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Help with PHD2 guiding roadblock?


Seanelly

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After building a dark library, starting looping and then auto-selecting a star, I begin PHD2 guiding. After five minutes or so the yellow cross-hairs vanish from star selected, the green Start Guiding button goes off, and this message appears:   RA calibration failed, star did not move enough.

I also select Display Graph to follow the guiding parameters but there is no action shown, just a dead graph.

Please, what am I not doing right?

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2 hours ago, vlaiv said:

First try selecting star manually - to exclude possibility of guiding on a hot pixel.

If that does not help, try increasing pulse duration and number of calibration steps.

I will try as you suggest. I forgot to mention that when I put the mouse on the green calibration button to start guiding, a window pops up and says 'Shift-click to force calibration.'  but I hesitate to try this, as I'm not sure what could happen. Are you familiar with this? (Thanks, by the way.)

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5 hours ago, Seanelly said:

what am I not doing right?

Hi. Did you calibrate the mount?

Slew to a point near the intersection on the meridian and equator. Hit loop. Then Tools > auto select star. Then hold down shift and hit the green guiding button.

Tell us what happens.

HTH and good luck.

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The calibration failed - possibly because the calibration parameters were incorrect. Find the guide log and attach it - you may need to zip it first. The guide log can be found by using the Help Menu > Open Log Folder option.

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make sure all the setting are correct in the guiding tab (click on the brain) and then also click calculate in the calibration setting. As @alacant mentions slew to the equator on the meridian and then slew north south a bit (i think) to remove bacxklash and then re-calibrate.

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52 minutes ago, spillage said:

north south a bit (i think)

North only if in Northern hemisphere; the calibration moves west first, then north. The west backlash if therefore already taken up in RA by the tracking. Moving north at guide rate for around 10 seconds usually does it:)

HTH

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21 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi. Did you calibrate the mount?

Slew to a point near the intersection on the meridian and equator. Hit loop. Then Tools > auto select star. Then hold down shift and hit the green guiding button.

Tell us what happens.

HTH and good luck.

My attempt to select a star (several, in fact) manually this evening in case I was guiding on a hot pixel has proved fruitless. Unfortunately, clouds moved in soon after and I could not do as you advice in calibrating the mount, which, much to my surprise, seems a necessary step to proper guiding? Every time I think I've got all the info I need something else crops up! It seems, according to the latest forecast, that I may not get another chance to try this for a few days. I doubt there is any other problem, i.e. the mount backlash, etc., because I have imaged up to three minutes successfully, though not spectacularly, with only good polar, and three star, alignment from the synscan (HEQ5). I feel on the verge of cresting that big wave to the kind of images I dream of, if I can just get this guiding issue out of the way.

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Sean,

Obtaining a good calibration is mandatory for any guiding software......

The software needs to understand the cause and effect of issuing the guide commands to the mount.

Optimum calibration settings will vary with the declination of the target object.

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1 hour ago, Merlin66 said:

Sean,

Obtaining a good calibration is mandatory for any guiding software......

The software needs to understand the cause and effect of issuing the guide commands to the mount.

Optimum calibration settings will vary with the declination of the target object.

Duly noted. I wait with bated breath for the next clear (cold!) evening. It would be more bearable if I'd bought this kit earlier in the year instead of late October; as it is I'm spending an awful long time out in our typically chilly Ontario November/December evenings trying to get this thing 'off the ground', so to speak.

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15 hours ago, jjosefsen said:

Have you entered the correct focal length of the guide scope in the settings?

Yes, I double checked just now and guide scope focal length and pixel size of the CCD guide camera are set correctly. Thanks for the suggestion.

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16 hours ago, bottletopburly said:

When I had the very same issue as you recently, I put the issue down to a setting in phd2 there’s a setting that says north  south or auto , I had set on north , changed to auto  problem solved 

Just checked that setting and it is in auto, thanks for the suggestion. It seems I need to calibrate the mount to correct this problem, as has been suggested, and of course I'm at the mercy of the weather to attempt anything further, which looks like a couple more days wait.

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On 11/12/2018 at 23:55, Merlin66 said:

Sean,

PHD2 can "remember" your previous calibration and use it in future runs. 'Shift-click to force calibration.' just starts a new, up to date calibration....I'd recommend using this option.

 

Having no previous experience in guiding (I've had only the benefit of a dob reflector for twenty years), I don't believe now that I have a 'previous calibration' remembered. In fact I think the few times I have tried to use it once getting the new kit up and runing I assumed that it was working when in fact it was not, and the 'decent' images I was getting were due to good polar and synscan 3-star alignment (and quality HEQ5 mount), if that makes sense. I tried imaging the Pleiades a week or so ago with 180s exposures and managed to acquire 32 out of 65 that did not have star trails. The final image was 32x180s at 1600iso with no darks, lights or biases. In studying it again I see that there is still some trailing, and the stars don't look crisp. I adjusted it somewhat in DeepSkyStacker, then played with it for colour and contrast in a run-of-the-mill photo editor I have, as I am only getting Adobe PhotoshopCC for Christmas. I'll post it here for you to critique. And by the way, I did have time the other night before the weather closed in to try the 'Shift-click to force calibration', but with no positive result. The suggestion of calibrating the mount seems to be the only thing left I haven't done, and that routine is at the mercy of the weather, which doesn't look good for the next few days. The routine is to slew near the intersection on the meridian and the equator, hit Loop, then Tools> auto select star. Then hold down shift and hit the green guiding button. I don't see how this is any different from what I was doing before, but I will try it.

Anyway, here's the image.

 

 

M45 12-07-18.jpg

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I think we could get you up and running faster if you would attach the guide log. Most of the questions asked are answered by the guide log so it saves a lot of guesswork and back and forth. The guide log can be found by using the Help Menu > Open Log Folder option.

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1 hour ago, kens said:

I think we could get you up and running faster if you would attach the guide log. Most of the questions asked are answered by the guide log so it saves a lot of guesswork and back and forth. The guide log can be found by using the Help Menu > Open Log Folder option.

Here is the guide log. I assume by 'attach' you mean to upload it here. I've just found, in the PHD2 manual, advice to try the Manual Guide in the Tools menu to see if the mount is recieving pulse orders. This sounds like the way to find out if there is actually a connection or not. Unfortunately, there seems no break in the weather for a few days.

 

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-11-18_210149.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-11-18_210208.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-11-18_210316.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-07_192042.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-09_235749.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-10_000024.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-10_181333.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-10_204625.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-11_195058.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-11_223736.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-12_194841.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-13_173313.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-13_225729.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-12-13_230112.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-10-30_191400.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-11-08_212800.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-11-08_233324.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-11-13_183751.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-11-17_231339.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-12-07_192042.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-12-10_181333.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-12-10_204625.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-12-12_194841.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2018-12-13_230112.txt

PHD2_DebugLog_2018-11-17_231339.txt

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Te log tells me that you have selected the GPINT mount driver. Now I'm guessing that you have an ST4 cable from your camera to the mount and the camera is connected to your laptop with a USB cable.

If so then you should be using the "On-Camera" mount driver.

If you are using EQMOD then select the EQMOD ASCOM HEQ5/6 driver

Basically, due to the wrong driver the mount was not moving at all so the calibration was failing.

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