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Hi Robert.. I will do y best to help you. firstly I need to know how you are connecting you Long exposure cable to your computer? On mine I have the SPC900nc connected to usb as normal. I then have a Parallel cable from the camera and I have a special convertor to convert the Parallel plug to a USB. This is the part that often gets people in trouble as they often try to use Parallel to USB convertors from the net and the simply don't work.. I can assist you with convertors should you need one, but more on that if needed.
Once it is all connected to the computer I start PHD and click on the little camera icon on the bottom left of the program. A window will open where you can select the type of camera you are using. I select Long Exposure Webcam Parallel/serial. It will come up with another window, but just click on and OK that window.
At this point look at the the bottom middle of the PHD program and you will see a menu (Drop Down) alongside of a slide bar. You will need to set the value to around 1sec or even 1.5 in the drop down menu.
You will now need to click on the icon on the bottom of the program that looks like an bent blue arrow (second icon along). this button will now set the camera taking shots for a 1 or 1.5 second period dependent on what you choose. I would suggest starting with the camera out of the telescop and you should get a white over exposed image if have the lense taken off the 900nc. That will test that you are getting an image and talking to the camera.
Once you are all up and working you can place the camera in your telescope and get on a bright star to start with and get good focus. Once you have done that you are ready to guide. Use a dull star, not a bright one and play around with the exposure length to get the best results for you. 1.5 is about what I use.
You can use PHD without the long exposure set on your Webcam, but the results won't be as good and you may have trouble finding a star that you can see in PHD. If you choose not to use Long Exposure you can select Windows WDM style webcam and set it to 320x240,,, You will see what I mean when you select it..
Just remember you always need to select you camera type each time you run PHD and you always need to set it looping with the blue arror before you will see any image on the screen.
Oh and when you are ready to guide your scope you will need to select you telescope mount with the telescope icon in the same way. and then you click the Guide button to start the guiding..
So camera type, telescope, then loop time and start looping, then press guide..
If you have any other questions please ask.. I am sure others may offer some assistance or ever add to my post.. Sorry about any spelling errors, did this in a hurry..
Regards
Martin
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