Using a DMK 21AU04.AS for guiding

[batema (Mark)]

Hi,

I have a DMK 21AU04.AS and currently use a Phillips Toucam 840 to guide using PHD guiding. Should I be able to use the DMK 21AU04.AS instead as I think the ability to change the exposre rate may make it easier to get guide stars. I opened PHD last night with the DMK on and clicked on Imagingsource in the camera options and a message came up saying unable to change to manual exposue or something like that. Are people using these and is there a trick to them?

Thanks
Mark

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Mark I use the DMK over the 21 all the time. You're right, the ability to go longer exposures makes a big difference with guidestar selection and stability. Its been a while though so I'd have to look up what my settings are. But open it in its native program and uncheck any auto exposure etc settings, close the native program and then retry it in phd

[batema (Mark)]

Thanks Paul. We'll have to catch up soon.

Mark

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Most definitely Mark. Can you do something about these clouds? I'm sure they are punishing us for Homer and Ned's second honeymoon to Vegas.

[troypiggo (Troy)]

I haven't used my DBK21 for guiding for a while, but I'm pretty sure in the dropdown I selected WDM camera instead of Imaging Source. That's using PHD.

If you're thinking of using it, have you seen/tried Metaguide? It's written as guiding software specifically for webcams. Instead of longer exposures, it uses fast frame rates of video cams like the DMK21 and shows the centroid to combat seeing. And it's free http://www.astrogeeks.com/Bliss/MetaGuide/

[troypiggo (Troy)]

What version of PHD are you using? At lunchtime I looked at latest release notes and notice something about IS cameras and FPS bugs fixed. On the beta release page, version 1.13.2