Craig
Here are a few screen shots of my attempts at guiding last night. Camera is a QHY5 using a EQ6 which has been just replaced with a new one as old one was sent back because of same guiding problem. All leads have been replaced.Calibration seems to be alright but as soon as guiding starts I get LOW SNR I have tried numerous times changing parameters within PHD only to get same result. You will notice that Dec does not want too begin guiding and RA starts off quite a drift When I first started guiding (6 months ago) there was no issue,this problem has just started, to a point where I cannot guide at all. I believe the stars I am using are neither too bright nor too dull. Any thought Camera maybe ???
Thanks Kepp
I just can't get a grip on this, and why PHD is such a pain for you guys.
I actually do nothing more than find a moderate Star, set it a 1.5 always, regardless of conditions, and walk away, it has never to this day failed me, unless of coarse the clouds roll in.
I don't use PHD with the associated Ascom platform just inatall the PHD drivers connect up and away it goes
By the way Keppar are these actual screen shots while tracking because if they are then the reason you are getting Low SNR is because you are capturing an image at 2/10 and 5/10 of a second per exposure.
Trevor
Yes this is tracking. I have got it going ok now by changing the settings in the "brain" to -Min motion set at .05 . Still using .5 sec exposure with no problems, did try 1.5 -2 sec exposure when I was having problems that did not fix it
Kepp
Hi Leon
I'm with you - PHD works like a dream for me and I have never had any problems once I set up my QHY5 imager to get decent guide stars.
To answer the original question, I usually try 1 second images for a start and I find that PHD goes about 12 steps E then 12 steps W then about 2 steps to get over the DEC backlash then 6 steps N and a few S before it decides to get into the guide mode. Less than one minute in all. I am using a QHY5 guider on a Mak100 at f6 and usually 1 or 2 second guide images. I polar align accurately and set PHD for Auto DEC guiding. My guiding is usually under +/- one pixel. It infrequently strikes a period when it goes up to say 3 pixels in RA for say 6 guide pulses then settles back down. All other things being equal I think this is when it may strike a rough patch on my HEQ5Pro mount gears? Any comment Leon?
Cheers Peter
