First Light with 80ED and HEQ5

[Daf1983]

Had a chance to use my new HEQ5 mount and evostar 80ED on Sunday night. My main aim for the night was just to give everything a test run, as this was the first time I've ever used an EQ mount. By some miracle everything more or less worked!

I managed to get the scope polar aligned fairly easily (with the aid of an app), and the slewed to M13. I ran the EKOS platesolving module, and it worked within seconds, took a test shot, and there it was! I then set up the guiding on ph2, and after a couple of minutes calibration was complete and I was guiding! RMS values seemed to settle at about 0.90''. 

The only problem I encountered was when I tried to dither. This seemed to push the RMS value up dramatically, where it eventually settled at about 1.30'' for the rest of the night. I'm not sure if this is normal, or if something was wrong in the settings. Either way, I managed to get subs of various lengths up to 5 minutes without any obvious star trailing.

This is the image I managed to produce. Not going to win any awards, and as I managed to mess up the flat frames, I have used no calibration frames. The second image is slightly cropped.

[geeklee]

Great first light @Daf1983 Lovely capture 👍

Dithering will temporarily send the RMS higher (depending on the dither size) but it should settle back down quickly.  The later dev versions of PHD2 (v2.6.9dev3+) don't include dither recovery frames in the graph stats.  During the dither the capture software should be paused and waiting for "settling time" so as long as you see similar stats afterwards when exposures start again, you should be fine.

[Daf1983]

Thank you! The dithering and the increased rms might have been a coincidence, hoping to have another go tonight, so we'll see.

[Padraic M]

Great result! That's the basis for a great setup there. Your guiding at 0.9" is excellent - even 1.3" is very good. You didn't say what camera you're using but you should check your pixel ratio. It may well be that 1.3" is perfectly good for your seeing and pixel scale. With my HEQ5 (belt-modded) I can get down to 0.6" after lots of tinkering but with a 80mm scope and ASI1600mm camera my pixel ratio is 1.9" so I'm well within range.

Definitely dither, as it will help reduce noise. I dither every 3 frames.

[Daf1983]

Hi. I'm using a zwo 120mm to guide and a canon 600d as the main imaging camera. I'm currently imaging m5, and guiding seems to have settled down at about 1'' rms after tinkering (all guess work) with the settings in phd2. 

[Daf1983]

Dithering doesn't seem to affect the total rms tonight. I have increased the settle time, so that might have helped

[alacant]

11 hours ago, Daf1983 said:

settings in phd2

Hi

Excellent shots.

One thing which may help the guiding...

Did you try EKOS' internal guider with SEP and multistar? You'll more than likely be pleasantly surprised, and it removes the need for third party apps.

Cheers

Edited June 2, 2021 by alacant

[michael8554]

10 hours ago, Daf1983 said:

guiding seems to have settled down at about 1'' rms after tinkering (all guess work) with the settings in phd2. 

Instead of guessing, why don't you read the Help and How To guides available in the PHD2 Help menu ?

Michael

[Padraic M]

12 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Instead of guessing, why don't you read the Help and How To guides available in the PHD2 Help menu ?

Michael

Agreed. Read the Best Practices guide - one of the best practices is not to tinker with the settings!!!

[Daf1983]

That would be an idea!. If all else fails, read the manual😂

[Daf1983]

1 hour ago, alacant said:

Hi

Excellent shots.

One thing which may help the guiding...

Did you try EKOS' internal guider with SEP and multistar? You may well be pleasantly surprised, and it removes the need for third party apps.

Cheers

I haven't tried the internal guider as of yet. So many new things to learn, and I was fairly familiar with phd2 already. I will give it a go next time, thanks👍