Quote:
Originally Posted by gbeal
Al,
then don't waste valuable night time experimenting with Maxim and guiding. Use PHD, get the images you want and be happy.
On those full moon nights, or nights where there is a thin layer of cloud which makes imaging unsuitable, try it then.
There is nothing wrong with PHD, nor Maxim, each do things very well, just differently. Once you guide with Maxim, you can always have PHD available, if you want.
Gary
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Hi Gary,
Thanks for your reply.
Last night was just a test to see if I could get the new system working -
it was a full Moon anyway.
I did preset the focus etc of the Lodestar using PHD guiding to make
sure that it was all working before using Maxim DL.
Unfortunately I have to use Maxim DL guiding because I want to
be able to
dither every sub-frame.
I found a video here which explains guiding with Maxim DL.
http://cyanogen.com/video/Autoguidin...20x%20768.html
There is also another one here but it's in German (which I don't speak )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp9m0...=results_video
The German one at least showed a window called
"Screen Stretch Window"
which is essential because otherwise all you see is a whole screen
of white noise (snow) coming from the Lodestar camera.
I didn't know about that screen.
I did try histogram & curves last night but just moving any cursor
the smallest amount would make the view screen all black &
it would not reset to the snowy screen without
exiting & starting up Maxim DL again.
The first video at least explains that you
don't run the Lodestar guide camera from the guide window -
you switch to the exposure window & click camera 2.
If I'd known both those points I might have got it guiding.
Neither of those 2 points are intuitive.
At the end of the night I tried to take a photo using PHD guiding but
it didn't work well when Maxim DL was running -
it kept losing guide stars.
The mount - although drift aligned had a much larger drift error
after 5 hours outside than when first aligned.
My NEQ6 mount is very bad at doing that & I never figured out why
after many years.
I also found that Maxim DL doesn't see a camera if you use
use another USB port.
I had to use another port because my Lodestar only works on one particular port.
I had to reload the drivers for Maxim DL to get it to see the main camera.
I wonder how anyone gets Maxim DL to work on a USB hub?
I may also have a bit of wobble on the guide camera due to the longer image train
needed by the QHY9 camera, filter wheel & Lodestar
The load on the focuser is different compared to
my old DSLR camera using a Lodestar.
That effect could be giving me guiding problems.
Next time -
I will have to get it guiding properly with PHD guiding first
just to see if it can guide properly.
Anyway - a useful first light test of the camera -
at least I have some ideas of what the problems are.
Part of the problem was me - not checking the internet for a tutorial
on Maxim DL guiding for training before starting the first time.
I never thought it would be so hard.
There is no video tutorial on dithering but I found a link that expains it:
http://www.cyanogen.com/help/maximdl...e_Sequence.htm
Comments are very welcome from anyone.
cheers
Allan