How to create a PEC file for PEC Control -Eqmod??

[zimzimma]

Hi

Wandered whether someone could shed some light on this for me. Im able to PA accurately as have a good view of Pole star. I have read a guide somewhere on how to create a PEC file, edit it and apply to eqmod for corrections. Trouble is if im being honest I dont really understand it and I also think ive done it incorrectly.

If anyone knows of a simple guide please could you direct me to it or if someone could just put together quick instructions id be more than grateful. It would be interesting to know typical values aswell on what PEC in terms of arcseconds to give me some idea as to whether im well out or whether my gears need changing/altering. I seem to be getting egg shaped stars even with a 1min LExp. It may well be PEC can sort this issue out for me, but really not sure where to start with the data etc.

Thankyou

Rich T

[chrisshillito]

Hi Rich,

Check out my

. If you are a member of the EQMOD group you may be interested that the latest test release of EQMOD includes an "autoPEC" funciton which will measure periorid error and generate/load a correction whilst guiding (ST-4, pulse guide or even manual) - currently there is no documentation for this.

Typically the synta EQ5/6 mounts have and average PE of around +/-15 arcsecs peak to peak. The PE signal is generally the combination of several non harmonic signals from different sources and the overall PE will therfore tend to vary in amplitude as these errors slip in phase. To diagnose gear problems you really want to be using the spectrum analyser in PECPrep in order to separate who is contributing what to the overall signal.

Chris.

[zimzimma]

Once again, thankyou Chris, will do. Regarding "autopec" do I need to have loaded a PEC file into EQMOD or will this just correct if ticked and mount is tracking?

Thanks

Rt

[chrisshillito]

The current implementation of autopec simply requires the mount to be tracking under autoguiding. PEC playback is suspended during the PE capture phase but, once capture is complete, a new PEC file is automatically generated, loaded and PEC playback started.

There is an overview video here:

I do have a new release of EQASCOM pending which allows the recording of PE whilst PEC playback is active and that allows the automatic loading/activation of PEC to be disabled (for those folks who simply want to record PE but not use PEC).

Chris.