michael8554

Never heard of her I'm afraid, not surprising given the low exposure that academic women got until recently. Williamina Fleming, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Rosalind Franklin, etc etc Michael

I suspect you already know the answer - unfortunately the QHY8L isn't going to work with that OTA and FF combination. Michael

If Cal on Target is the norm for Ekos then stick with that. A good Calibration is crucial for good guiding. Michael

I agree with Dave. You've crushed the walking noise into the black in the second image, it's there like the Horsehead image, though a screen shot doesn't help all that much.

Diagonals aren't usually recommended for imaging. However, needs must. I don't know the optical path length of a typical Diagonal off-hand, but if you're lucky it will fit between the FR and the camera and allow 105mm spacing. If not that's going to be a long bendy train. Maybe only use for high Dec targets ? Michael

Horror story ! Readers of a nervous disposition look away now ! Michael

Hi Charles Re your 28th Feb log: For PHD2 it's recommended to Calibrate at Dec=0, your log shows Dec = 24.2 deg, maybe Ekos is different ? Calibration guide speeds: RA = 2.2 a-s/s, Dec = 1.9 a-s/s Guide speeds are usually 8 a-s/s or more, perhaps Ekos is different ? Despite the tiny guide speed, Calibration only took 6 steps. 12 is more normal for PHD2, but maybe that's normal for Ekos ? PA is good, Dec requiring very few corrections, and correction of Dec Dithers is fast. RA is choppy, which might be due to only 1 second exposures. Correction of RA Dithers is within a couple of seconds. Your Minimum Move is only 0.1 arcsecs, seems too low to me. I'd look to the Guide Rates, Calibration, Min Move, and exposure, which might sort out the choppy RA. Michael

PHD2 always automatically records a GuideLog and a DebugLog, stored in the PHD2 folder. Post a GuideLog that includes a Calibration and GA run. You can see PHD2 struggling with Dec after the dither due to the Dec Backlash - did you accept the Backlash Compensation value offered by the GA run ? 1.5 seconds exposure might be just a tad too fast for the conditions, causing a bit of "Chasing the Seeing" in RA. If the HEQ5 has Permanent PEC and it's a good model then use it, perhaps with the PHD2 PPEC RA algorithm. Always clear the remaining Dec Backlash before Calibrating, by nudging north until you see the guidestar move. Michael

If my interpretation of your Pleiades framing is correct, the stars are "dumbell" shaped in the Az plane. By which I mean that the mount is alternating between two slightly different positions during exposures, giving the appearance of two stars joined by a faint streak. Perhaps the scope is wobbling on the mount, maybe due to backlash in the drive, or it's flex in scope to mount and/or camera to scope connections. From what I can see online, the AZ GTI is a Alt-Az mount. So when you say "pole alignment", have you mounted it on a wedge, to turn it into an EQ mount ? Michael

I can't help you on that either. Why don't you connect directly to the Generic ASCOM Driver, without the Device Hub ? Michael

As the message said "check the debug log for more information"........... ! You'll need to upload the GuideLog and Debug Log to the PHD2 help site. Details on how to are in the Help menu of PHD2 Make sure you upload the correct date files. https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!forum/open-phd-guiding Michael

Get a long length of wood about 60mm wide. Drill two correct size holes 42mm apart close to one end Put two of the correct size drill bits in the holes with the plain ends protruding just enough to bottom out in the ring nut. Apply anticlockwise torque. Michael

The GuideLog says you have a 240mm FL guidescope and a QHY6 guidecam, is that correct ? QHY6 is 752 x 582, you have entered 800 x 596, close enough. Calibration Step is a crazily large 10,000 ms - where did that come from ? That's why there were "too few steps" Did you use the Setup Wizard, or enter settings yourself ? Focus at HFD = 4.85 pixels could be improved, use the HFD reading in the PHD2 Star Profile window to get lowest HFD. Read and apply these Best Practices from the PHD2 guys: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/ mICHAEL

Once you have a good PA do not alter the mount's Az or Alt to centre an Alignment Star, only use the arrow keys for that. If you've carried out the Star Alignment correctly and still have poor GoTo, choose a star near your target as the third Alignment Star. So for M81/M82 centre Dubhe. Or GoTo, centre, and SYNCH on Dubhe if the mount has that feature. Then the mount should do an accurate GoTo in that part of the sky, including M82. Michael

You will need to describe the cables you are using and where they are plugged into. I'm a LX200GPS user, which is an Autostar II mount like your LX600. I have a USB to RS232 converter plugged into a USB socket on the PC. This shows in Windows Device Manager as a COM port, and also in the USB section. The DB9 end of the USB to RS232 converter is plugged into a Meade #507 cable, which plugs into the RS232 port on the mount. A Meade #505 cable won't work, those cables are for Autostar 497 mounts such as the ETX and LX90. With the Generic ASCOM driver installed you should be able to communicate with the mount from the PC with PHD2 or an ASCOM Planetarium such as CdC or Stellarium. You will need to select in the driver parameters the same COM port number as shown in Device Manager, you might need to force the COM number to 4 or less.

So the mount is tracking at sidereal rate ? What did you change to make it work ? Michael

I can't tell from this image which is Dec and RA. Might be best to post your GuideLog . Michael

Not sure I agree with the 3000mm = 393mm on the wall. The mount should move 15 degrees in 1 hour. The distance on the wall would be roughly 3000 x Tan 15 = 3000 x 0.2679 = 803 mm ? At 3200mm it would be 857mm ? Michael

The only one of those three settings that would directly affect guiding is the Calibration step. If the Calibration is taking too many steps, increase this value, and vice-versa Michael

Vlaiv has pointed you to the Noise Reduction feature. Binning is here:

Having said RA is your problem, I see the RA guide error is only 0.82 arcsecs, sounds good for an old EQ6, although I have no experience of the mount. Perhaps an EQ6 owner can report whether better than 0.82 is a realistic goal ? Are the stars in your Lights round ? If elongated in RA you could try a small PA error to force Dec to guide, which could even out the error figures. Michael

Having the correct image scale (focal length and pixel size) in PHD2 means the guide errors and graph movements are reported with the correct values. With the eyepiece or camera removed, focus the sun on a flat surface, and measure from the front element to that point, that will be accurate enough for PHD2. Michael

Here's your stacked image, highly stretched: The grey diagonal area is where DSS had no, or very little, data to stack. Here's your Light, also stretched: You can see that stars 1, 2, and 3 are hugely displaced from the stacked result. DSS will tolerate a fair amount of field-of-view drift, such as caused by Dithering, but this much is causing the black patch. So examine your Lights and only stack those that have a similar FOV. Your single Light has a grey colour balance, but the Stacked image is dominated by red ? I'd say your exposures are too short. Michael

Images of birds are allowed, but I couldn't see any of your problem astro subs, they all look like stacked images ? Michael

I've successfully used a 200mm guidescope (3.87arcsec/pixel) at 1280mm (1.05arcsecs/pixel) Michael