help guiding with PHD and SPC880 flashed to 900

[studio1one]

Hi,

I am using an ST80 with a flashed SPC900 to try and guide. The problem I have is that I just get a load of noise and no stars at all. I have been all the way through focus both with and without an extension tube but still noise and no stars.

I have tried loads of exposure rates in PHD and various settings in the cam dialogue.

If anyone uses an SPC with PHD and has some settings advice or other advice that would help me I would be really grateful.

[steelfixer]

which camera are you selecting in PHD.

I always select 'windows videocam' it is the first windows cam option in the list not the earlier windows cam.

Make sure you have the gamma in the camera dialogue box set to zero. Frame rate wants to be at 10fps max. gain at about 60%.

brightness and contrast set to 60 to 70% and then adjust to suit.

In the camera dialogue box switch off all auto modes except white balance.

Hope this helps.

graham

[studio1one]

Hi,

yes thanks. I have frozen enough for one evening but will try it again tomorrow. I have selected Windows WDM style webcam.

I was concerned the light on the front of the cam doesn't help either, although it seems little bleeds into the adapter. Is there anyway to turn this off or should I just take it out?

[steelfixer]

do not I repeat do not just take it out. It is part of the wiring of the camera. There are ways and means if you know what you are doing but if it bothers you just paint it over.

graham.

[studio1one]

I am actually ready to jump up and down on this and smash it to pieces now.

I have had it out in the daytime ran it through PHD and can get it to focus, although I need to barlow it to get it to focus on distant objects.

At night I have tried it with a prism, without a prism, with a barlow, without a barlow, with an extension tube, without an extension tube plus every conceivable combination of all the above.

I have messed with shutter speeds, gain, brightness, FPS, everything and all I get in any situation is noise. Tonight I had it pointed at the double cluster, just to make sure there were stars in field.

Nothing, just noise. Driving me a little insane right now.

[brantuk]

I insert the camera into the 45 deg diagonal that comes with the ST80 (as if the camera was an eye piece). Use a bahtinov mask to focus on a star. In daytime the object would have to be a good distance away to get focus cos its roughly equivalent to a 6mm eyepiece giving 67x magnification. Should have no trouble focusing on a star though - use one in the vicinity of your object

You may need to adjust the camera settings in your software to reduce noise.

[studio1one]

Hi,

thanks for responding. Yes I have been using the diagonal that comes with it (and tried not using it). The really odd thing is that in the daytime I can focus on fairly close objects no problem (around 40ft away) but I am almost right at the edge of inward travel of the focusser. For around 200ft away I can't achieve focus without a barlow due to insufficient inward travel.

I have tweaked every possible setting at night, gain, shutter speed brightness FPS everything. I have used a 2x barlow and not, I have added an extension tube to give more outward travel but all I get is noise.

I am seriously at a loss with this, I have spent upwards of 5 hours now trying to get some kind of an image of anything other than noise at night with no success at all

[brantuk]

Does it work as a normal webcam indoors? I.e. do you get a reasonable image or is it all noisy?

[Starblazer]

Pop the Diagonal in the st80, then use a 6mm eye piece to focus on something as far away from you as possible .... pref more than 40ft. Then take out the eyepiece and place the camera in (leave the diagonal) see if you can get an image in focus now?

[Astronut1982]

Hi,

Can you use the SPC900 as a guider on a guide scope? I got a free 2nd one the other week & was wondering what I should do with it & I am also about to invest in a st80 for guide scope & guider. This would solve some of my needs if it can.

Can it be used as it is or does it have to be modded for long exposure?

Jeff

[lukebl]

Hi,

Can you use the SPC900 as a guider on a guide scope? I got a free 2nd one the other week & was wondering what I should do with it & I am also about to invest in a st80 for guide scope & guider. This would solve some of my needs if it can.

Can it be used as it is or does it have to be modded for long exposure?

Jeff

It will work with an unmodded cam. I've used one for the past 18 months. It can be tricky to find a guide star, so you need to be able to move the guidescope a bit in guide rings. You can usually find a guide star down to around 6th magnitude with that setup.

[studio1one]

Does it work as a normal webcam indoors? I.e. do you get a reasonable image or is it all noisy?

In daylight attached to the ST80 I get a good image when focussed on images

(although max focus distance is about 80ft). I will take a screen grab of what I get in PHD when pointing at the night sky and post it up.

I am absolutely running out of energy with this cam now. I have tried so many variations of setup, including extension tubes, barlows, diagonals and various combinations of all the above but all to no avail.

[studio1one]

Pop the Diagonal in the st80, then use a 6mm eye piece to focus on something as far away from you as possible .... pref more than 40ft. Then take out the eyepiece and place the camera in (leave the diagonal) see if you can get an image in focus now?

Nearest I have is a 5mm but I will give it a bash and see what happens.

[steelfixer]

Hi there again.

Guess what after breaking my finder scope which I had converted to a guide scope I have set up a Mead 60mm refractor as a guide scope.

I am now having exactley the same problems you are getting.

The only thing it would pick up was Jupiter anything else is just noise.

Is there something about the focal length of a small refractor that the SPC 900 cannot cope with.

I get brilliant images with it through my 200mm newt and it use to work with my finder scope, so why won't it work with a 60mm x 600mm frac.

To add to the point of Jupiter. I was using a 3x barlow along with the SPC 900. To my suprise the image it produce was very small. The image contained Jupiter and all 4 moons and it was in the center of my screen surounded by a hell of a lot of space.

Jupiter itself was only about 10mm in size.

Could it be that a star is just too small for the SPC 900 to pick up through this scope?

Very strange.

Graham

[bamus]

your 60mm refractor has for f10 which is not very good for any kind of astrophotography, especially with webcam not modded for long time exposures. apart from that this refractor with this web cam will have very narrow FOV, therefore your 6 mag star has to be dead centre in this FOV. any fainter stars will not show anyway. what you need as guide scope if f5 refractor, finder or old lens. My f2.8 lens did great job with webcam as very wide FOV gave me many more guide stars to chose from comparing to ordinary refractor.

[steelfixer]

Thanks Bamus I knew someone on here would have the answer.

Graham

[bamus]

no problem Graham.

just to clarify, when I said any kind of astrophotography, I should say deep sky astrophotography. Planetary AF actually requires smaller f (10 and lower)

[steelfixer]

Thanks again. I did use it as a grab and go and it is pretty good for just observing.

I guess I will be putting it back on the tripod and start looking for a Skywatcher 80 for a guide scope.

Graham

[michael8554]

To get back on topic :->

You have tried during the day but cannot focus on objects more than 80 feet away.

There is no point trying to image stars until you have it working on distant objects during the day.

I don't have an ST80 but I believe the normal setup is to use the supplied barlow as an extension tube to replace the diagonal, by unscrewing the glass element from the front of the barlow.

Once you have focus on a distant object during the day do not move anything, now try it at night.

Confirm it's working by briefly shining your torch down the telescope, then try on the moon, this is a big bright object you can't miss!

The moon is bright so you'll need fast exposures to get a image that's not over exposed, but initially getting a white blob on your screen will be encouraging for you.

Then try a star using slowest exposure and gain well up.

[steelfixer]

Appolagies if you thought I was hijacking this thread but as the symtoms were the same I figured it might just help.

Graham.