GPCAM - PHD2 definite progress

[rubecula]

Some success at last.  After an hour fiddling with GPCAM focus I finally got a black screen with white stars followed by  a successful calibration.  Mind you the tracking graph was all over the place.  Tried some images of M81, at 240 sec the stars were nice and round but the images were swamped by moonlight so I didn't think it was worth trying for any longer exposures. 

I decided to do a PHD2 drift align.  Azimuth seemed to work reasonably well but when I tried Altitide the scope slewed to the west to an area completely screened by trees.  The "Slew to" value was -65 so I tried to add 180 to it thinking that would point me due East.  But the value would only go up to 90.  Eventually I tried +65 and it slewed to the right direction.  The problem is I didn't understand why -65 was west and +65 was east.  Anyone any idea?

Even going east the horizon was obsured by a house and so I had to bring the scope to a higher elevation and slew slightly westward to find a star.  Would drift aligning at that location be any good?

Anyway by then I had been out from 6.30pm until 11.30pm and was absolutely frozen.  My feet were the worst problem so I've just put 4 layers of cardboard and a bit of carpet down hoping that will be better for my feet.

[tomato]

Hello Robin,

I manually drift align and have to compromise a little on star selection due to local obstructions. Still works ok though.

Next time out I will try the PHD2 routine to see if it is any easier (and more accurate) than the manual version.

On the frozen feet topic, my wife bought me a pair of battery powered heated socks from Amazon (honest!) but I have never mustered the courage to try them out.

Steve

[rubecula]

Thanks Steve, I'll look forward to your feedback on manual vs PHD2 drift aligning.

[kens]

Having done both I think PHD is much easier and quicker as you see the drift much quicker and you can do it with just a guide camera on the mount so less weight to move in altitude.

Ideally you want to be within about 20 degrees of the horizon (for altitude adjustment) and within about 20 degrees of the equator. There's nothing wrong with slewing with the handcontroller to get to a better spot before starting a drift.

In fact I don't use the PHD drift tool per se. I just slew to a star to drift align on, make sure guiding pulses are turned off in the brain, then start guiding. The same graph with the alignment error and magenta circle on the main screen show up the same. So if you want/need more control that is an option. (but remember to turn guiding pulses back on before imaging)

If you are a bit technically minded you can set things up to remotely operate your laptop from an ipad or another PC via VNC. Use stellarium or CdC to slew the scope to a guide star and start PHD drift alignment. You do need to venture outside to adjust the bolts but you can also ease the pain there by first setting PHD to loop faster so you can see the star moving in near real time on the screen. Plus in daylight you can work out how much a quarter turn of the bolt moves on each axis. So before you go out you know you just need to turn say 1/8th of a turn clockwise and confirm on the screen. Run back inside and repeat while having a hot cocoa.

I don't have problems due to cold but we do have mosquitoes.

[rubecula]

Mmmm.....cold feet or mosquitoes, dificult choice.  Ken, thanks for the VNC idea.  I'm just looking for a way to get wi-fi down to the obsy now.  A long distance digital antenna might be the way to go.