I am used to 20 minute subs with my CG5 and was looking to be able to do the same or better with my brand new EQ6 ,...yet after trying for the last 6 hours autoguiding has failed completely
I was trying to autoguide with PHD guiding, using the GPUSB interface;
PHD calibrates fine, starts guiding but issimply unable to hold the guide star at the cross hairs and result is long star trails, even with just 5 minute subs.
PHD log shows progressively greater error in RA, even though it does seem to pull it back eventually. Sub pixel corrections in Dec, looks fine generally
I have tried eveything I could think off..RA agressiveness-both increasing to 120% and reducing to 85%;
RA backlash various settings from 00 10 00 (default supposedly but it did not come that way from the factory) and higher and lower settings
I have also tried changing auto guide rate from 0.5 sidereal to 0.75 and even 1
nothing works
Its possibly autoguiding..just not accurately enough
my polar alignment was perfect and it was balanced so that the motors were pulling just slightly against the counterweight
I just cant think of what else to try
grateful for any suggestion. This is extremely frustrating.
Thanks
narayan