stellarium scope/phd2 guiding

[iwols]

hi using an sw ed80 on a heq5 mount,and have been using stellarium scope/stellarium/eqmod to find and track the stars,just ordered a qhyII-L mono camera to do some phd2 guiding with,just wondered how it all works when i attatch the qhy camera to my guide scope,do i still use stellarium to find say m31 initially before i start phd2 guiding,if that makes sense cheers again

[MilwaukeeLion]

I have similar setup - different mount / camera but that's basically it. Slew to object via Stellarium, frame it, start guiding.

 

ML   

[Cornelius Varley]

On 03/02/2016 at 20:34, iwols said:

hi using an sw ed80 on a heq5 mount,and have been using stellarium scope/stellarium/eqmod to find and track the stars,just ordered a qhyII-L mono camera to do some phd2 guiding with,just wondered how it all works when i attatch the qhy camera to my guide scope,do i still use stellarium to find say m31 initially before i start phd2 guiding,if that makes sense cheers again

Stellarium will only slew the telescope to the target, after that it will revert back to normal tracking and shouldn't interfere with PHD2.

[Uranium235]

Its pretty much the same setup I have, except that you usually need to tweak the framing before setting PHD guide. It also helps if you have your guiding laptop/netbook connected to the internet so it can search the SIMBAD database for objects that arent listed within stellarium.

[iwols]

thanks rob on the initial setup for phd2  i selected the heq5 ascom for my mount but what do you use for the camera,the options are qhy5l ii and cmos qhy5l ii or do you use the  windows wdm syle camera cheers

[iwols]

and just one last thing regards the qhy5l ii camera ,during the day i cannot get a picture through the guide scope,is this normal for this type of cam,i see whites and darks when i move it round but no picture as we know thanks 

[Uranium235]

3 hours ago, iwols said:

thanks rob on the initial setup for phd2  i selected the heq5 ascom for my mount but what do you use for the camera,the options are qhy5l ii and cmos qhy5l ii or do you use the  windows wdm syle camera cheers

Im still on PHD1 mate (never needed to upgrade, and probably never will), for camera selection I choose the first QHY camera option in the ascom menu (best to avoid the wdm) - and my guiding is done via ST4 using the "on camera" guiding option (if its available in PHD2).

You should be able to get a picture in the daytime if you set the exposure length to something really short (ie: 0.1s or less). Plus it will only focus on distant objects, no point in putting your hand in front of it because it wont be in focus. Try for a tree in the distance, or a chimney.

[Thalestris24]

Hi

You probably need exposures in the millisecond range plus low gain to not overexpose during daylight. It's better to use the EZplanetary application for that. Focus is quite critical with the cam. Don't forget that PHD2 autostretches the on-screen image so don't get a dark screen even with the lens cap on the guide scope.

Louise

[Tinker1947]

Getting a DSO that you will only see when you have a 5 minute image, as a time saver i find 3 bright object around the hidden DSO slew and sync on all 3 then slew to the first should place it in the center of you sensor, then just slew to the hidden DSO and image away.....