Get Excellent guiding with PHD2 - What is PHD Guiding , How to use PHD2 for Autoguiding - Part1
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- Update: I would add one more step between 11 and 12. After you connect the camera and mount, use PHD2 to build a dark library. Just follow on-screen instructions in PHD 2. It is very intuitive. It helps you to avoid tracking on a hot pixel, since we are selecting the star automatically.
Visit my website: www.astrogoogle.com/get-excell... for questions or comments.
Get Excellent guiding with PHD2. I am also covering what is PHD Guiding and How to use PHD2 for longer exposures.
I was imaging Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) using the PHD2 guiding using my gear CGX-L mount and Celestron RASA 11.
Gear used for my Astrophotography. Some of links may be affiliate links:
Equipment shown in this video: (some of them contains affiliate links)
Focusers:
Celestron Focus Motor for SCT and EdgeHD
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Starizona Microtouch Focuser
bit.ly/2CHc3vT
Starizona Feathertouch focuser for SCT
bit.ly/3552EKZ
Telescopes:
Celestron EdgeHD 1400 XLT Optical Tube Assembly with mount & tripod
bit.ly/2KiPq5i
Celestron EdgeHD 1400 XLT Optical Tube Assembly without mount & tripod
amzn.to/374LJts
Celestron 11" f/2.2 Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph Telescope (OTA only)
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Explore Scientific Classic White Aluminum ED127 f/7.5 APO Triplet with Hoya FCD100 optics
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Mounts:
Celestron CGX-L Equatorial Mount with Tripod
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Celestron CGX Computerized German Equatorial Mount and Tripod
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Celestron Advanced VX Mount with Celestron Polar Axis Finder
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Cameras:
ZWO ASI071MC-Pro 16 Megapixel USB3.0 Color Astronomy Camera for Astrophotography
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ZWO ASI1600MM PRO COOLED MONOCHROME CMOS CAMERA
bit.ly/2QdNSx0
Filters:
Baader UV-IR-CUT Filter - 2" # FUVIR-2 2459210A
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Baader Planetarium UHC-S Nebula Filter 2", L-Booster
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Baader UHC-S Nebula Filter - 1.25" # FUHC-1 2458275
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Baader f/2 High Speed Narrowband CCD Filter Set - 1.25" Mounted
bit.ly/2KjLktM
Baader f/2 High Speed Narrowband CCD Filter Set - 2" Mounted
(buy one filter at a time or buy 1.25" - 2" filters are always back-ordered)
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Baader f/2 High Speed OIII CCD Filter - 2" Mounted
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Baader f/2 High Speed SII CCD Filter - 2" Mounted
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Baader f/2 High Speed H-Alpha CCD Filter - 2" Mounted
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Baader f/2 High Speed H-Alpha CCD Filter - 1.25" Mounted - FHALHS-1
bit.ly/2peUkZC
Baader f/2 High Speed OIII CCD Filter - 1.25" Mounted - FOIIIHS-1
bit.ly/36VFfx4
Baader f/2 High Speed SII CCD Filter - 1.25" Mounted - FSIIHS-1
bit.ly/2NK2xyx
Guidescopes & Reddot finders
Celestron 51630 Star Pointer Telescope Finderscope, Black
amzn.to/2EskgG0
Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider Package
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Celestron 80mm Guidescope Package with 125mm Rings and 80mm Guidescope with Extension Tube
amzn.to/2U5KaVg
Orion 52064 StarShoot AutoGuider
bit.ly/2XcwKJz
Celestron 80mm Guidescope Package with 125mm Rings and 80mm Guidescope with Extension Tube
amzn.to/2U5KaVg
Other Equipment
Altura cleaning liquid for refractors
tinyurl.com/y65bsh8a
Farpoint FP415 Bahtinov Focus Mask for Celestron 9.25-inch SCT
tinyurl.com/y4dvw8ys
Elbesee 2HQ14 | Polished Hardwood 14in Quilting Hoop
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Losmandy 14" Universal Dovetail Plate for Refractors - DUP14
bit.ly/2Kk9STr
Neiko 01409A Electronic Digital Caliper with Extra Large LCD Screen | 0 - 12 Inches | Inch/Fractions/Millimeter Conversion
amzn.to/2VY6i4S
LensShifter Blue - Balanced Focus and Zoom Grip for DSLR and Mirrorless Camera Lens
amzn.to/2YEn8rx
Rokinon 135mm F2.0 ED UMC Telephoto Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras
amzn.to/2Uk38uH
Dual Narrowband + LPS filter
www.ebay.com/itm/Filter-Light...
ZWO T2 to EOS EF Lens Adapter - 12.5mm or 17.5mm - EOS-T2
bit.ly/2KhfLRi
Celestron Universal Mounting Plate
amzn.to/2PNrg3E
Astrozap Flexi-Heat Dew Shield with Two Notches - 11" CGE SCT & HD AZ-812-N-2
amzn.to/2tyM84T
Astrozap Flexi-Heat Dew Shield with Two Notches - 8" Edge HD/RASA
amzn.to/2OmQ1En
Move-It 9442 12-Inch Steel Tri-Dolly, 300-lb Load Capacity
amzn.to/2HQbgxp
Regards,
Ray
/ raysastrophotography
/ raysastrophotography
/ raysastrophoto1
/ raysastrophotography
#Astrophotography #PHD2 #Guiding - Věda a technologie
If you are new to this channel, I do telescope reviews, take deep space pictures, provide free tutorials and videos about how to do astrophotography. If you are interested, Please feel free to subscribe to my channel! I am also available on instagram - instagram.com/raysastrophotography/
For someone who just started guding with PHD2, this is a great help. Thanks Ray, and clear skies!
Thanks Rob! That is true. This is a learning accumulation for me, so I wanted to summarize everything in one place!
Thanks Ray. I’ve used PHD2 for awhile but still learned a lot from your video. Clear skies.
Thanks John. I am still trying to improve this techinque. I will for sure post my leanings.
Awesome video Ray! I’ve been looking for a video like this... great image keep them coming 🔭
Thanks Llamar!
Thanks for the great video Ray. It was very helpful and I will be referring back to it.
Thanks Lonnie!
Hello Ray, thank you for your great video, I'm just getting started with PHD and your video was very helpful, Ed
Thanks Ed! I am still making it better. Once I get a good handle, I will post some updates!
Great video Ray, thanks for those tips!
Thanks Captain B!
Great video Ray, Most helpful indeed. Thank you.
Thank you much 34CT4149!
Thanks! I was having issues with my guiding and needed to redo everything.. this helped me a lot. Thanks.
Thanks Sand Dollar!
Such a simple and methodical explanation! Wonderfully done
Thanks Aniruddh!
Excellent and informative tutorial; especially the last tip about using Guiding Assistant. I've been using PHD2 for about a year and haven't played with that feature. One thing I would add is if you are using a Celestron AVX or similar mount, after doing the 2-4 star alignment and calibration you should consider the extra step of Polar Alignment using a star near the equator and meridian. It's the fast equivalent of drift alignment putting your polar axis right on target with the celestial pole.
Rick, you are right! I do have 3 other tutorials on top of this one.
thought i figured it all out till i saw your video :) great tut Ray
BHC, thanks! It is a continuous learning. That is what we all like about this hobby.
Excellent tutorial! Thanks for posting!
Thanks Javier! Check out other videos as well. I have quite a lot of varieties of material.
Great tips. That's given me lots of info to get my guiding right.
Thanks Logan!
Thank you Ray. Excellent presentation. I am getting my first go to mount shortly, and can't wait to set everything up and try. I decided to go with the iOptron CEM40.
Thanks Ranger! Good Choice. I heard it works very well with the EQMOD.
@@RaysAstrophotography Questions Ray.
1. Do I need an autoguiding camera to autoguide with PHD2?
2. Can I use the built in iPolar polar alignment camera on the CEM40 as an autoguide camera?
I hope so because it seems extremely wasteful and shortsighted to not allow use of the polar alignment camera as the autoguide camera also.
Thank you for your thoughts.
@@Ranger4564 your autoguide camera should be moving along with the scope. It doesn't matter what camera you use. It does require PHD2 to recognize. The polar alignment camera maybe stuck on the mount. Check it out!
@@RaysAstrophotography Thank you Ray for the quick and useful response. You're right, it didn't even occur to me that the polar camera was fixed. It is. The operable head is a separate mechanism, so I'll have to get an autoguide camera also. Too bad. Thank you again.
Great video Ray well done.
Thanks Ace of Space!
Thanks Ray! Just started guiding should be a less frustrating night next time out.
Thanks Steve!
Thanks Ray - massively helpful to this beginner.
Thanks Jeremy! I am glad it is helpful!
Nice Work Ray
Thanks Rigobert!
Excellent video footage ray
Thanks Scott!
Ray's Astrophotography anytime ray
Ray, Excellent video, thanks!
Thanks so much!
Thanks Fred!
Helpful and interesting ... I will try and put my hands on this software sooner or later, so many things to learn...
Thanks Serge! I love PHD2. It is a good guiding software!
Nice video Ray. When you are calibrating., in addition to the star near the celestial equator, it should be within an hour of the meridian as well. Not sure how much that makes a difference but that's what's stated in the phd2 best practices. Also, on dithering the given value is fine. However, if you have one of cmos cameras like ZWO, you may wish to bump this value up to help randomize out the noise better.
Thanks Paul. That one hour of meridian is important too. Otherwise, I will not work well after automatic meridian flip. On the dither, I end up with that 1.2 value buy amount of dither I vary between small dither to medium dither every three frames
Super, super video, best suggest, thanks Ray!
Glad you liked it Franco! It is part of my videos - I put them in a playlist. You can play my entire PHD2 Playlist if you are interested czcams.com/play/PLyiyXfspBFTK6pMQU5deF4XKJHEdrHj4K.html
@@RaysAstrophotography of course I'm interested, can you give me some advice if my setup is correct?
You can see my latest video, in the initial part I show it
Great tips in guiding sequencing for big telescopes...
Thanks Steve-o!
Great video, Ray.
Thanks Chuck! I am fighting with some banding/ walking noise on Orion. I didn't see them in Soul Nebula. Differences are, Soul Nebula is being done with 60 seconds exposures, dither every image and also High dither I believe. Orion was done 15 seconds and every 3 or 6 images, Small dither. I was playing with it. I will to get to Orion and Soul again to figure this out. I used only Narrowband filters, no Lum or RGB since I was testing.
@@RaysAstrophotography Ray, I used to have walking noise, but a high dither fixed that. I'm not sure why it wouldn't have worked in your case, but for vertical banding, you could also try updating the Scale (under Dither Settings in PHD2) to 2.0. Your image may shift a tiny bit, but it might give you some relief on banding (maybe even help with the walking noise). Worth a shot.
@@ChucksAstrophotography Thanks Chuck! I will try 2.0. I had 1 there. I was thinking to change it 1.2. Absolutely delighted with your response.
Great video! I’m subscribing.
Thanks and I appreciate it!
Thanks. Very helpful.
Glad it was helpful, Thanks Scott!
Great video...
Thanks Mitch!
Nice , thank you for your time
Thanks Adrian!
Very nice vid
Thanks Hannon!
Every phd2 guiding CZcams video is a little different . They all add something that I didn’t know as did yours , thank you .
Glad it was helpful Dan! Please do let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks Ray!
Happy New Year!
Measuring backlash and giving you the numbers is great. Good info. Does that number change much? Is it temperature sensitive?
Just curious if you've noticed it.
Thanks again
As always
Clear Skies,
God Bless
Thanks Mike! It is more due to balance of the equipment and not weather. if it is due to weather, it should be really small. Otherwise, it would impact quite a bit
The scale field in dithering is a multiplier. Whatever imaging software you use will command the dither and will have a setting for how much to dither. SGP has names of small, medium etc. so in PHD2 if you set scale to 2 it will multiply the dither commanded by that. This explanation is over simplified but you can test this by setting your control software to a set dither amount then change the scale in PHD2. When you increase the scale it will take longer for the mount to settle after a dither because it has farther to go back.
Thanks XD9rottie! This is helpful!
Hi Ray and thanks for the great video. I have a question for you. I hear the best way to set this up is to have the ASCOM software (driver) for your mount loaded and select that instead of the mount itself. 2 questions, first where would I get the software for my Celestron AVX and what kind of hookup is it? That is the cables. Would I still plug into the guide port of the mount and then it a USB to COM port adaptor on my laptop or what? Not sure how the hookup should be. What I have been doing is plugging the guide port of the camera to the mount guide port but I hear both the mount and the camera should be connected to the PC. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks Ray!! Pete
Hi, please go to this link and download Celestron Unified driver ( 5th one from the top) ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm
After you install, your need run a USB cable from your laptop to the mount hand Controller.
Your laptop or USB Hub will automatically assigns a port number
When go to PHD in the mount select Celestron mount
Before you click connect make sure you click on little toolbox icon on the left of the connect button.
This should open a small window with Celestron logo but with ASCOM options.
Check how many port's are available in the drop down list of values. If you have only one, then you are fine. If you have more than one, then you need repaat the below step until you are successful.
Click on connect button. It should take 2 to 5 seconds and highlight in Green and connected.
Ray, another wonderful video! I was looking at you photo, “Balance your telescope and weights.” In then pictures you have a white tee shirt for taking flats. How do you fit that over the camera? I have and 8” SCT with HyperStar and my ZWO 294 on the front of the OTA. I usually use a dew shield with a tee shirt over the dew shield…..I think you set up would be best, but I can’t figure out how you did it. Could you share your technique? Thanks, Joe
Thanks, Joseph! I took a piece of cloth and cut a small hole in the middle. Put a small elastic band around it. I like putting on the dew shield too. I do that sometimes.
very good.
Thanks Syed!
Great video! I have the 8se and looking for an autoguiding solution. What are the specs of your guide scope?
Thanks Scott! I use various guide scopes now. I have a 50MM Orion, 80MM Orion and I think another one from Celestron!
Very informational Ray! Quick question: if I calibrate on a star near the meridian, can I use that calibration data on all targets in the same region, ie. East? I always used to calibrate on target and didn't know I could do it like you showed. thanks & clear skies
Thanks Michael! Yes you can used that calibration on both sides or meridian if you do calibration at the meridian as long as the scope is correctly balanced
Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but a very easy way to find a good calibration star is to simply open “drift align” in “tools” tab at the top of the PHD2 screen, and click “slew” when the box pops up. This will automatically slew your mount to the intersection of the celestial equator and meridian. Then simply close drift align tool and run calibration.
Thanks Andrew! didn't know about it
Ray, Great video!! I am new to guiding and have a question. I have a older model Meade LX90, When using the PHD2 software with the Autostar hand controller, Would you know if I have to set the tracking speed to a certain number? or does the software take over and control the speed? Thanks
Hi Stevens! Generally software default tracking speed is good enough. We don't need to change that. Hopefully you must have solved the problem by now. I was busy moving last couple of months to a new location
Thanks Ray, one day I hope to get a better mount and guiding
Thanks Carolina Sky Astronomy!
@@RaysAstrophotography I shot the Crab Nebula last night and I couldn't do more than 15 second exposure without gettin elongated stars, I got to get a better mount and guiding
@@CarolinaSkyAstronomy you may try this process and see if it gets any better!
@@RaysAstrophotography Thanks Ray
@Stever's Narrow-band Imaging Channel I'm using a celestron nexstar slt Computerized Altazimuth Mount
Thank you very much for the helpful video. One question- why is it helpful to calibrate on a star near the celestial equator first if you’re just going to recalibrate on a star nearer your target later? Thanks in advance.
Good question! Near the CE it makes it even. Near the target, it might be okay for few minutes and then it will start trailing again. Thanks Tony!
Very informative!
Thanks Cameron!
@@RaysAstrophotography I'm a newbie in astrophotogrpahy. i just placed an order for Ploemaster(qhyccd). Can I do polar alignemnt by using PHD2?
@@camrun2011 to be honest, sharpcap software is good enough for polar alignment if you have a computer always next to the telescope. If you travel and use DSLR for Astrophotography then polemaster is very useful. Using PHD2 for polar alignment is very tedious compared to the above two options. This is only my experience.
@@RaysAstrophotography thank you for ur reply. I am in Southern Hemisphere where Polar alignmemt is bit tricky as Polaris Australis is rediculously dim star. I just bought a Polemaster yet struggling with it :)
@@camrun2011 did you try Sharpcap software?
Thanks I’m sure this will help getting my RMS error down
Thanks Douwe!
What guide scope and camera are you using on your RASA?
Victor, Orion 50mm mini guide scope package with Orion Starshoot camera. I love both. That little camera is too sensitive and guides well. I have to put a small dew heater on that one too.
Pretty good step-by-step. Definitely helpful for newbies!
At the end you say you're dithering--I'm not sure you are, I see zero movement on your guiding during dithers. Normally it'd move and then move back. Dithering should also "inflate" your RMS error due to that movement. Your "real" RMS error is the guiding without dithering.
Thanks Dennis. Probably is. I did two more sessions after this video is created. That RMS error did jumped up a little from 0.3-0.5 or 0.7 and I did see the spikes when dithering. I changed to Dither to High as well. I will do few more sessions, to get a good grasp on dithering. I am still in the testing stage on dithering I would say. One another thing. I think it is good to dither each image, that is what I am finding with brief tests. Let's see how it goes, I will post results on that one at a later date.
Sounds good! How much and how often you should dither depends a bit on your camera but a good rule of thumb is a lot and as often as possible. I dither aggressively but if my frames are
Actually I see you're using a RASA so you're going to have the same issue as me when it comes to frequent dither taking up time. Your mount is probably a lot more responsive, though.
@@DennisCarmody I tried to dither every 6 images when my exposure time is 15-30 seconds. I am not seeing any issue with that approach on one shot color. But when doing Narrow band with Monochrome camera, I am getting walking noise on Ha with this approach. I tested again with another object, 60 second exposure time, but dither every image, there is no walking noise. Obviously I cannot afford to dither every 15 seconds image. So I am still scratching my head on this one. LOL.
@@DennisCarmody Mount is responsive, but I am putting a 5 second delay in SGP in my sequence to give a bit time to recover. I also added 5 seconds in PHD2 as well. This kept by RMS error in a decent shape.
What auto guide camera and guide-scope are you using? How does one choose the relationships of guide-scope and main telescope focal lengths?
Thanks Duane! I guess depends on the focal length of your main scope. The guide scope to be at least 25% of focal length of the main scope. You can sometimes get away with less than 25% if your guidescope can look at the same stars as main scope. When it comes to Autoguide camera as long as you can see the star field as the main scope with pin point stars it is good enough whether you use mono or color camera. Please do let me know your situation and I can go further.
can a finderscope be used as a guiderscope by replacing the eyepiece with a guidercamera (which then connects via ethernet-cable to the mount, and via usb-cable to the computer running PHD2)?
Yes you can! But I wouldn't put a powerful finderscope! You need as wide field as possible to see with finderscope
I have the Sky Watcher AZ-GTi mount in EQ mode. Can it track with a 400mm lens on a crop sensor without auto-guiding? I've had success at 300mm.
That is neat. I have same mount as well. I will try to track without guiding
Gtreat video, but one thing in step:10 it says "use stellarium to find a star close to the MERIDIAN" for calibration, but then you use the EQUATOR line instead.
Which is right?
Sorry for that it was a typo. It should be close to the equator. I will put that in the description.
Thanks Tony!
No problem Ray. BTW great links very usefull.
Unreal RMS Numbers.....What does a multi star alignment have to do with guiding success. I always associated that with goto success?
Thanks for the tip on scope to guide scope alignment.
Thanks Greg! Good question on Multistar! I realized either the Multistar alignment or platesolve will pretty much give me similar results. They both makes mount aware of the precisely it's location.
What guide scope are you using?
Orion 50mm guide scope and Orion Starshoot Auto guider camera. They work very nice. I am very impressed by both. No flexure, very sensitive etc. But only works for imaging scopes I think up to 1200mm or something.
Is the hand control at 21:26 part of PHD
Thanks DT! No the hand Controller as a. Window that pops up when we connect the mount to PHD2 via ASCOM driver
I thought "focal length" in Tab guiding ist the value for the guiding cam and not of the telescope?
It has to be focal length of the guide scope unless you are using off-axis guider
@@RaysAstrophotography ah, got it. thanks a lot.
The value you input there is the focal length of the optics producing the image on the camera you are using as a guide camera.
If you are using a guide scope with an attached guide camera, you should use the focal length of the guide scope. If you are using your main imaging scope also for guiding, you should use the focal length of the main scope, as that is the optics producing the image on the guide camera sensor.
Good video, for better centering I suggest platesolving
Thanks Parekh! Clear Skies!
@@RaysAstrophotography I just got into guiding recently, so far I have spent 5 days troubleshooting, balanced properly, tried biased balance, drift alignment for precision, but my graph is never good, as soon as I start guiding the graph goes parkour
Should I use ascom or native drivers for the cameras and mount
I love using ascom drivers. I also noticed zwo mostly switched their native drivers into ascom drivers and supporting them fully. PhD2 will work very well with ascom driver support. We get what we need from the camera settings and PhD2 settings with ascom drivers.
@@RaysAstrophotography
Thanks.
Ray PhD2 did a very few step calibration on my mount. I have two problems: 1) How can I force PhD2 to do another calibration? 2) What determines the # of steps for PhD2 calibration. My RMS error is lower than 1" arc sec but I know this mount is capable of much better, weather conditions permitting, This is an EQR-6 Pro mount. First run with the PhD2 on the EQR-6 Pro was 0.80" RMS. I know it is capable of much better. How do I get there?
Incidentally my largest mount is a CGX-L and this tutorial of yours was very helpful in that regard as well.
Thanks Dan 1) you can force by holding the shift button and green Green PHD Track Now button same time 2) That I am not sure. I am glad it worked on both mounts. Looks like you are getting good guiding on EQ Mount!
@@RaysAstrophotography I have had 0.35 RMS but the boards have not been cut around the rebar reinforced concrete pad so all the vibration is transferred to the pier and into the mount. I think once a gap is made between the pad and the floor, vibrations should be less of a problem...hopefully all gone! I was holding Shift+Click on the brain. I didn't know it was the green PhD2 icon. Thanks.
Hi guys, has anyone experienced phd2 crashingwhen you run backlash measurement?
It could be drivers issues. Uninstall PHD2 and then uninstall ASCOM platform. Install ASCOM platform and then PHD2. It might help.
What did you use to do your star alignment and star calibration?
Thanks DT! I believe you are asking stacking question right? I am using Pixinsight for both Star alignment and Calibration
@@RaysAstrophotography No I was referring to star alignment and calibration at 12:05 - Step 8.
@@deetee-uk okay so that two star alignment and the remaining 4 *he's part of Celestron cgx mount. Which Mount are you using?
@@RaysAstrophotography Skywatcher EQ6, but I don't have the handset connected.
@@deetee-uk Nice Mount! Then no need for the handset window. Are you using EQMOD to control the mount?
I am having a tough time determining where to calibrate. Can you give me any more tips?
Gary sorry for the delay in response. I am catching up since I moved. Did you figure this out?
@@RaysAstrophotography Yes, I think so. I calibrate between DEC -10 and 10....close to zero. I think that's correct.
Excellent! Great to hear!
Hi excellent tutorial
Any idea why I don’t see pulses on phd2 as I try to guide and it keep getting off of guiding
Try again! See if you run recalibration
@@RaysAstrophotography
I think that’s can be the problem
I don’t even know how to calibrate.
That’s another step to learn
@@AstroRef68 Hold the shift button if you using the laptop and click the guide button. It goes into calibration
@@RaysAstrophotography
Ok I’ll try that
Thanks so much
@@RaysAstrophotography
By the way I checked some of your videos and I’m subscribed as well
Beautiful success you have out there .
Great equipment as well
Clear skies .
Hi Ray, great vid. I'm having some issues with guiding. A message pops up on screen "RA calibration failed. Star didn't move enough". Camera zwo 120mm mini, guide scope Orion 50mm(FL162). My PA is 99.99% accurate. Mount is balanced. Can u please help? :)
Camrun, please take darks. There is an option called dark library. More than likely you are looking at a hot pixel, not a star.
My Refine Bad picel map shows "Hot pixel 20". Also I m sure I was lookin at the star :(
I would still do a dark library just to make sure. Besides that you can also try navigating to a star around 10 degrees to the meridian. And then look at stars and see if you get the same error.
Thanks for ur reply, Ray. I did use Dark library last night. It was fine. My Calibration has the same issues that is "RA calibration failed, star didnt move..". West step 60 dist=1.2 when message pops up Ra calib failed" im feeling bit frustrated now:(
@@camrun2011 Try without guiding for 60 seconds and see if you star trails and find out what your FWHM or HFR is 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds etc. You might find some clues.
Ray, have you noticed problems with guiding in PhD2 the past couple months that weren't a problem before?
Good question Charles. with ES 127 scope guiding is lot better - but once I move to RASA 11 or Celestron 14" EDGE HD - these mounts are finding tracking errors around 1.5-2 RMS. I am trying to use PemPro to correct it, -but I have challenges to upload the PemPro file to the mount - I will post the update once I am done
@@RaysAstrophotography I have been having problems even with the same scopes and mounts I was using before. I also know other people that this is happening to. We are starting to think it has something to do with PHD2 rather than our equipment.
@@Invisible_one PHD2 put a latest update out there in the last week or so. In the last two months or so, PHD2 changed the strategy of aggression. They don't want PHD2 to not make aggressive corrections by default. What I did on my CGX after the update was to reduce the guide rates to 50. That did help. Please see if that will make it better or worse. Guide rates are in the hand controller. You have set them before you connect PHD2 to the hand controller.
@@RaysAstrophotography thanks for the information Ray. I use several mounts including an Astro-Physics Mach1 and 900GTO. I'll try setting the guide rate below 1x to see if that gets better results. Usually AP recommends 1x guide rate. Most reply posts on the PhD2 forums blame the camera drivers etc. But that is no coincidence that this started happening to everyone regardless of hardware manufacture! I'll let you know how the results come out. Thanks again!
Ray, thank you so much for this bit of information. I changed the guide rate in the Astro-Physics ASCOM from the standard 1x down to .5x and it magically started guiding under .5 RMS again with no problems. I can't believe this information isn't out there anywhere! I have started to pass it on to others having the same exact problem. The same thing applied to my EQ6R mount. Now it guides great like it always did before that PhD2 update.
shame you cut out the section where it calibrated. i wanted to see a successful process. otherwise good video
Sorry
Great video Ray well done.
Thanks Ace of Space!
Great video Ray well done.
Thanks Ace of Space!