michael8554

36 Watts ! How did you attenuate that enough to get good Flats ? Michael

Most mounts will allow you to choose Alignment Stars, check in the instruction manual. Worth looking in a Planetarium for stars you can see, and choose them. Don't use planets for alignment, their position is dynamic and changing all the time, unlike stars. So hard for the mount's firmware to know precisely where a planet is. Michael

For this sort of problem converting a sub, not a stacked image, to a 1000 pixel wide JPEG will suffice. choose files below the text window. Once they've loaded, hit the + in the small icon to post in the text where your cursor is already positioned. Michael

To expand on newbie's advice: With the bare OAG off the scope, look down the guidecam port, you should see a reflection. So is the prism pointing towards the scope (correct), or to the main imaging camera (wrong) ? Mount everything and get the imaging camera in focus. Measure the distance from the imaging camera sensor, to the centre of the prism. Now measure from the guide camera sensor, to the centre of the prism. That distance must be the same. Once you have set that distance correctly, mount everything, and focus the imaging camera. Now, for test purposes, lower the prism into the middle of the light path, to be sure of getting stars. Without defocusing the imaging camera, finetune the guidecam focus and lock down. Looking at Flats, position the prism just outside the long side of the imaging camera's frame. Then in future only focus the imaging camera, the guidecam should then be in focus too. You can do all this during the day on a distant landmark, using very fast exposures on both cameras. Then on stars, focus the imaging camera, then the guide camera. And as before don't alter the guidecam focus, only the imaging camera focus. Michael

One site says you must specify which camera you are using, to ensure the correct unit and spacers are supplied. Why not contact Starizona ? Michael

The stars radiating out at the top of frame indicate the FR is too close to the camera sensor. However, the radial blurring of the stars at the bottom of frame indicate the FR is too far away from the camera sensor. In other words, the FR spacing is correct, but there is tilt in the image train. Michael

Once you've installed the ASCOM Platform and the ASCOM drivers, that's it, nothing more to Run. Then use the Meade Skycapture software that came with the camera to image the moon and planets. (It's not suitable for Deep Sky Objects according to the spec.) To steer the mount to where you want to image, you need Planetarium software. Connect the PC to the Autostar handbox with a Meade #505 cable via a USB to Serial Converter. Select the ASCOM Mount Driver in that software and enter the COM port created in the PC by the USB to Serial Converter. Michael

Pretty good ! HFD = 6, so not guiding on a hot pixel ! 😆 Are the stars round in your images? RA error nearly twice Dec error. Michael

Following the tragic alleged murder of Sarah Everard, today the government has announced it's intention to spend £25 Million to improve street lighting. Very positive, but if it's carried out with the usual attention the Light Pollution Guidelines, it's not looking good for astronomers........ Michael

Some of the USB to Serial cables require a two-part installation, to get a COM entry, and a USB entry, in Device Manager.

Not familiar with this software but I noticed : Screen 1 Tracking = OFF (as others have said). Track Rate DE (Dec ?) = 0 (Not going to cause RA drift of course) If you want us to spot errors please post your REAL settings........... Michael

You will require USB communication between the PC and the mount, to guide. And USB communication from the guide camera driver in the PC to the guide camera, to expose and download guide frames for PHD2 to react to. How you achieve that is up to you, separate cables, or via the imaging camera hub. Be sure to connect to the correct ASI camera in PHD2. Michael

Hi Dave I'd expect the correction to work best with a specific FR, f/10 in this case. How did you measure the 105mm ? Canon flange distance is 44mm, but Nikon is 46.5mm. In any case, the star shape is all that matters..... ! Michael

Kens, Pretty sure I've seen advice from the PHD2 gurus to try PPEC with a fixed 13.6 second Period in this situation ? Theo, I may be wrong, but to minimise this unwanted oscillation involves removing the culprit gear, and reinstalling it moved one tooth with respect to the gear it meshes with. Then testing. And moving it another tooth and retesting. Until you find the best combination. I don't think you've had time to do that ? Michael

Further to what Olly says, I can make fine adjustment to Alt without loosening the lockscrews - wedges are that bendy. Michael

Hi Theo Here's what your RA in Guide Assistant looks like: When GA is selected, RA guiding is paused, and you see the RA performance of the mount. RA Error climbs from zero at the left of frame to a peak of 10arcsecs, then starts to fall. That's Periodic Error, quite normal. What isn't normal is the regular 2.5arcsec oscillation superimposed on the Periodic Error. This has a period of 13.6 seconds, see second graph. That's too fast for PHD2 to correct, hence it shows in you RA guiding. I'm not familiar with the mount, but this is not unusual from what I remember of other posts. Someone will chip in with the cause, gearbox maybe ? Michael

From distant memory a Stereo jacked cable with 3 wires - Up, Down and Return. You can take the lid off the Dec motor to confirm the wiring. Michael

I'd say yes. Only solution is to leave the primary focus with an Anticlock final move and then Collimate, and then only use a zero shift focuser for all other focus changes. Michael

PA is generally carried out first, only using the wedge controls. Then Star Alignment only using the handset to centre stars, using the wedge controls messes up your PA. Michael

If Ekos is based on PHD2, then PA of 5arcmins or better should be easily guided out, and in fact Dec guiding is fine. From the Log: First two Cals were rubbish, with wildly different RA and Dec guide rates reported. The final one Calibrated RA and Dec in 8 steps, but Dec took 24 steps to return ! Those 16 extra steps are Dec Backlash or Stiction. As mentioned before, reported Guidespeeds seem very low - Calibration guide speeds: RA = 1.6 a-s/s, Dec = 2.2 a-s/s PHD2 expects 8 a-s/s or more, so is this normal for Ekos or not ? Dec PA and guiding on the last long run is good, 0.49 arcsecs guide error. RA was 0.89 with 2 sec exposure, and 0.81 with 1 second exposure, not hugely worse. A sensible guide rate at 2 seconds might give the guiding a chance. I saw the short spell of +/- 10arcsec oscillation, can't see any reason for that I'm afraid. Analysis of these PHD2 "Clones" is difficult because so many important PHD2 features have been stripped out. Michael

Hi Barrie The walking noise pattern has gone, but as you say the amount of noise is a problem. You'll have to help us out here: Exposure, number of subs, what ISO, stacking settings etc etc ? Michael

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't force it to drink.......... Michael

I know the difference between Clipping and Crushing, as Olly has demonstrated, but I'm guilty of using Crushing to describe both operations. Michael

You are hereby Elevated to NEQ6 Stage II User........ 😆 Michael

Indeed. Despite the prejudices there were some exceptional women accepted at "Royal Societies": Mary Sommerville Who taught Lord Byron's daughter Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, a.k.a. Ada Lovelace. Lepidopterist Margaret Fontaine.