All night I have struggled with PHD, and only ONCE did it guide for the full 5 minute sub. The rest of the time it drifted out constantly. Turn PHD off and the mount kept tracking PERFECTLY, 3 minute unguided subs without difficulty. Tried PHD again, and off it goes AGAIN.
So, in desperation I fired up MaxIM, and set the autoguider up. After doing the star select, calibration and voila, I am tracking impeccably, 5 minute subs without trailing, pushed to 10 minutes with nice stars.
I have no idea what is going on in PHD (almost like the hemisphere is reversed or something, as it keeps pushing RA the wrong way!), but this has been an ongoing problem since upgrading it 2 revisions ago. For now, I will keep using Maxim, which is dead easy and you can zoom on your target star easily.
I LOVED PHD previously, but now it just frustrates all poop out of me.
Sounds great Lewis,can that program be downloaded of the net? or where can one purchase it?
I too have become increasingly frustrated with PHD,I do litle imaging these days,but if this program you mention is easy to get along with,please advise where to get or purchase-thanks
Yes, it is exxy. Orion sometimes bundles a limited version with their autoguiders/ccd's (I think I have one here still).
BUT, I did fork out the moolah for the full MaxIM DL, and I am VERY pleased I did - does everything you want it to. Some of it is so jargonistic and technical you really need a manual for it (which I do ). It is DEFINITELY not a Push Here Dummy program Takes some thinking, but when you got it, you got it - I just about use it for EVERYTHING bar image processing.
I've used PHD since over 6yrs. It works flawlessly. Drifts in DEC or RA can always be tracked down to poor balance, mount communication issues or poor calibration. MAXIM DL is very expensive in comparison. Have you tried PHD2, the open source project?
Balance is fine, USB's all renewed, and tried EVERY setting in PHD imaginable. I run the MaxIM guide interface, don't change a SINGLE default setting, and it guides flawlessly for 4.5 hours last night. I guided with the guide star zoomed to 400%, and it barely moved a hair for those 4.5 hours. MaxIm was sending VERY small correction pulses, so the balance and communication certainly is not an issue, nor the mount. MaxIM's guide graph was VERY VERY flat in both Dec and RA.
I find that the second I connect PHD to the guider, the stars on screen start moving. Disconnect, and they stop. Somehow, it's pushing RA, and I cannot nut out why. It did the same with my NEQ6 also, so it is not either mount. And I have been drift aligning to very high accuracy lately. Maybe it does not like my Lodestar??? I never had this issue for over a year, then I update, and it goes whacky. I might try a complete uninstall right down to the registry level and see what happens. Could be something corrupted.
Now if only I had my focus a little sharper last night
I am no longer really concerned, nor that interested in fixing the issue since Maxim guides like an absolute champion. Guiding at 400X zoom really shows you seeing fluctuations very well too
MaximDL sure is expensive when comparing it to freeware! Alas, I wouldn't buy it if all you want to use it for is guiding. MaximDL is uber feature rich on so many levels from data collection through to advanced processing.
I do get a laugh from time to time on software cost related discussions. We have no qualms in dropping several $1,000 on hardware such as mounts, OTA's, cameras etc. Yet when it comes to software, spend is insignificant in comparison. Make no mistakes, without software your telescope is nothing but a clump of metal, glass and electronics. Don't be shy on spending if its going to improve your output.
Maxim rules have both pro 5 and essentials 2.04 editions though have never tried guiding through it, though I think I will give it a go now lol. I think you need to check out my tut post and master stacking and alignment with it . It kills anything i've seen and has a heap of stacking options and alignment options as well as some of there own in house methods. Haven't used pixinsight though so can't make a comparison with it :/ Lol i wouldn't pay for PS and i doubt 1 in 20 people here have, if your got money to burn send it my way
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...55#post1014455 bud, though they arn't mine I just posted links for them. There made by John Blackwell and the best i've seen ever enjoy, lol wish i had his maxim skills and know-how. Lol that sums up my cs collection haha
I find my guiding turns to pot in bad seeing - I guess it is my settings start to try and chase it, add some backlash and a splash of imbalance, and you have a see-sawing sine wave graph and blobby stars....
Same target/time/setup the next night in good seeing, I get a nice flat graph and RMS values around 0.3-0.4 arcsec.
Guiding depends on many variables and repeatability from night to night is not trivial. We all blame the software at some stage but in my experience it's been always seeing conditions or mechanical issues on the night, would it be balance, stiction, temperature drop with worm/gear meshing, power fluctutation, how tired the operator is, the list goes on. Some night it will be perfect, the next nothing will work for no apparent reason. Just get used to it.