wild figures PHD

[Paul K]

Hi all just ventured out with my new mount ...latest firmware .... after a recent illness and after doing a 3 star alignment and the EQ8 indicated a reasonably close polar alignment.. when I ran PHD2 it was like I was in the wrong hemisphere just full on correction in RA and DEC...a bit baffled at the moment...will gladly take on some advice...tia

[traveller (Bo)]

So you are sure of your polar alignment? Did you do the drift alignment routine in phd2?
Post a screen shot if you can.
Cheers
Bo

[Paul K]

yes,thanks for the reply.... im close enough with the polar alignment...Im thinking it may be some setting in the mount....I can hear the mount correcting.. and it doesn't sound right...the corrections are too long...and the star that I lock onto in PHD is like a satellite !! haha,,,it soon zooms off the screen !!...haven't encountered this before....have an EQ6 and never this problem....

[madwayne (Wayne)]

Sounds to me like you're not tracking. I'm not familiar with an EQ8 but it sounds like my EQ6 when there is no sidereal tracking set. Plan B for me would be to put a reticle in and see what a good old fashioned drift tells you. I never had much joy in computerised polar alignment, always found drift easier. Granted a little more time consuming but still.

Good luck but please report back, I for one am curious as to what the issue is.

Wayne

[Paul K]

Thanks Wayne...my head started to hurt..so I pulled it down...try another night...I'm pretty sure sidereal tracking was selected in the set up...but the corrections were around half a second....crazy..

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Update the handset to atleast v3.35, make sure the clutch latches aren't catching (although apparently that's fixed now) but just be sure

[madwayne (Wayne)]

Hi Paul

It will do that to you, do your head in. I haven't imaged for 12 months now since I fried my laptop at Mudgee last April. I have a replacement laptop but have been enjoying visual astronomy so much that I don't miss the frustration that is astrophotography. Viewing 52 out of 72 possible Messier objects in one night last week at the Ice in Space astro camp as an example.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. The other thing to make sure of is your tracking is set to sidereal in EQMOD assuming that is your connection method between PC and mount. My EQ6 always had a nice whoosh whoosh sound to it when it was tracking. I used to be in the habit of sticking my ear next to the mount to hear it.

Hang in there, once you work out what it is you'll slap yourself on the forehead and not make the same error again.

Wayne

[Somnium (Aidan)]

Hi Paul

I had something similar when i first tried PHD and it turned out that i had accidentally selected AO (adaptive optics) in the set up procedure. if you have drift aligned it properly then the issue is likely to do with the set up of the software and like Wayne said, you will slap yourself when you find the issue. it is difficult to diagnose from limited information so perhaps the best idea is to attach some screenshots of the set up process and settings

Aidan

[Paul K]

Hi ...thanks for the responses...got the scope out tonight....but alas ...the clouds moved in...found a star before it was totally obscured...I updated the motor firmware today...to the latest variant and I have 3.37 version...its like its not tracking at all.... the RA doesn't make the graph ! Maybe I'm missing something (would appear so)