Target for 1st Autoguide

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

I am planning on my 1st autoguiding session tonight , I wondered if anyone could help me with a few questions.

My setup is 9x50 guidescope, ASI guidecam, EQ5, 130-PDS, and EOS 1000d with CC and LP Filter. I have a good view of the north, west, south, and south-southeast.

 

1. Polar Alignment. Should I use PolarFinder and my polar scope, or should I use Sharp-Cap to do polar alignment using the guidescope and camera?1. Considering the moon and my limited view of the west , what is a good target I can attempt an imaging run on?

2. Things I should prioritize in testing and mastering, and the best way to do this?

3. Considering the moon and my limited view of the west , what is a good target I can attempt an imaging run on? (M31???)

 

I have reasonably clear skies, with a bit of higher cloud forecast later (1-2am) on Clear Outside, BBC and satellite images are more optimistic though. (Streetlights go off at 12 midnight )

P.S. Tips on keeping awake until early hours also appreciated .

Thanks for looking,  

John

[kens]

I'd be inclined to use Sharpcap of those choices but you might also consider PHD2 drift alignment.

The first thing to concentrate on is getting a good calibration in PHD2 - I'm assuming that's what you are using as guide software. You might also run the guide assistant and use its recommended settings. Once you do that don't be tempted to fiddle with them for now. Even if your guiding seems off it is unlikely to be due to the PHD2 settings as long as you got all your input data right and got a good calibration.

 Then you'll need to get your focus right with your imaging camera. Do you have a bahtinov mask? 

As a first target I'd suggest something like a decent sized globular cluster. Fairly easy to find, look great when imaged but not too demanding, especially if you are dealing with light pollution. M13 perhaps? Once you've got your target, take some sample images to get your exposure right - use the histogram.

Don't worry too much about your first images. Just have some fun, and learn as much as you can each time. I reckon there's a million things that can go wrong in any imaging session and each time you learn to cut out a few of those. I think I've got 999,900 or so to go.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Thank you for the advice My first attempt went very well (except from when I accidently left the mount handset correction speed at 16x ), I got some high-quality subs very consistently. I managed to eliminate most of the backlash I was being plagued by at first, and there were no (major) issues so far!

John

[SonnyE]

Glad to hear it went well, John.

I use PHD2 as my guiding program. But I had a devil of a time when I started out. Finally a couple of You Tube video's got me running on wobbly legs.

Once I got it dialed in for my equipment, no changes have been needed for at least a year or more.

Sharpcap never did behave well for me. It had to be removed to get my programs working right again.

But I'm big on guiding, myself. I consider it the eye for the mount to know what it is to stay on and follow.

I hope your advancement with your guiding goes as smoothly as it appears to have started. Does the mount have a PEC program in the control? (Periodic Error Correction) That can help a lot for getting smaller and smaller stars in your images.