What Constitutes Acceptable Guiding?

[Thalestris24]

I ran the mouse over the spikes in PHD Log Viewer.  Mass (m) and SNR stayed pretty constant throughout the graph.  I don't think, therefore, that this was a loss of guide star issue.

Yeah, thinking about it, the deflections in terms of arcseconds are quite small. They might not have occurred using 'hysteresis' and wouldn't appear so bad if you changed the graph scale to the next one up

Louise

[gnomus]

Theres a software update for the mount motor controllers that fixes a dec cogging guiding issue. On my cgem with a nexstar+ hand controller you can view the software level in one of the menus. It will look like this

Hc gem 5.26 5080 (hand controller software)

Mc 6.50 6.50 ( motor controller software)

My Handset is 4.21 (which is the most up to date version for my handset, I believe)

My MC is 6.50 6.50

Thanks for suggesting this anyway.

[Thalestris24]

Hi Steve

I meant to ask what exposure time you're using in PHD2?

Louise

[gnomus]

Yeah, thinking about it, the deflections in terms of arcseconds are quite small. They might not have occurred using 'hysteresis' and wouldn't appear so bad if you changed the graph scale to the next one up

Louise

Yes.  Assuming I have calculated everything correctly, my guiding is good enough for my ED80/Atik, but would not be good enough for my Edge HD8 and Atik (0.78" x 0.78").

It would be nice to get my guiding a little better.  I suspect that this is a polar alignment issue.  I will work on this when I can.  I am going to try Alignmaster http://www.alignmaster.de/ I am, however, going on holiday for a few weeks.  When I come back I should have my observatory, so that should make things a little easier (I hope).

[gnomus]

Hi Steve

I meant to ask what exposure time you're using in PHD2?

Louise

2 secs

[Thalestris24]

2 secs

Ok, you could try 3 or 4 if the atmosphere seems turbulent I often need to do that here.

Louise

[gnomus]

OK. But it's going to be a few weeks now. I'll be driving in Europe. My itinereary is going to take me very close to that Mesu Optics chap. ...... I wonder if I should drop by.

[Thalestris24]

OK. But it's going to be a few weeks now. I'll be driving in Europe. My itinereary is going to take me very close to that Mesu Optics chap. ...... I wonder if I should drop by.

Ahh oh for a Mesu! Enjoy your hols!

Louise

[ollypenrice]

OK. But it's going to be a few weeks now. I'll be driving in Europe. My itinereary is going to take me very close to that Mesu Optics chap. ...... I wonder if I should drop by.

You should. Leave plenty of room in your car though!!!!

lly

[gnomus]

You should. Leave plenty of room in your car though!!!!

lly

You are a bad man!!!!!

Seriously though, is his shop visitable?

[ollypenrice]

You are a bad man!!!!!

Seriously though, is his shop visitable?

I guess so, but I dare say he may take a summer holiday so I'd check first. I've never been, though a couple of our guests have done so and been impressed by the workshops.

Olly

[gnomus]

I guess so, but I dare say he may take a summer holiday so I'd check first. I've never been, though a couple of our guests have done so and been impressed by the workshops.

Olly

I'll maybe drop him an e-mail when the wife isn't looking.

Yes. A trip to South-East France, Lat 44.19N is slowly but surely working its way up my 'To Do' list.