates in opposite directions. Suggesting that in your last Cal on the 17th, Dec and RA were moving in roughly the same direction, instead of at 90 degrees to each other. Hence the "Last Cal Issue = Orthogonality" error message from the last Cal ? It is pointless trying to guide until you get a good Calibration Camera output at 1 second and 1.5 second exposure was very choppy, with many "Star Lost" messages, try guiding at 2 seconds to reduce "Chasing the Seeing". Guidecam focus was poor, HFD 4 to 5. Use the Star Profile window in PHD2 to get that down to 3 to 4. So my suggestions: Increase Guide Rate and Exposure time, and fine-tune focus. Nudge Dec north until you see the star move before Cal - to take up any Dec Backlash. Read this from the PHD2 guys: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/ Michael

On your single sub I see equal amounts of coma in all four corners, as you suggested. All stars are elongated roughly top Left to Bottom Right, as you suggested, but which I think is an RA error, not a Dec PA error? I don't believe anyone says HyperStar is easy, in fact most advice is to steer clear unless you are a perfectionist in setup. Michael