Phd2 guiding....

[chubster1302]

OK, tonight is the night.....hopefully. 

Going to try and get PhD side of things setup. Will be using zwo mini 120 as the guide cam. Any tips, dos and don't from the off I need to know about, any tips to help it go as quick as it can 🤔🤔

[knobby]

Know your figures before you start .. guide cam focal length / pixel size etc.

Start with the new profile wizard and enter your equipment.

Maybe try the new dev build https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-2.6.11dev6-installer.exe as it has a calibration assistant (takes you to the best part of the sky for calibration.

Connect everything up before it's dark to make sure it's all talking 🙂

Best of luck !

What equipment are you using, have you downloaded drivers  / ascom etc. ?

[chubster1302]

Yep, I've got everything configured and "ready to go". I've tried to focus on something using sharpcap bit there is nothing "far away" enough really, so that's going to be my main problem initially. Are there any goto gain and exposures settings to get me in the ball park, so I just have the focussing itself to worry about then fine tune gain etc 

[Swillis]

Sounds like you've already done it, but getting everything connected and software talking in the daytime is the biggest thing. 

Getting anything in focus during the daytime is a big help. Just being somewhere in the right region is helpful.

I don't remember changing any settings, so assume the defaults worked ok

Good luck, hope it all goes well

[michael8554]

The PHD2 Instructions will take you through all the steps for getting started.

Here's their short version:

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

Michael

[wimvb]

17 hours ago, chubster1302 said:

Yep, I've got everything configured and "ready to go". I've tried to focus on something using sharpcap bit there is nothing "far away" enough really, so that's going to be my main problem initially. Are there any goto gain and exposures settings to get me in the ball park, so I just have the focussing itself to worry about then fine tune gain etc 

I use a bahtinov mask for focusing. Just get a bright star in the fov of your guide camera. If you have an off axis guider, first focus the main camera, then the guide camera.

[chubster1302]

4 hours ago, wimvb said:

I use a bahtinov mask for focusing. Just get a bright star in the fov of your guide camera. If you have an off axis guider, first focus the main camera, then the guide camera.

I'm just getting things sorted in my head for tonight, as lastnight was cloudy. 

Can I use NINA whilst trying to get focus through the D7000. Camera is attached to WO ZS73III? I have  a Bahtinov mask

[wimvb]

5 hours ago, chubster1302 said:

Can I use NINA whilst trying to get focus through the D7000

Should be ok. Do you have a focusmotor or do you focus by hand? If the latter, it's probably easier to use live view on the camera.

Edited June 3, 2023 by wimvb

[mcrowle]

Hope you will find the story of my introduction to autoguiding and PHD encouraging.

I was just now reading an astrophotography book from 1997 that said everyone is autoguiding and the age of manual guiding is over. Having started imaging in the 80s, I manual-guided until 2022! I was worried it would be difficult to set up initially, and that each session would take longer to get going.

However, last year I realised I already had most things I needed, so ordered some final bits to work with my Losmandy G11 mount. I thought it would be worth a try and nothing would be lost if I didn’t get on with it.

It worked first time, and of course I’ve autoguided ever since  .

Regards, Mike.

Edited June 3, 2023 by mcrowle