PHD2 and OAG Focal Length

[Droogie 2001]

Hopefully a simple question. When inputting the Focal Length for an OAG in the guiding details in PHD v2. Do I simply input the telescope's Focal Length as this is light path that the guide stars travel through?

Thanks.

 

[Freddie]

Yes, you are correct.

[Droogie 2001]

Thanks. Nice and simple.

[SonnyE]

If you find you are getting less than the best from PHD2 (I had a devil of a time. It wasn't so simple for this dummy. ) I went through these YouTube videos and got mine ironed out great.

Afterwards I just needed small tweaking's to get great guiding from it. Pay particular attention to your Polar Alignment.

I leave my AVX set up so the mount is always very close on its Polar Alignment.

PHD2 Video 1

PHD2 Video 2

PHD2 Drift Tool  (I haven't needed the drift tool myself.)

[Droogie 2001]

Thanks Sonny. I think I have been through these before but will have another watch. I use a Polemaster to PA. But I never get great numbers from the Celestron handset after a PA. To a certain extent I only use the handset to tell the mount where it is. The PA is all done by Polemaster.

Without going into too much detail I set mount roughly North (I have no fixed setup so have to do this every time)

I perform a 2 Star Alignment with 3-4 Calibration stars on Celestron handset. I try my best to mix West and East stars but I don't have great views of the West.

Use Polemaster to Polar Align.

Then look at PA error on Celestron handset.

This is where it can vary from 1-2 degree RA / DEC error. I have heard people are getting 50 Arc Seconds on their readouts. I have never had this.

This has concerned me as the alignment stars are very precise in my alignment (I use SGP Frame and focus for this)

I can guide for 5-6mins with good results but more than that I get trailing.

What guiding rates do you get? I have also recently noticed that my Min Mov settings may have be incorrect for my guide camera. I was using 0.10 but have worked out this may in fact need to be 0.60. Not sure if this will make any difference.
As usual just need clear skies...