Trying to hit the ground running

[FiveByEagle]

Hello! I am new here. And newish to this hobby (again) started about 10 years ago and gave it up once I saw some price tags... now situations have changed and I am diving right in. 

Also, frankly, chaos is how I learn. So I bought a Celestron AVX, 30mm Guidescope + QHY5L-II-M, Apertura 60mm FL53 and in the daytime I am a photographer so I have an assortment of bodies (dedicated astro camera is 2021's goals Gotta start somewhere!)

So I know I have to use PHD2 for guiding, however every time I try to watch a video or do some research I get caught up in this ASCOM stuff. Im a MacOS user.. so I dont really have the access to this. Does it work on Parallels? The AVX has the miniUSB on the hand controller... is that it? I am just super lost on this part and not sure what to do here. Can anyone provide some direction?

 

Thank you so much!

[Dr Strange]

It will work under Paralles. You access it via that USB port on the hand controller going into the computer. You setup ASCOM first then connect to the mount with PHD via ASCOM driver. 

[MarkAR]

Try KStars/Ekos, runs in Mac OS and is free. It'll handle mount controls, image capture, focussing, plate solving, poor alignment and guiding.

[FiveByEagle]

1 hour ago, Dr Strange said:

It will work under Paralles. You access it via that USB port on the hand controller going into the computer. You setup ASCOM first then connect to the mount with PHD via ASCOM driver. 

Awesome! So with the Parallels setup, I just want to make sure I have my order of operations correct. Do I polar align using the polarscope, then the 2 alignments for the mount, and then go to the target, open PHD2 and select a guide star? 

Auto guiding is 100% new to me.. I have never brought out a computer with a scope. Its always been simple go-tos and dslr's

[Dr Strange]

Correct. You would polar align (PA) using the polar scope, align the mount, then goto the target, open PHD2 and select a guide star. 

A word of caution. You are jumping in to the very deepest end of the pool with a weight belt on and one hand tied behind your back. Even though you have a background in terrestrial photography astro photography (AP) is completely different, very complex, and can be very frustrating. So be prepared for that. 

[Dr Strange]

As noted above, KSTARS will work on a Mac. In addition Nebulosity (the same person who made PhD makes Nebulosity) will also work on the Mac.