CCDSoft Calibration error 554

[Jeffkop (Jeff)]

Hello all

I am in the process of setting up my Sbig camera. Part of that is calibration the autoguider. I am having issues and I dont know why.

Whats happening is I enter the calbration and the ccdsoft takes an image then moves the mount x amount of seconds in the X axis then it takes another image and Im assuming it compares the two to figure out how far the star has moved. Well it does this and the star moves noticably, but for some reason I continually get this error reported ... " Error code 554 "Motion too small during +X move. Increase calibration time." IT doesnt matter how much I increase the calibration time .. same error .. but the longer I make the cal time the MORE the star is moved ... so for some reason I think the software is looking at some other place in the image .. because the image shifts noticably when the scope is driven.

Hopefully some of you have had this problem and can enlighten me on what I am doing incorrectly .. one thing for sure .. ccdsoft help is very light on in this regard.

Thanks

Jeff

[Terry B]

Try calibrating it with an isolated star. Take an image with the camera, find a bright star, draw a box around it big enough that you the calibration moves won't move it out of the frame,
Take an image in the autoguider tab using the subframe then tell it to calibrate. As long as no other stars enter the frame it should work.
cheers
Terry

[gregbradley]

Happened to me a lot in the past. It can be quite annoying yes?

Also if you are using an SBIG camera you can do callibration using the main imaging chip.

No other bright stars can move in to the field during the callibration or the software will think the orginal star did not move enough and pick the new star as if its the original one.

Also make sure you use autodarks because a hot pixel if bright enough will be picked over a star and of course it does not move.

Use 2x2 binning on your autoguider, cold as you can get it, no other bright star around, use subframing to frame it, use autodark and about 30 seconds for callibration time. That should do it.

Greg.

[Jeffkop (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by Terry B

Try calibrating it with an isolated star. Take an image with the camera, find a bright star, draw a box around it big enough that you the calibration moves won't move it out of the frame,
Take an image in the autoguider tab using the subframe then tell it to calibrate. As long as no other stars enter the frame it should work.
cheers
Terry

Thanks Terry ... the advise about the box size sorted it.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Happened to me a lot in the past. It can be quite annoying yes?

Also if you are using an SBIG camera you can do callibration using the main imaging chip.

No other bright stars can move in to the field during the callibration or the software will think the orginal star did not move enough and pick the new star as if its the original one.

Also make sure you use autodarks because a hot pixel if bright enough will be picked over a star and of course it does not move.

Use 2x2 binning on your autoguider, cold as you can get it, no other bright star around, use subframing to frame it, use autodark and about 30 seconds for callibration time. That should do it.

Greg.

Cheers Greg ... valueable info RE the autodarks.
After a successfull calibration the autoguider ran great .. most guiding errors for 10 min images were less than 0.3 .. Worked a treat with the clear filter .. then I swapped to a red filter .. guiding started to work as before then I would get these errors of +15.0 but I could see that the star hadnt moved much at all ... of course after the supposed guide error was applied the next image showed it had moved ... Had me going there for awhile ... then I decided to look back here to see if anymore replies had come in .. sure enough yours was here with a pearl of info about autodarks .. after that guiding was sorted even with HA filter although that exposure ended up being useless because of different focus requirements than the other filters .. valuable lessons learnt all night.

Upshot of it all is I have the observatory setup now ready to go ... well almost, the dome rotation specifically syncing with the scope is a headache, but that too will eventually come to pass.

Took 5 10min images ( that took all night hahahahaha ) of NGC6188 with the BRC250 .. I suppose it really was first light for me with it .. so fitting you should supply the vital piece of info that facilitated that.

The images were all successful except as mentioned the HA one.
Of course 1 10 min sub per channel doesnt anywhere near provide enough data for a good image, but last night wasnt about anymore than setup.

First getting the length of the image train right so that the PDF focuser was about mid position at focus with the STL11000. Then all the trials I have just spoken of .. I just chose that target because its big.

Anyway .. thanks again, the BRC250 is in action and after a long wait for a permanent setup I can now really start to enjoy this hobby again ... WEATHER PERMITTING !!!!!!!

Thanks mate

[bert (Brett)]

I don't know if you are using a paramount or not.... If not check that you have the declination entered in the guide tab. It's caught me out a few times.