Guider hardware dilemma

[Psychobilly]

I bought my Synguider for PC or Netbook free guiding of an EQ3-pro - Pity the firmware of the EQ3-Pro is iffy and it doenst guide properly unless you have very few and infrequent guide corrections to make

It works a treat on the HEQ5 but doesnt seem to work so well on finderguiders as the QHY5... it really needs a scope of a min 66 mm aperture to work...

Bought on a whim and sitting in a box unused for months just like the EQ3 Pro - Hopefully Skywatcher will eventually get its act together and fix the kit... maybe then I'll feel liek doing something again...

If a PC or netbook is available I would go the guide cam route...

Billy...

[SkyExplorer]

Thanks everyone for your input...

You can use the QHY5 for both 'pulse guiding' and cable driving via the ST4 port - the latter connects the camera directly to the ST4 port on the mount.

Is it better/easier to use the ST4 port rather than "pulse guiding"?

Just to clarify if I go down the QHY5 route then that is all I need to buy guiding wise?

Then I need to decide to either use the finderscope I have or buy an ST80? Is there a more desirable option here?

Steve

[dmahon]

They both work and I don't think that one is better than the other. I use ST4 guiding as I bought the cable anyway at the same time as my QHY5 camera, but I tried pulse guding as well via EQMOD. I guess if you were going to use a handset to control the mount (rather than a laptop connected to the mount) then you would need to use the ST4 port for guiding.

ST4 guiding needs an extra cable (£10).

Pusle guiding, you have to change the settings in EQMOD to make it move enough to calibrate properly (perhaps someone can tell me what the best settings are) but it's not at all difficult to get it working and takes about 60 seconds (stick the sliders up around halfway).

[SkyExplorer]

mmm,

I was going to use the laptop and the synscan hand controller connected to the laptop via the serial port.

So I'll need to buy an ST4 cable along with the QHY5.

Will this setup work?

[Deneb]

i've only started guiding a few months back, after doing unguided for a year or so, I found the QHY5 setup much easier for me to use, as I use a netbook with my Canon Software outside anyway.. But can't comment on the SynGuider Solution...

Nadeem.

[chrisshillito]

Pulse guiding, you have to change the settings in EQMOD to make it move enough to calibrate properly (perhaps someone can tell me what the best settings are) but it's not at all difficult to get it working and takes about 60 seconds (stick the sliders up around halfway).

The purpose of calibration is to learn about how your mount guides not to dictate the guide settings. If calibration doesn't complete beacuse the star doesn't move enough then you need to increase the calibration pulse length (in PHD this is called calibration step).

If the star still doen't move enough then why not slip in a barlow and guide at a higher resolution (that's a good thing unless you're using a faint guide star!).

Only if all else fails should you consider compromising your "ideal" guide rates simply to allow calibration to complete.

So what is an ideal guide rate? Well for most mounts the periodic error is very slow moving and you really do not need a fast guide rate. Indeed this would be bad as a fast rate is likely to result in require very short duration pulses. Short pulses are difficult to implement accurately (given windows operating system, communication lags etc.) and any pulse duration error is likely to result in a lengthening of pulse i.e. overshoot. Personally I therefore err on the side of a lower guide rate i.e 0.5 or less. Typically I'd go for 0.2 but of course all setups/mounts are different.

Chris.

[SkyExplorer]

Can you use PHD using the Hand Controller or do I need EQDIR to use it?

Also is it better to use the finderscope as a guider with the QHY5 or go for the SW ST80?

Thanks

[dmahon]

I think you can use it with the laptop connected to the hand controller, but why would you when you can bypass that altogether? Using it with EQDIR seems a far better way to go.

[SkyExplorer]

Well I already have the HC, I was thinking I may as well use that if I could rather than buy something else.

Cheers