CCDSoft5 Calibration problem

[Jeffkop (Jeff)]

Hi all
Last night I experienced this problem. It all came about because I rotated my camera around so that I could better frame M104 that I was going to image.

I set of and went into calibrate the autoguider.
Every time it tried to do this it would take the first picture then move the scope in the X axis, then take the second pic and come up with the error " Movement too small in X, increase calibration time (the amount of time it slews the scope before taking the next pic). I tried this and every time, the same thing, even though I could see the stars move in the second picture NO problems.

NO and I repeat NO amount of changing calibration times would successfully work in CCDSoft5. It kept on saying movement too small in X axis ... and I could see the star move position NO problems, didn't matter that I could select a calibration time that would make the bloody thing slew the star out of the pic !!!

I mean it was REALLY obvious that the stars had moved !!

Has anyone encountered this before ?? If so did you find a cure or decide to use some other program for imaging. Its a shame because I like the rest of the software very much.

Thanks in advance

Jeff

[rogerg (Roger)]

Hi Jeff,

I've encountered that error a few times in the past, but usually for the obvious reason of the star either not moving far enough or moving off the image (or too close to the edge of the image).

Things to keep in mind (which you might be aware of):
- make sure the star is the only one in the FOV near it's brightness. I try to avoid any bright stars at all except the one.
- make sure no bright star moves into the FOV during the move
- make sure the star starts and ends well within the FOV (I keep it within 36 pixels of the edge seeing as 36 is used for the autoguider size)

I think I had the problem with my QGuider that it wouldn't calibrate properly. Same sort of problem. I think I ended up just putting in reasonable values manually, as I have enough experience to pick reasonable values. Not as accurate as doing a full calibration but is good enough for the setup where I use the QGuider.

Is backlash causing any problems? Probably not but a thought anyhow. If I calibrate in DEC I need to be quite careful of that. If you've rotated the camera then I'm guessing your DEC is your X. For that matter, do you have X and Y autoguiding enabled?

I've been told CCDSoft doesn't care what rotation the autoguider is but to be honest I've never tried with the camera rotated 90 degrees, only 180.

As for other programs - Depends on what camera you are using perhaps, but I've always had best results and easiest running with CCDSoft.

Roger.

[Dennis]

As Roger has pointed out, did you have both the X and Y axis checkboxes ticked?

Cheers

Dennis