To make my eq5 go-to an autoguide

[malc-c]

Save me trawling through the three pages, how are you connecting the camera?  - In the screen grabs it shows "on camera" selected, are you using an ST4 cable between the camera and the mount ?  - Most of us tend to plug the guide camera directly into the PC via USB and select it from the list of camera options found in PHD2's connect equipment screen.  To me it seems having the ASi software running takes back control after the first time PHD manages to establish communications.

Testing in bright light is probably the cause of the over exposed camera image in PHD.  The exposure must be shorter and you can adjust the slider to reduce the gamma (brightness) of the screen.

[Marian]

6 hours ago, malc-c said:

Save me trawling through the three pages, how are you connecting the camera?  - In the screen grabs it shows "on camera" selected, are you using an ST4 cable between the camera and the mount ?  - Most of us tend to plug the guide camera directly into the PC via USB and select it from the list of camera options found in PHD2's connect equipment screen.  To me it seems having the ASi software running takes back control after the first time PHD manages to establish communications.

Testing in bright light is probably the cause of the over exposed camera image in PHD.  The exposure must be shorter and you can adjust the slider to reduce the gamma (brightness) of the screen.

The cam is connected via USB straight into my pc. This is only a daylight test, without my mount, only the guide cam in the guide scope. I can’t test it outside because of the weather. I had a chance to take the whole mount out only once, but the cam froze and my laptop froze since it was freezing outside. But even then, in the darkneds, the PHD2 didn’t show anything but white blank screen. That’s why I am testing it now. 
When I open the PHD2 and do the whole procedure following the instructions all I get is a white screen in the looping window. When I move the slider down all I get is a noise from the darkfiles. The only way for the cam to show something is when I run the ASI studio in the background. But only for a short time. In a minute or two, the PHD2 looses connection to the camera.

that’s about the whole story
 

[malc-c]

Just googled "PHD2 and ASI Studio" to throw up similar threads - on Cloudy Nights one member with the same issue as reported here was advised to go to the camera's manufactures forum, which he did and got the following reply

Quote

To all,

ZWO replied on their forum with the following fix described as follows:

Can PHD2 recognize the 220mini via ZWO driver? not ASCOM, please update the ZWO-SDK (x86) ASIcamera2.dll file in the PHD2 installation folder first.

C:\Program Files (x86)\PHDGuiding2

We tested it on Win11 but didn't reproduce the problem.

In short, you need to only replace the (1 file) camera driver dll included in this zip. Since PHD2 is a 32 bit program, use the dll located in the (x86) folder respectively. You will see the same file name in the phd2 directory, replace ASIcamera.dll or rename the current and copy in this one.

I'm running a 120mm-mini on win10 so provide some feedback if this works....

https://1drv.ms/u/s!...gomXpA?e=z3SCmw

Prior to this there was suggestions to ensure the latest drivers and Ascom platform was installed.  people reported that their cameras also worked fine in Nina, but that was down to Nina and asi studio using the native driver where as Phd2 uses the ascom driver for cameras.

Hopefully the admin won't mind if I link to the post on a competitors forum 😉   Read in full here

Edited March 23, 2023 by malc-c
formatting

[Marian]

30 minutes ago, malc-c said:

Just googled "PHD2 and ASI Studio" to throw up similar threads - on Cloudy Nights one member with the same issue as reported here was advised to go to the camera's manufactures forum, which he did and got the following reply

Prior to this there was suggestions to ensure the latest drivers and Ascom platform was installed.  people reported that their cameras also worked fine in Nina, but that was down to Nina and asi studio using the native driver where as Phd2 uses the ascom driver for cameras.

Hopefully the admin won't mind if I link to the post on a competitors forum 😉   Read in full here

I’ll look into it. Thank you

[alacant]

The OP has chosen to use the ASI driver.. PHD2 is however not limited to that as it is also happy to use INDI or ASCOM camera drivers.

We do not know if the OP has the latest version

Cheers

[Marian]

Every step seems to have it’s own complication. Can’t wait to get through them. If only the weather changed. There is almost no time anymore. Soon there will be no dark skies here.

[Marian]

Got my first star in the guide cam!!! There was a gap in the clouds so I just quickly laid the scope next to the window and here it is. 

Next step, the mount

Edited March 23, 2023 by Marian

[malc-c]

care to divulge  what resolved the issue..... just in case others have the same issue...

[Marian]

12 hours ago, malc-c said:

care to divulge  what resolved the issue..... just in case others have the same issue...

The slider. All the time, I tried to slide it left as much as possible, thinking the - is left and + right. Little hint for all developers: there are stupid people (talking about myself here) that need +- markings on all the possible sliders or other adjusters. Starting issue: the USB in the cam is really tough and tight to work with. Driver issue: TBA

Edited March 24, 2023 by Marian

[Marian]

Well, I suppose, I’ve got some good news. Last night was very, very cold, but the sky was clear. I took my mount out, leveled it perfectly, found the north star…. and got so cold, that I skipped the rest of the polar alignment. Did a quick one star alignment, pointed my scope….somewhere, cranked up the PHD2….and….nothing. Well my brains froze again, I forgot to connect my cam to the mount. I quickly fixed that and … got my first curve. I know, it’s no good, it’s all over the place. But I’ve got the curve. One more step done

[Marian]

And with that, last night, (another cold one), I tested how does it guide. Roughly half an hour worth of 2 min exposures stacked. I am actually happy with it :)

[malc-c]

Not bat at all. Did you add any darks when processing ?

[Marian]

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

Not bat at all. Did you add any darks when processing ?

yes 10 dark frames. Same settings as the light frames. There are some darker round spots, dirty camera I suppose.

Edited April 1, 2023 by Marian

[alacant]

9 hours ago, Marian said:

10 dark frames.

Good only if you're using a camera designed for astro-photography, flat frames are however recommended obligatory either way; they'll correct the dark spots and vignetting.

Cheers

Edited April 2, 2023 by alacant

[Marian]

36 minutes ago, alacant said:

Good only if you're using a camera designed for astro-photography, flat frames are however recommended obligatory either way; they'll correct the dark spots and vignetting.

Cheers

This was only a test of the guiding. I sure will do the flat frames when I choose a real target. Tonight, if the weather stays clear. The spring sky here doesn’t give much though. 

[malc-c]

Well looking at the graph, and the resulting stack you're doing fine.

 

Inverting and selecting a crop of the full size image the stars are reasonably round given the mount.  There is signs of vignetting, and either the stacking process or that focusing could have been tweaked a little tighter as the stars have a soft edge, but the resulting image is better than some of my first attempts.  The dark art of processing is another topic, so it may be worth starting a new thread on how to improve the image results, but at least now you've got the basics for guiding sorted.

Polar alignment can be critical to make guiding work as it reduces the workload PHD2 will have to do, so take time to get polar alignment as precise as possible, and run PHD's calibration and tuning options to get the tracking errors as small as possible before you then consider running the imaging plan.  Take your time, there is no need to rush.

[Marian]

27 minutes ago, malc-c said:

Well looking at the graph, and the resulting stack you're doing fine.

Inverting and selecting a crop of the full

I actually tried and liked to use PHD polar drift alignment. That fixed my poor alignment from the last time. Took me about 40 min to get it done, but when I did the 3 star alignment after, I was quite close. I’ll look into calibration and I’ll do the calibration frames. 
Any ideas for a target to train on? I can see east, south, southwest sky from my place.

[alacant]

12 minutes ago, Marian said:

target to train on

How about m44? One of the last clusters for a while.

[Marian]

45 minutes ago, alacant said:

How about m44? One of the last clusters for a while.

I’ll try. I can see some light clouds coming. Also the moon will ne quite close. But I’ll give it a try.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Marian

[Marian]

1 hour ago, alacant said:

How about m44? One of the last clusters for a while.

any tips for my cam settings? ISO? Exposures? (Canon 600d)

[alacant]

1 hour ago, Marian said:

Canon 600d

ISO 800. Expose for as long as you can before overexposing or stars become distorted. Whichever comes first.

600d, so no dark frames of any type. Instead, calibrate simply by subtracting the offset (2048) from the flat and light frames. Siril makes this part easy.

90% moon, but way over to the east. Take any clear sky you have;)

Cheers and HTH.

Edited April 2, 2023 by alacant

[Marian]

25 minutes ago, alacant said:

ISO 800. Expose for as long as you can before overexposing or stars become distorted. Whichever comes first.

600d, so no dark frames of any type. Instead, calibrate simply by subtracting the offset (2048) from the flat and light frames. Siril makes this part easy.

90% moon, but way over to the east. Take any clear sky you have;)

Cheers and HTH.

The moon is just way too close, flooding the sky. There is no way I can find the M44. Not even with my dobsonian

[Marian]

[Marian]

LOL as far as the flat frames are concerned. I just realized, I won’t be able to do those today. I don’t own any white shirt.

[Marian]

2 hours ago, alacant said:

ISO 800. Expose for as long as you can before overexposing or stars become distorted. Whichever comes first.

600d, so no dark frames of any type. Instead, calibrate simply by subtracting the offset (2048) from the flat and light frames. Siril makes this part easy.

90% moon, but way over to the east. Take any clear sky you have;)

Cheers and HTH.

ISO 800 was just a white screen, I did ISO 200 and ISO 400

Why no dark frames? Those are the only I am able to do :)) (calibrate simply by subtracting the offset (2048)..... no idea what that means. I never tried Siril

HTH = another thing that don't know what it means