What do I need to run pempro

[Geoff45]

Hi
I have a Losmandy GM8 running Gemini 4 and would like to use Pempro. I have had a look at the demo version and it's a bit difficult to sort out what's happening. The interface seems to be a bit overwhelming. Do I really need a planetarium program for example. It's not something I feel I need with the reasonably good Gemini goto.
Geoff

[Bassnut]

You dont need a planetarium program to use pempro. I found pempro good for polar align, and its good for PEC, thats what its for, but I gave up after much grief tring to get a good PEC curve on a Gemini G11. If you feel your PE is reasonable, spend your money on good guiding software instead.

[Geoff45]

Thanks Fred.

I'll speak to you about it at the next astroimaging meeting.
Geoff

[rogerg]

I'm kind of in the same boat as Fred actually. I tried it with my LX200 classic and never managed to get my PE better than I get it using the standard built in PEC of the LX200.

I know that many others have, so I was probably doing something wrong, but fact is in the 30 day trial (within which I managed to use it about 5 times) I didn't get it sorted, and it became not worth my time so I gave up and went back to the built in LX200 PEC and autoguiding.

I haven't ruled out trying it again some day though.

I've found PEC in the Gemini on my GM8 to be excellent, so hadn't even considered using it there.

Edit: I don't remember it needing other software but can't be sore because I have TheSky, CCDSoft, etc running all the time anyhow.

Edit2: My PEC training on LX200 and Gemini are always done using autoguiding, to get it as accurate as possible. If doing it manually perhaps I would have seen more difference between built in PEC and PEMPro.

[jase]

Not wanting to put you on the spot Fred, but define reasonable? The truth of the matter is if your PE is greater than your arcsec/pixel combination, it is then deemed unreasonable. Clearly, guiding as you indicate mitigates this, however I think you'll agree that the fewer guiding corrections the better (indicating excellent tracking / low PE).

Anything that can improve your mounts performance is a good thing given it is the critical piece of the puzzle in the imaging game.

Also don't use PEMPro with an ASCOM hub. Just direct with the Gemini driver.

[g__day]

I ran PEMPro on my Vixen Atlux (via ASCOM -> MaxPoint) and MaximDL to control a Meade DSI II Pro Mono (although you can directly drive a DSI without CCDSOft or MaximDL thanks to changes Ray did for us).

When I guide with PHD I see the RA corrections look random and about +/- 2.5 arc seconds - so by my book PEMPro is doing its think well.

[Bassnut]

I didnt define reasonable on purpose Jase, cause thats a minefield in itself, depends what your after ;).

I agree, PEC is a wonderous thing, but what I meant by my experience was, at the time I found curves were inverted (I got on to the author about that, its a long story, I think its alright now) and each run was so different it simply couldnt make a decent usable PEC result (couldve been cause my mount was overloaded). Also, in the mean time, I just started imaging, and found guiding good enough to just not bother with PEC anymore. My PE was "reasonably" smooth and guiding easily handled it (with 2 sec guide exposures), so I left it at that.

Im back to using it now to great effect, but its a different rig.

PEC becomes much more important with much longer guide exposures. With the G11 I always used 2 secs, so it mattered less.