Autoguiding on HEQ5/6 mount

[cygnusx1]

Well i've been doing some testing and autoguiding of my HEQ5 Pro mount the last few nights,

and have managed to get the errors down to about +- 2 units playing around in PHD.

Here's a graph for RA, taken over 1080s (18 mins ), which is more than one worm cycle (+-10mins).

Also for DEC, same timescale, y-axis scale +- 2 units too.

Now reducing the errors down to an acceptable +- 0.5 could take a while, , but i was just curious

1. Are any of you aware of what the error on these mounts are stock std unguided?

2. What sort of error levels are you getting from the mount with your autoguiding?

Any suggestions or tips for backlash,cone,PHD settings that may help

[cygnusx1]

Someone must be autoguiding on these mounts?

Anyone using PHD?

[jcm]

I autoguide with a HEQ5 pro but I do it using AstroArt.

Not sure what your units are. Are they arc secs or pixels?

John

[cygnusx1]

I autoguide with a HEQ5 pro but I do it using AstroArt.

Not sure what your units are. Are they arc secs or pixels?

John

Not sure myself

[bern]

Best thing is to do some images of star fields using various exposures and see what they look like.

bern

[cygnusx1]

Best thing is to do some images of star fields using various exposures and see what they look like.

bern

Apologies if I didn't make it clear, i have in fact done quite a few exposures of anything up to 7-8 minutes, but past 4 mins i'm still getting trails or star bloats.

[bern]

What focal length are you using and what exposure can you get away with unguided?

bern

[cygnusx1]

What focal length are you using and what exposure can you get away with unguided?

bern

1400mm f/l imager, 800 guidescope

Probably 1.5 minutes unguided ( i say this as im using a c9.25 with a f6.3 f/r and have only ever imaged at 2350mm with the scope and it trails at about 30-60s)

[CELESCOPE]

Keven what have u set your guide speed at in the Handset

Rog

[bern]

From what you say I think Roger is on the right track, it sounds like your settings need tweaking.

bern

[cygnusx1]

Guide speed is 0.5x