SSAG Help Please

[SouthPoll]

Hi, finally got off my **** and moved into autoguiding (well, trying at least). New Orion starshoot arrived and of course the whole of NZ clouded over. Yay. Trying to test it out in daytime but no matter what i do the "live" image (0.05sec pics) is totally washed out. Took me a bit to realise the screen gamma slider goes RIGHT for less bright, but even with camera gain down to recommended 5% it's still a white out. Camera over sensitive? i can get a grey blur image if i point it at a black surface but anything far enough away to try checking focus just whites out. Help?

Running PHD on Macbook Air
using Meade ED80 Apo on EQ6Pro


Cheers

Dallas

[Omaroo]

Hi Dallas

I wouldn't bother with daylight tests at all. These cameras are, indeed, very sensitive and I've only ever operated mine at night and in dark conditions. Don't right it off because the instructions might call for daylight testing. Even if you pop one edge of the guide scope's cap in daylight you'll flood the sensor. Merely pointing at a black surface will prove nothing either, you need to cap it with a black light-proof cap. If you do this and run in live mode - and still see a washed out result, then you need to reset to defaults and try again. Let us know how you go :)

[SouthPoll]

Great, thanks Chris. Yup, followed your advice and all working as should be when closed up. Guess I'll just have to wait for a clear night. My mistake was to have read and tried to follow the instruction manual!......should know by now ;-)

Cheers D

[Omaroo]

Good stuff :)

[alistairsam]

Hi Dallas,
I believe you can hook it up to your guide scope and use video mode during the day when pointing at a distant tree.
I've tried this with my qhy5 and it works. That helps with getting an idea of where the focal point is. qhy5 has a separate app for video mode, not sure if the SSAG has one.

[Garbz]

My suggestion is to give it a go at dusk. It is quite a sensitive camera and I had the exact same problems when I got mine. Not just the white pictures, but a week of clouds too :(