SPC900NC with PHD

[NickRose2006]

Ok, last night I was testing my modified SPC900NC with PHD but it was not showing the stars like SharpCap was. With SharpCap I had it at exposure of 3sec and full gain and the star showed up but when I went to PHD the star would show up but very faint and no matter what settings I had it would not show up like it did with SharpCap. Am I doing something wrong with PHD? I don't know what mag the star was but I could just see it with my 4.8mm eyepiece. The guide scope is a Celestron 60mm/700mm.

Any Help would be great.

[Daniel-K]

im new to this so im saying if your using a 4,8mm eyepiece and can just see it then it might not be bright enough. some of the pros will be along soon to tell you

[dugpatrick]

Agreed, the image is probably too dim with a 4.8mm eyepiece.

Most people guide with a much faster focal ratio. With a ST80 it's 400/80 or f/5. With a 9x50 finder/guidescope the focal ratio is (i think) 175/50 or f/3.5. If you remove the eyepiece then you would have f/11, which would be better. This might be worth a try if you don't have other faster options, such as a 9x50 scope.

I have guided with a MS webcam and 9x50 scope and with this combination I could guide on magnitude 8 stars.

Doug