[BlackWidow (Mardy)]

Well Peter you were not alone. I have been trying to get my head around alignment and using PHD. The best thing was to spend the last two weeks getting PHD to work with my SPC900nc webcam and my LX200.. Had it all in the bag so last night it was time to get and image with guiding for the first time... NOT SO!

I could not get the scope aligned for love or money. When I thought I had a good alignment the scope was off every time I slewed to objects. Once I seemed to have got it I slewed to Eta for some shots only to find that I was dropping frames on PHD and it would not track. I spent the next 3 hours trying every setting under the sun . Buy the time I thought I was getting near to fixing it the scope and camera were full of dew. Out with the 12 volt dryer and we tried again,, then the computer decided to hang and do odd things that made PHD crash several times. Hmmmm

Another 1/2 hour trying to get the computer to do as it should ended up in a scene from the Roswell Case. The computer crash landed in the middle of the lawn with cables hanging out of it.. Wooops!

Packed it all up, picked up the pieces and went to bed.. Had a look at what damage I had placed on the laptop this morning to find that nothing was damaged and bugger me but the laptop seems to be working fine again. Nothing wrong with a bit of percussive maintenance...

Still somehow I do enjoy this hobby and will go back out tonight to give it another try. If you guys and gals can do it, I see no reason why I can't... (Be Nice LOL). I will get that nice photo sooner or later..


Mardy