kens

It looks like PHD2 is receiving commands intended for INDI server.

PHD2 should be on port 4400. Ekos profile should look something like this

3 hours ago, BrendanC said:

I just need someone to explain why I'm wrong, and to give me the correct answer! Why doesn't NGC 7822 appear due north at the exact date and time of the vernal equinox, as it should according to its RA and the definition of what RA is?

If you look at the Stellarium screen shot from the time of the equinox in 2000 you can see that NGC7822 is close to the same hour angle as the Sun and which is by definition RA 0h0m in J2000. It is the position of the sun at that exact date and time that defines RA 0h0m for J2000. And that is low in the SouthEast. At that date/time the meridian is at an RA of about 19h18m. So why would you expect an object near RA 0h0m to appear near the meridian?

If you advance the Stellarium clock to midday of the same day the sun appears overhead as does NGC7822. The Sun is no longer exactly at 0h0m but still quite close at 0h0m40s or so. The RA of NGC7822 does not change.

It seems you are confusing two different approaches to RA and appear to have redefined RA:

1. At the exact time of the equinox the sun is at RA 0h0m. No meridian or midday involved in this definition.
2. When the sun is at the meridian its RA is the same as the sidereal time. Applies on any day at all. Not related to the equinox. Also, sidereal time is not the same as terrestrial time.

Does that help?

From Wikipaedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_ascension

Quote

Right ascension (abbreviated RA; symbol α) is the angular distance of a particular point measured eastward along the celestial equator from the Sun at the March equinox to the (hour circle of the) point in question above the earth

So it is measured from the position of the Sun at that date/time

Moving the tripod would almost certainly destroy your polar alignment.

It looks like the mount is not responding to dec guide commands in either direction until its a big correction. Then it overshoots.

That would be a mechanical issue, most likely.

You've got a lot of huge spikes, especially in RA that look like the scope is being bumped. Did you lose many subs?

Once you've changed guide rate in EQMOD it should stay that way for future sessions.

Going on memory, I think PHD2 only reads the guide rate when you create the profile with the wizard. After that you would have to change it manually, in the advanced settings calculator, to the value in EQMOD One of the many reasons for creating a new profile with the wizard.

PHD2 is constantly being imprved so a lot of what is on the internet is out of date. The best place for information is the official web site and support forum.

The guide log includes the calibration and also what equipment you are using. Based on experience I'm guessing you are using the EQMOD driver which has the quirk of defaulting to a guide rate of 0.1x sidereal since that is what I see on the screen shot. That guide rate is way too low. The guide log would confirm that you are using the EQMOD driver in which case the instructions I linked are relevant. If some other sort of mount then you still need to increase the guide rate but the linked instructions would not help you.

The log also contains the raw data for the calibration which does not necessarily graph the same as shown on the screen shot. The raw data helps with the diagnosis.

In any case, adjust your guide rate to between 0.5x to 0.9x then try another calibration.

If you use the profile wizard and enter the correct values it will calculate the right calibration step size for you.

PHD2 only knows about guiding. I don't use APT so can't comment on that but in general software only knows what the mount tells it.

Aside from setting circles (which are generally not very accurate) there is plate solving where you take a photo and the plate solving software works out from that where you are pointing.  In your setup, once you know where you are pointing adn where your target is you can use the hand controller to move to the target. There is some calcuation involved to work out how long you need to press the buttons for. But you can plate solve progressively till you get onto the target.

A very manual way is to use a planetarium (e.g CdC or Stellarium) and your finder scope to star hop from one prominent star to another till you get to your target. 

I can only make specualtive guesses without the guide log but start here to set a more appropriate guide rate. I assume you have EQMOD. I'd suggest you start over with a new profile using the profile wizard.

https://github.com/OpenPHDGuiding/phd2/wiki/EQASCOM-Settings

Then read the best practices:

https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

And always provide a guide log when you need help:

https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

@stevepsheehanCan you attach the guide log? The Help menu is the place to look for them

2 hours ago, astro postman said:

Ken’s. It sounds like the mount is sorted? I just need to get the right camera?

Looks that way.

2 hours ago, Paul779 said:

@kens thanks for chiming in there my knowledge on this is very limited at the mo, also if I'm not mistaken the gpusb shouldn't be wired in to anything I thought it was a plug and play device so to speak male usb one end and ST4 port on the box

Normally that is the case and the GPUSB would plug into the mount guiding port. In this case it looks like the handset has been modified to achieve the same outcome.

2 hours ago, astro postman said:

If I am on target for setting up the hardware. The next problem will be the software. With Cartes du Ciel  which connection driver do I use? 

Cartes du Ciel wont work with your mount. It needs a Goto mount to show where the mount is pointing and to move it around. If you want to know where the mount is pointing you would need to plate solve. To move the mount you need to do it by hand or via the handset. With the handset the highest speed is 16x sidereal which would take over 20 minutes to slew 90 degrees.

22 hours ago, SStanford said:

Calibration successful! thanks for your help all. Brief opportunity before the clouds rolled over tonight.

With one issue resolved, two more pop up. All part of the fun.

1. I ran the guiding assistant tool and had two different outcomes. The second outcome was worse having tweaked PA via the Drift alignment tool (reducing recommeded exposure times from 2-4 seconds to 1-3 seconds 😐, unacceptable!) It also recommended amending the RA and Dec min move, before I apply these changes has anyone had any experience with these amendements?

2. The drift alignment tool is very tricky to manage. I had c.40 mins to play with Azimuth adjustment; when I got anywhere near a stable Dec line in the graph, the slightest adjustment in the Azimuth would cause the graph to give a wild reading.  In fact, the lowest PA error I could get was 4.64' (38px), see image below. Any tips with this?

Your seconds GA run is a mess and totally unreliable. It looks like your mount got bumped or something slipped as it moved around 80 arcseconds on two or three occasions. Maybe the Alt/Az bolts were loose?

Due to your bad initial PA you should recalibrate once your PA has completed. A bad PA affect the accuracy of calibration. 

Do the recalibration before you run the Guiding Assistant. To recalibrate, hold down the shift key while clicking the Guide button

9 hours ago, astro postman said:

I got this with it as well. I guess it’s redundant? The black ends takes the handset. The other end is a larger and I guess fits into a ST4 port but I don’t have a socket on the mount for it. Thanks

I'm not sure what this device is. Based on the label I suspect it is an ethernet crossover which is generally unnecessary these days.

5 hours ago, astro postman said:

On further study, if I cut the plug off the crossover adapter and wire it into the handset this would give me a ST4 port. I could then buy a ST4 to usb cable to connect to PC.
I am confused as to what the GPUSB connection to PC does? I thought it did the same thing? Would any of this work? Thanks, in advance for any help.

Just because the plugs are the same does not mean they are electrically/electronically compatible. I'd caution against trying that.

2 hours ago, astro postman said:

I understand that you can connect camera directly to PC?

What is the GPUSB for? is it a direct replacement for an ST4 Port? Or do I still need a ST4 Port to connect HC to PC?

One last thing, I do not have separate leads exiting the HC for RA and DEC. It is a telephone jack that fits directly in the mount. I guess this is not a problem just a later adaptation from EQ3 mount?

You can connect the camera directly to the PC but for it to be usable by PHD2 you need an ASCOM driver for it or hope that the built in drivers in PHD2 can talk to it. Check with the supplier before buying.

The GPUSB converts USB signals to ST4 signals, just like a ST4 camera would. ST4 signals simulate pressing the button on a hand controller. There are separate wires for N/S/E/W. N/S = Dec and E/W = RA. So the mod to you handset has connected the ST4 wires to the outputs of the button on your handset which then controls the mount.

You need to attach a guide log for any analysis. The screen shots have too little information to give any sensible guidance

You'll also need to install PHD2 to do your autoguiding: https://openphdguiding.org/

You'll need to choose GPUSB as your mount in PHD2 then you will be able to guide. But your mount cannot report its position so CdC and similar tools cannot show where it is. You need a goto mount for that.

Check that there is an ASCOM driver for your camera. I had a quick look and found no mention of one. You'll need that to connect it to PHD2. Or get a caera that has an ASCOM driver or is PHD2 compatible. It is remotely possible that the WDM driver in PHD2 will recognise it.

For navigating the sky you either need to learn how to star hop or learn about plate solving. You might want to get the basics going first

And the winner of "Bodge of the week" is..... 😜

Probably better to sart a new thread. The title of this one is PHD2.6.2 which is years old now so would not get much attention

Have a look here first: https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

The PHD2 support forum is best suited to these sorts of problems as it often requires poring over the debug logs which is not a task for the lay person.

Once you have the camera working then have a read of: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

23 hours ago, kens said:

Start with this: https://github.com/OpenPHDGuiding/phd2/wiki/EQASCOM-Settings

Then have a read of: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

If you still have problems: https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

or if you prefer you can upload your logs to the forum. 

You need some way of connecting the computer to your mount for autoguiding to work. The two most common ways are:

1. connect the camera to computer via USB and connect camera to mount with ST4
2. connect camera to computer via USB and connect mount to computer via another USB

Method 2 is preferred because it allows more functionality but is not an option for you.

As far as I know you would have to modify your hand controller to provide an ST4 connection for option 1.

Now even if you could get that part working you need to be able to send commands from your computer to the mount. For that you need a device like an AstroEQ which plugs into a USB port and converts to ST4. I think you'd be better off getting a camera with an ST4 port and/or a mount with at least ST4 connection. Unless you are into DIY electronics and programming.

1 hour ago, michael8554 said:

Might be in one of those links above, but default EQMOD Guide Rate is 0.1X , set it to 0.5X or higher.

And before Cal, slew mount north at lowest speed until guidestar moves, to take up Dec backlash.

Michael

It is indeed in the first link along with screen shots showing how to do it.

And from inspection of the guide log that is the first issue to resolve..

Start with this: https://github.com/OpenPHDGuiding/phd2/wiki/EQASCOM-Settings

Then have a read of: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

If you still have problems: https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

or if you prefer you can upload your logs to the forum. 

On 03/06/2020 at 20:20, CedricTheBrave said:

You could just plug it in to the router directly with a network cable

+1

I leave the wifi permanently as a hotspot and if I want to check on things I just plug in an ethernet cable . That also means it only gets updates when it is on the ethernet because that is its only route to the internet. The less you change the setup the less chance of things going wrong

10 hours ago, SStanford said:

Dec motor gears engage in less than 1 second at rate speed 1 when alternating direction. Only concern here is that with the slo-mo controls attached, theres a good quarter turn on the slo-mo handle before the gears engage. Should this be tightened or is it a non-issue? If so; how do I tighten this to the gear?

One second is a lot when guiding. You would normally take exposures of 2 to 3 seconds then guide with corrections in the order of 100ms at 1x sidereal (that would be 1.5 arcseconds). So with 1 second backlash you are moving the motor 15 arcseconds before the mount moves and if it is inconsistent you could end up moving the scope a large amount if you add that to your guiding pulses to try to compensate. On top of that you delay the enxt exposure by 1 second which is a significant amount for the normal 2 second expsoure. During that time any  drift is moving the guide star 30% further than usual.

The gear you are looking at is not the only contact point. There is also the worm to ring gear interface which is under the housing.  There should be screws on the housing to adjust that gear mesh.

Backlash is less of an issue in RA. The RA axis is always moving West at a constant 1x sidereal. To guide east is just stops till the stars catch up and to guide west it needs to move at 2x sidereal. The gears should not unmesh except when slewing East at more than sidereal rate.

I doubt you'll ever get to a single point . At some point you will reduce the PA error enough that ther will belittle drift in Dec but then you will get RA trailing from periodic error. Guiding is the way to correct for that.

If the mount isn't responding my first guess would be backlash. Any time you reverse direction you will experience it. With guiding there are ways to mitigate the worst effects. The simplest it to make dec guiding corrections in one direction only - opposite to the drift caused by PA error.

Whenever you slew you should finish up by slewing a small distance north and west at the slowest slewing speed to remove backlash. Most goto mounts do this automatically on a goto  but not for a straight slew.

RA will be up/down if your camera is mounted in landscape orientation in the home position: (pointing at the pole, counterweights down). If you mount it in portrait orientation then RA will be left/right. Not that it matters for DARV nor for imaging.

What you could do is simply take a long exposure, say 5 minutes. Then measure how far the stars trail by counting pixels. If you expose for 10 minutes you will also see your periodic error. in RA. You can then work out how long you can expose unguided.