PHD Guiding

[Roy@Aldermaston]

Looking good for me as well Martin. I'm planning on imaging IC1795 tonight to test it over a longer session.

[RogerTheDodger]

Thanks Roy, I'll give it a try without the filter if the stars ever appear over Halesowen again...

[Cath]

I've so far found a few problems in the source code for PHD, reported the first couple to them but their was no response back from them, so I've them to it really (which is a shame).

[Cath]

"so I've LEFT them to it really (which is a shame)."

grrrr no edit anymore

[Roy@Aldermaston]

Hello Cath,

That's why I haven't reported the "star saturation" bug. It was first mentioned on the Yahoo forum towards the end of March, but nothing seems to have been done to follow it up.

[RogerTheDodger]

When I had a problem with PHD and LX mode SPC900's I just emailed Craig - he was most helpful.

[Roy@Aldermaston]

When I had a problem with PHD and LX mode SPC900's I just emailed Craig - he was most helpful.

Cheers Roger, perhaps I'll the direct route rather than the forum.

[Peter_A]

For the record, I had a good test session last night using ver.1.12.4, no star saturated nonsense at all. I also checked using a short USB cable and my 5m long active extension, both worked fine. Looking at the PHD version history I can't see any reason why I would need to use ver13.x so I'll carry on with 12.x

I wasn't sure which camera option to choose, either ASCOM or ASCOM(late). I chose ASCOM (late) and had "error reading image" failure after 20mins guiding twice (maybe that is the memory leak error mentioned in the version history?). I then tried the ASCOM camera option instead and that seemed to work fine for 45mins until I stopped 'cos it was time to go to bed.

Pete.

QHY5, ST80, EQ5 with modded ST4 port on hand controller.

[Roy@Aldermaston]

Good news Pete. I run PHD 1.13.0 without any problems and use the Ascom v5 camera option for the QHY5.

[Peter_A]

Hello Roy, I am glad you are up and running well now. I would give 1.13.0 a try but have to ask where did you find it? I had a look in Craig Stark's index of old versions and couldn't see it there.

Pete.

[Roy@Aldermaston]

Peter, part of the way down the PHD guiding page, between the Feature List and History sub-headings, there is a link to "Download PHD Guiding v1.13" which will take you to the download page. The download link for version 1.13.0 is the fourth entry in the list.

Good luck,

Roy

[Peter_A]

Thanks Roy.

[themos]

We got bitten by the "star saturated" condition tonight. We should have noticed that guiding deteriorated after a few frames... I just downloaded 1.13.0b and am trying it out to see if it makes a difference.

[Peter_A]

I used 1.13.0 for the first time last night, it worked well, thanks Roy. It was my first proper go with the 200P guided after shake down testing previously without the scope to iron out the problems, star saturated etc. I will post my shots as soon as I have stacked them.

Pete.

[tea drinker]

Hi folks, I have a regular SPC900 toucam lying in a drawer here, would that suffice for guiding? Have a spare 50mm finder I could use...

Or am I asking how long is a piece of string??????

[themos]

Without LX modification it will be tricky, you might not have any bright enough stars in the field-of-view but it's worth a shot.