EQM 35 PRO & PHD2

[khulzad]

Hi all,

First of all mine english is not so good so sorry for that.

I am a new to astrophotography. And my setup is

Mount          : Skywatcher EQM 35 PRO

Tube             : Skywatcher Explorer 150PDS (newtonian)

Camera         : Canon 550D

Guide scope : Svbony 60mm compact guide scope

Guide cam    : Svbony SV105

I know my setup is weak and cheap but for now I have them (budged problem  )

I started the hobby at May and I took some photos that not bad for beggining. I reached 60-90 seconds without guiding.

 

After that I thought that the time for starting improve the guiding and I bought guiding scope and cam. I know the cam is not for guiding but it was cheap, and I am planing to change it  with mono guide cam (like zwo asi120 mono) at next months.

But my first experience for PHD2 was terrible.

I've detected some errors and tried to fix them.

First thing there was a unbalancing. I mounted the guide scope on the position of finder scope which is very close to edge of the main scope.

So I fixed it (after the night I tried to guide with PHD2) and put it on the bracelet (over and middle of the main tube)

And second thing was that there is a backlash and I tried to fix it too. I opened to gear of dec and adjusted to gear mesh.

Except them the alignment was not so good because location was in the city (bortle scale 9) and I haven't got finder scope as you know. So I am not sure that if the stars (3 star alignment method) are correct because with nacked eye I could't see them. Next time I will do better alignment with finder for sure.

After them I am planing to try next weekend again. But before that I need your advises to eliminate the problems which I couldn't detect or I don't how to fix them.

For example I can not see any pulse for RA on the graph what does it mean and how can I fix it.

And also I am not sure if there is any problem with ascom. There is no option in the drop list for EQM 35 PRO. So I choose ASCOM.SkyWatcher.Telescope and I downloaded/installed ascom driver from webpage of skywatcher.

Thank you

PHD2_DebugLog_2020-09-21_100115.txt PHD2_GuideLog_2020-09-21_100115.txt

[michael8554]

Hi Khulzad

Nice images !

Looking at your GuideLog:

Calibration was incomplete, only RA was Calibrated.

There doesn't appear to be a good ASCOM driver, the Log says "Skywatcher unrecognised model #26 ASCOM"

Although the log says the Guide Rates for RA and Dec are 7.5 arcsecs/sec, which are reasonable settings, the mount is actually guiding at 1000.0 arcsecs/sec, according to the half Calibration !

Which is why the RA Cal took 47 steps instead of about 12, before giving up (or going off the screen ?)

So install a Skywatcher ASCOM driver and try again.

There is no point Guiding until PHD2 has a good Calibration.

Have a good read of the files in the PHD2 Help tab.

And these Best Practices from the PHD2 developers:

https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

Then post your logs.

Michael

Edited September 23, 2020 by michael8554

[Seelive]

1 hour ago, michael8554 said:

 

There doesn't appear to be a good ASCOM driver, the Log says "Skywatcher unrecognised model #26 ASCOM"

That's what my PHD2 guide logs also say for my EQM35 but is working fine for me. However, PHD2 doesn't appear to the talking to the mount (no RA or DEC info). Are you ST4 guiding through the camera or direct mount guiding by connecting the PC to the handset USB port?

[khulzad]

8 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Hi Khulzad

Nice images !

Looking at your GuideLog:

Calibration was incomplete, only RA was Calibrated.

There doesn't appear to be a good ASCOM driver, the Log says "Skywatcher unrecognised model #26 ASCOM"

Although the log says the Guide Rates for RA and Dec are 7.5 arcsecs/sec, which are reasonable settings, the mount is actually guiding at 1000.0 arcsecs/sec, according to the half Calibration !

Which is why the RA Cal took 47 steps instead of about 12, before giving up (or going off the screen ?)

So install a Skywatcher ASCOM driver and try again.

There is no point Guiding until PHD2 has a good Calibration.

Have a good read of the files in the PHD2 Help tab.

And these Best Practices from the PHD2 developers:

https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

Then post your logs.

Michael

Thanks Michael for read my notes and look guidelog. As I said, I am newbie.

* (Calibration) I stopped it after 3 min it start because I did not know how much it needs. But next time I will wait until it will give some info that finish the calibration (are there any signs?) 

* (ASCOM driver) I download it from skywatcher web page (link of EQM 35 PRO drivers) but maybe there was problem during to intallation so I will try it again.

* And of course I will read this documents too

Thank you again.

[khulzad]

8 hours ago, Seelive said:

That's what my PHD2 guide logs also say for my EQM35 but is working fine for me. However, PHD2 doesn't appear to the talking to the mount (no RA or DEC info). Are you ST4 guiding through the camera or direct mount guiding by connecting the PC to the handset USB port?

 

My connection is like that handset USB port to PC. Actually this connection is working when I use it with stellarium. The mount is moving to target without a problem when I click the star or nebula on stellarium screen. 

Thank you Seelive

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by khulzad

[michael8554]

11 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Although the log says the Guide Rates for RA and Dec are 7.5 arcsecs/sec, which are reasonable settings, the mount is actually guiding at 1000.0 arcsecs/sec, according to the half Calibration !

Which is why the RA Cal took 47 steps instead of about 12, before giving up (or going off the screen ?)

I didn't get that right :-<  If that's the real Guiderate it would Calibrate in very few steps, not many.

Ability to Slew  from the PC suggests connections are good, but Slewing and Guide Pulses are from different sources.

When Cal has completed it will start Guiding and the Graph showing RA and Dec errors will start moving.

The DebugLog will probably have many clues to the problem, but I've never been able to understand what it's saying.

Try posting the Logs on the PHD2 Help Forum. Instructions for uploading are in the PHD2 Help tab, send the logs with the right date and timestamp !

https://groups.google.com/g/open-phd-guiding

Michael

Edited September 24, 2020 by michael8554

[khulzad]

3 hours ago, michael8554 said:

I didn't get that right :-<  If that's the real Guiderate it would Calibrate in very few steps, not many.

Ability to Slew  from the PC suggests connections are good, but Slewing and Guide Pulses are from different sources.

When Cal has completed it will start Guiding and the Graph showing RA and Dec errors will start moving.

The DebugLog will probably have many clues to the problem, but I've never been able to understand what it's saying.

Try posting the Logs on the PHD2 Help Forum. Instructions for uploading are in the PHD2 Help tab, send the logs with the right date and timestamp !

https://groups.google.com/g/open-phd-guiding

Michael

Thanks Michael I will do that.