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Showing results for tags 'guiding'.
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I am looking to purchase a new guide camera following the sad passing of my trusty Meade DSI III, which has stood me in good stead for guiding for over a decade. I will be using the new guide camera with a 60mm Altair Astro finder/guide scope. Any recommendations or advice to inform my search would be gratefully received.
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Hi guys, With new mount and upgraded scope features, now looking to venture into imaging. Before I start, I'm not looking to get feedback on polar alignment, mono guidecam, better imaging cameras, etc; this is more a 'dummies guide' setup discussion! I'm not expecting to get great images at this stage, just more the options available, getting over some issues, so that I can jump outside on a clear night with an ideal, foolproof(!), setup for either imaging or visual as time would permit and what may work best for me. As you may guess from the topic name, I'm a mac user (Macbook Pro) and wo
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Recently I had belt modded my HEQ5-PRO and last night i gave it a full run and i was absolutely stunned to say the least about the guiding results I achieved. I was left wondering if its even too good to be true! Below are Before and After images of guiding.
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I'm starting to worry about my mount I've got a quite significant wiggle in the RA axis when the mount is powered off in it's parked position (clutches locked of course). Before I embark on a full strip down following Atrobaby's guide I thought it would be worth asking if anyone had suggestions for a less drastic investigation / fix? I'm not sure how recently this issue has come up, I've only just become aware of it after an equipment upgrade. I've just replaced my guiding setup of a 50mm finder coupled with an SPC900 webcam, to a Celestron 70mm TravelScope with a Touptek Mono guider. Wh
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Ok, so this is a really annoying bug / problem that I have with my setup: From time to time, in non regular intervals the image my guiding cam (ZWO ASI120) send seems to get flipped / mirrored or looks like it's from a completely different patch of sky. When I'm paying attention to the guide images I can clearly see that the image seems to be flipped in some way. It only happens for 1 frame PHD send a warning ( No star found / Star lost Mass changed) and after that everything is fine again. My gear is all connected to a single USB3 Hub which then runs via powered USB3 cable to m -
Hi I've set my scope up on it's pier in my ROR observatory, done a few drift aligns and started to take some images. I've noticed a 'quite' regular dip in my DEC line on several nights. Would anyone be able to have a quick scan of my log and offer any insight? Could it be backlash? Could it be something with each rotation of the gears? Faulty tooth? It is quite regular, although not always, and always in the same direction. It doesn't seem to be adversely affecting imaging yet, but I've not tried anything too taxing. Thanks Joe PHD2_GuideLog -
I have an EQ5 telescope mount which i use for astrophotography. I have modified it with a motorised RA axis using a bipolar stepper motor - my thread for the build is here . I want to expand the mount's tracking ability by motorising the DEC axis and using a guide scope/camera. I generally use the mount in fairly remote locations so would like to use a raspberry Pi for portability. I understand that I'll need to use a Raspberry Pi Camera Module for the guide camera. The capability I want is: 1. guide the mount along RA and DEC axes using a guide star as feedback 2. tr
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Hi Guys, hoping someone can help me with the guiding issues Iv'e been having. First of all my setup is: Explore Scientific ED80 Triplet Skywatcher EQ5 mount with synscan Orion mini 50mm guide scope Altair GPCAM2 AR0130 Mono (as the guide camera) I did my polar alignment and 3-star alignment, which was spot on. So I set up the GPCAM2 and opened PHD2 where I selected "Altair Camera" and "On-Camera". It was all in focus, kept it on the default settings and I selected "auto select star", then it said I was guiding (I can hear the mount making small adjustments). A
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I've picked up a second hand Lightrack II recently, so was keen to test it. My plan was to use the guiding assistant in PHD to get a graph of the tracking performance, but initially the mount wouldn't move. After a search, I had to modify the guiding cable that came with the mount, as it was wired up 'the other way' to the one required for QHY5L. After that it calibrated fine and could run the test. Below is a 22min graph of the unguided performance, while it's not within the 2" peak-to-peak quoted, it's still pretty good. Next I've tried it with a canon 300mm lens (unguided again), the
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Modifying a finderscope to guide with
Luna-tic posted a topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Seems a waste to ditch a perfectly good finder scope in order to replace it with essentially the same thing, that has ability to mount a camera to. Is there a way to modify a 9x50 finder scope into a guide scope?. I'm speaking specifically about the 9x50 that comes on the Edge series SCT's. Thing is, I don't even use it for it's intended purpose, I find my Quickfinder more useful for that and don't even mount the finder scope any more when I go out. The EP of the finder is smaller than what's needed (less than 1.25"), can it be removed and an EP holder cobbled onto the body? I suppose foc -
Is the NEQ5 Pro GoTo (yes the neq5 not heq5 or eq5) capable of guiding? I really canot find anywhere on the web is there any way to guide it? If yes than with phd or eqmod (eqmod is totally unknown for me, never used it lol)
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Happy new year everyone! I've recently started drift aligning, and also tried using the PHD2 drift alignment tool. I'm still new to this but I'm slowly getting better at it with practice. After doing this I've noticed just how badly I have my polar scope aligned within the mount. I decided to correct this at the weekend against Polaris by adjusting the screws, and this got me wondering about cone error. Unfortunately the clouds rolled in before I could check how bad (or good) it is. Does cone error affect how good your guiding will be? I'm using PHD2 and an OAG for giuding t
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Hi, Bit of a strange one. I have a NEQ6 which I control with EQASOM for imaging using SGP and PHD2 for guiding and have recently replaced the HC connection to the pc with an Lynx Astro FTDI EQdir cable. First time I used it it worked perfectly, it connected straight away, the guiding was good and SGP found the target without any issues. But I tried it again last night and whilst SGP worked perfectly, plate solved the image and moved directly to the target, PHD2 wouldn't connect to the scope. I selected the correct ASCOM mount from phd2 dropdown list but the EQASCOM connected briefly
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az-eq6 AZ-EQ6 will not guide or calibrate in Y Axis
MeyGray3833 posted a topic in Discussions - Mounts
Hello. I have an unusual problem with my AZ-EQ6. I decided that I wanted to try pulse guiding rather than ST4, to get rid of a cable. I use MaxIm for all my controls, capture, guiding, pointing etc. and I use the EQMod ASCOM scope driver. My initial pulse guiding efforts worked ok, the mount would move and guide etc, no worries. I was not pleased with the pulse guiding results after some fluffing around so I moved back to ST4 and this seems to be where my issues started. Now, whether I choose ST4 or pulse guiding, my mount will no longer calibrate in the Y axis (Dec, -
Hi, I am using the SA with a Canon 650D and a 300/4.0 L USM for some months now. In order to get longer exposure times (>30 sec) I just got a little guiding cam (TSGM120M: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p8963_TS-Optics-Mono-Planetenkamera-und-Guidingkamera-mit-Aptina-CMOS-Chip.html). Stand alone guiding like the M-GEN II is way to expensive from my point of view, so I decided to use PHD(2) on a laptop to do the guiding. I use the Orion 50 mm Guide-Scope mounted on the second port of the L-Mount. But I don't know how to set up PHD2 to work wi
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Starting doing guiding to assist with Astro-Photography rather than my usual "up to 30 second exposure". When I got the guiding going correctly you can see from the image that PHD2 was constantly correcting large errors. Could this be from wind? Although I i was sheltered, it still felt a little breezey at times so I'm wondering if that was possibly it. Thanks all My setup is Skywatcher 200p Skywatcher HEQ-5 Pro SynScan QHY5L-II Mono ST-4 on 9x50 Finderscope PHD2 in On-Camera configuration (I know that EQMOD is the more common way but I'm not
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Help with AVX troubleshooting
Ottawa Ken posted a topic in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice
Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help with an autoguiding problem. I have a Celestron AVX mount. I cannot get it to guide at all externally. It moves fine from the handset. I have tried guiding from FireCapture, PHD2 (both auto and just manually guiding) I have tried to connect via the USB to Handset, and via the autoguide port (via my ASI290mc). I know the handset port communicates (on COM4) because I flashed the Celestron Firmware. I am beginning to think I have a tech support problem, but I want to rule out errors on my part. Thanks, Long time l -
Hello Astrophotographers, Now that I have my CGEM on a permanent pier, I figured that I should get much better accuracy in guiding quality, especially at 2032mm (F10) focal length on my 8" SCT. I spent a bit of time getting guiding results that are at the very least acceptable and thought I’d share my experience with anyone who is looking for info on PHD autoguiding. In the pasten setting up for each astro session and using PHD I was generally getting RMS about 2.2-2.6ish and after stacking and processing, the soft effects were able to be negated to a great point, revealing deta
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Hi guys, you've probably hear this before but i have a 250PDS on an NEQ6 and I've been Finder Guiding but now I've brought a SW off-axis guider but for some reason i cant get focus in my EOS 450D. I've wound the mirror up as much as i dare but i still cant seem to gain focus. Does anyone out there use one or do you have any suggestions i could try? Thanks
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Hello stargazers! after fixing the ED80 focuser tilt and FFR spacing issues (http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/249588-sw-ed80-reducer-elongated-stars-problem/) I have some trail (i think) in all exposures i take but it takes a lot of time to really build up and manifests in the images even in the center of the field! It becomes slightly visible in 10mins, worse in 20mins and in my opinion unusable in 30mins exposures. Gear used : Heq5 Pro Modified finderscope with QHY5 bolted firmly (although on 3 screw baader rings on single shoe on one of the rings not on a plate) on top of the ED80 Pulse g
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i am looking for a list of brand names of the webcams along with their model names/numbers which are compatible with PHD2 guiding software. The more latest the model, the better.
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Hi The longest frames i seem to be able to capture using my Atik 414ex and PHD2 are about 2 minutes. Any longer than that and i start to get egg shaped stars. PHD is making corrections, but i can't understand why i can't get to subs of at least 5 minutes. I'm not sure if its a limitation of the scope (6SE, with f/6.3 FR), limitation of the guide camera (orion magnificent mini, 50mm scope), poor polar alignment or poor worm gear. Would PEC training help improve my sub length? Or is it settings in PHD to experiment with? I look at the logs, but it's all just numbers to me. I can provi
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Hello, I hope I'm posting this in the right section. I have a guiding query I hope people here may be able to help me with. I have just purchased a Skywatcher EQ5 mount (without GoTo) and also the Skywatcher Enhanced Dual Axis Handset For EQ5 in order to be able to guide (this has yet to arrive so I haven't been able to look at it closely). I was wondering if anyone here has worked with this setup and particularly if there is anything else I need to get in order to make it work. From what I can tell the Skywatcher Enhanced Dual Axis Handset comes with the two motors and has an ST-4 interf
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I purchased a used Logitech Webcam C160. Turns out that the chip is from the Quickcam SP4. 640x480 1/8" sensor. Would anyone here know which CMOS/CCD is it based on?
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I was wondering, is there an alternative to the ATTH3010 declination unit one could use with the Astrotrac? Counterweight is important, because I'd use a 90/600 APO.
