PHD

[chrisseal42]

I am having problems with PHD I do cal on Deneb it track ok on the calibration star then use the goto to find M31 then the telescope does not guide.

[Ant]

Try calibrating on a star a lot closer than Deneb. I always calibrate on a star very near the target.

I beleive that PHD does say that if you move to a different area of the sky then you should re calibrate,

Cheers and good luck.

Ant

[Scott]

Can you not stop guiding, move to target, select new star in phd and restart guiding?

[Ouroboros]

I have always pointed the telescope at the object I'm going to image, framed the subject, taken a few test shot, then picked a guide star and calibrated. Seems to work for me.

[Owmuchonomy]

You should really recalibrate if you move your scope to a different target. Also the manoeuver you describe probably included a meridian flip.

[RobH]

Don't calibrate on a very bright star like Deneb. You should be using a mag 5 or 6 star at the brightest. The software needs to accurately know the centre of the calibration star, and a bright star will probably have the centre region saturated, making it tricky to find the true centre. Generally, never calibrate or guide on an oversaturated star.

Also, the advice on calibrating on a star as near to your target as possible is worth taking. If it's in the same field of view as your target then all the better.

How many steps does the software generally go through per direction when calibrating?

What length exposures are you using?

And, as said above, you must calibrate on a star on the same side of the meridian as your target.