Flinthead

Bingo!

Well after waiting a week for some clear skies we finally got our chance last night, and we actually managed to focus on venus and guided successfully, also managed to lock onto a bright star and successfully guided on that. Still got a way to go, fine tuning the setting, but feel we are well on the way.

Reading Pix's post I suspect that we might have a similar problem with regard to aligning the guide scope with the the main scope, especially with an imaging device on both, but we'll see.

Maybe get a chance for another go tonight.

Thanks QM again for your help and advice.

Flinthead

Hi QM,

So it's "nil point" for not setting the mount an scope and testing the whole lot together, doh!

We'll try the whole lot the next time we get a bit of clear sky.

We watched the video that you posted the link for, and it was useful as it showed that at least we have got the hardware side ok. Now its just the set up.

I'm hoping that it's just a matter of focus and settings. In terms of settings I assume you need a combination of high contrast, low brightness, medium saturation and median noise reduction(3x3)? Not sure what to do with the gamma setting.

Thanks again,

Flinthead.

Hi QM,

thanks for the reply, we are using our imaging camera on our SW200 and we are quite pleased with the results although clearly got a lot to learn.

Our problem is with guiding. We have our guidecam in our finderscope, just like on your blog, and we have the shoestring interface and ST4 port, that is all hunky dory, but when try to test the guidescope in PHD, we either get loads of noise or of we reduce the noise we get a black screen. Not a sign of a star and the image of the moon we got was just a blob of light.

As we are using a similar set of gear and software as lots of others, the problem is clearly in what we are doing. The settings or the focus, or something else we haven't thought about.

This might sound a daft question but for testing the guidecam in PHD, does it have to be mounted. Last night we were just holding the guidecam on a prop and pointing at the moon, although the other night it was mounted, and with similar results.

Thanks

Flinthead

Hi QM,

We've been looking at your thread and blog, and have got the gear to start guiding but we're having a few problems and hope you can help.

We have set up the Quickcam4000 in the finderscope. Software is PHD, and the interface is GPUSB + ST4. The camera works, and the laptop talks to the mount ok.

We've tried adjusting the brightness/contrast/gamma/saturation settings, etc with no luck at getting a useable image. We're currently testing it and have been proping up the finderscope, so obviously wasn't as secure as it would be on a mount. Managed to get a great glowing blob of moon last night, but it's impossible to get detail. We did try it on a mount in trying to find Venus, or brighter stars, but there seemed to be no way of locating them as there's either so much noise, or in reducing the noise, just a dark screen.

On positive note, after the advice you gave us previously, we have bought a cheap planetry CCD (Opticstar 130C) and are able to take acceptable images of the moon manually guiding, and feel we are on the way with planets.

We'd really appreciate any advice or some pointers as to where we might find it.

Thanks

Flinthead