Quote:
Originally Posted by luka
Great start Chris. You should not be so critical, nobody got the guiding working straight away.
Few hints:
Regarding the focusing, if you can use live view on the PC software or on the LCD on the camera pick a star and zoom in all the way on it and then adjust focus. Note that very bright stars don't work too well, at least on my DSLR. You can even get the focus right on a bright star/moon and then recompose to your target. A mark on the focuser will help find the focus quicker the following night.
Which PC software are you using for the image acquisition? Dithering helps a LOT when imaging with DSLR. Usually it only requires a tick of the right box and it will be done automatically for you.
You should spend some time just playing with the guiding and trying to understand it. There are several great guides for PHD2 on the net, study them during daytime.
Use the guiding assistant (in menu Tools of PHD2), it will recommend settings to use.
Take screenshot of the guiding graph and post it here for people to comment and give advice.
Did I already say you should study the PHD2 guides from the net 
Keep going, you are almost there. Seriously. From personal experience guiding can be a pain to get right but once you got it, it will be a great step forward... until you decide that you need bigger mount/scope/camera/etc  |
Thanks heaps. I knew getting into this hobby that it would be two steps forward, one step back; for a while it felt like I was avoiding the back steps but yeah they found me with the OTA upgrade and guiding....!!
Yeah that is how I currently focus - using live view on a dim star centred and zoomed right in. I think the coma corrector is probably more to blame than anything there; if the centre is perfect then everywhere else is out of focus.
Not using capture software. Because I usually use the little D3300, which doesn't work with BYNikon, I just use a cheap intervalometer and upload the RAW images from the SD card. So no dithering possible. BYNikon does work with my other Nikon bodies so I might try those; although it would be a shame to lose the extra magnification the crop sensor offers, maybe some wider field subjects would be better to learn the ins & outs of guiding. The lower noise & better dynamic range of the superior sensors wouldn't be a bad thing either.
Orright, a plan is forming. I'll work on collimation, look into those PHD2 guides, use the guiding assistant, get BYNikon working with my D600 or D750 & try dithering, and (when I can afford it) swap out the GSO coma corrector for the Baader. Cool. Thanks!