PHD2 not working properly, trouble with tracking

[Quetzalcoatl72]

I hadn't been in the field properly for a few months until one night it was finally clear so i thought i'd give it a go, besides I had not tested my altitude mod so the mount can be used at 54 lat. Was tough to remember how to set up but i'm sure I did everything correctly, I use NINA as my main imaging software, which is also Connected to a few other programs like ASCOM, one of them being PHD2 Guiding, once I had setup everything, perfect balance slightly east heavy etc, I went to my target m27 for the night, I took a 3 minute sub, it looked fine so i set a sequence and started guiding with phd2, I was confident that it was going to work because i've done it before, So I left it running for an hour taking 20 3 mins shots.

Came back to find that all the images were ruined, the stars were in a zig zag pattern and the nebula was no longer in frame. I tried to get it back in frame then started another 3 mins to check on it, I noticed the guide star that i chose was no longer on screen which it should have been and the image was again ruined by a zigzag trail pattern. So I decided to re calibrate, afterwards I started guiding and noticed that the star moved around lot more than it should, it should stay in one place the whole time right? I'm using pulse guiding, can anyone help with this i'm so frustrated with this hobby it's just not worth it with constant problems every single time i go out. I made sure I was accurately polar aligned using sharpcaps polar align method.

[malc-c]

Imaging is frustrating at times... on one occasion it all falls into place, guiding works great, subs come out perfect.  You don't change anything and then the next session it all goes pear-shaped.  But we have to put up with it I'm afraid.  The complexities of what we are asking the software to do is often not straight forward and often things go wrong.

I don't use NINA, but I presume you are using GSServer or EQMOD to handle control of the mount? - Each has pulse guiding settings, and in EQMODs case these need to be set between 0.5x and 0.9x.  In PHD2 once calibration has been done the guide star should remain fixed and not drift.  If it's drifting then this could be down to the clutches slipping (you did lock them after setting up ?).  Do you have the log files for that session that can be posted here, that may help diagnose the issue.

One thing to try is just open EQASCOM and connect to the mount, and then launch PHD2 and connect to the mount and guide camera, and see how the graph performs and if the guide star remains in place.  You can launch NINA and then do a trial run to see if the guiding works and the resulting trial image has round stars rather than a zig-zag pattern.  You should be able to do this form your back garden rather than having to travel out to a decent site.  I 

[Quetzalcoatl72]

15 hours ago, malc-c said:

Imaging is frustrating at times... on one occasion it all falls into place, guiding works great, subs come out perfect.  You don't change anything and then the next session it all goes pear-shaped.  But we have to put up with it I'm afraid.  The complexities of what we are asking the software to do is often not straight forward and often things go wrong.

I don't use NINA, but I presume you are using GSServer or EQMOD to handle control of the mount? - Each has pulse guiding settings, and in EQMODs case these need to be set between 0.5x and 0.9x.  In PHD2 once calibration has been done the guide star should remain fixed and not drift.  If it's drifting then this could be down to the clutches slipping (you did lock them after setting up ?).  Do you have the log files for that session that can be posted here, that may help diagnose the issue.

One thing to try is just open EQASCOM and connect to the mount, and then launch PHD2 and connect to the mount and guide camera, and see how the graph performs and if the guide star remains in place.  You can launch NINA and then do a trial run to see if the guiding works and the resulting trial image has round stars rather than a zig-zag pattern.  You should be able to do this form your back garden rather than having to travel out to a decent site.  I 

thanks, I never thought about the clutch tbh, need like a checkbox in my head when i'm out soo many things you need to run though problem solving setups etc. since the majority are using atp instead of nina i'm going to have to try it for one night. I'll try it without nina too

[malc-c]

My setup is quite dated compared to a lot of peoples.  I built the observatory 10 year ago, and most of the gear (mount, guidescope and cameras) were second hand then.  Back then EQMOD was the only telescope control software that was used by many, and APT had just been developed.  Back then it was fairly basic, with the main focus of controlling a couple of brands of DSLRs.  The original PHD was the software used, although when PHD2 was developed we all switched to that.  For target selection I used, and still use Cartes du Ciel.  Sharpcap was (is) used for use with some old webcams for when I dabbled with luna and planetary imaging.

The scope is PA and focused, although I still check focus at the start of each session using a mask.  I Launch Cartes du Ciel and connect to the mount, which launches EQMOD.  The mount is unparked and slewed to target. I'll then run PHD2, and APT.  I'll do a single 3m exposure to check framing, and then let PHD start guiding.  As the scope is permanent I use the same calibration setting from when the scope was set up.  Once guiding I let the trace settle for a few minutes and then kick of a simple plan of around 360s exposures...  That's my workflow. 

If you have tight clutches and there is no physical movement in the mount (ie excessive backlash) then its worth running PHD2's guide assist tool to get the pulses dialled in.   Can you upload your log files for the night you had trouble.  They are normally found in the PHD2 folder at C:\Users\[User name]\Documents\PHD2  so that we can take a look to see if anything else may be the cause