First impression of Starlight eXpress AO unit

[RickS (Rick)]

That's a neat idea, Marc. Have you tried dithering in Maxim just using the AO? Seems like it should work.

Cheers,
Rick.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by RickS

That's a neat idea, Marc. Have you tried dithering in Maxim just using the AO? Seems like it should work.

Cheers,
Rick.

No I haven't. That was the only way I got it working at the time so it's just specific to my gear and not recommended as such. My old (ancient) gemini box didn't have the required auto-guider port wiring to work with ST4 output from the guider.

Using the AO in Maxim requires you to capture imaging subs in Maxim as well and I used nebulosity. If I could just guide in Maxim with the AO then I'd do it rather than use the SX software. But as basic as it is the SX software works on its own. Can you just connect the guider in Maxim without setting up an imaging camera? I don't think the selection drop down in Camera 1 has an option for no camera. Only Camera 2 which is the guider usually.

[RickS (Rick)]

Sorry, misunderstood what you were doing, Marc. I always thought it would be interesting to guide with PhD and capture with Maxim if there was a simple way to get dithering to work. I already have the AO working with everything under Maxim control.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Poita (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Luke Bellani

Hi leinad,
Thanks for the tip about the plug-ins. Saved me some time.

I usually do my calibrations on a bright star away from my image target but MaxIm still wants to select hot pixels.
I have now created some dark frame groups and so will see how I go tonight.

Yep, MaxIm is good software but I wish they would allow manual selections in some of their tools.

Cheers,
Luke

The plugins don't work with AO, but clicking on the star you wish to guide with does work.

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

I have to say my SX AO unit worked like a charm right out of the box, but I've only used it on one night. Fingers crossed that it will work this coming weekend. The hot pixel problem pretty much went away with dark calibration of the guider image.

Equipment: QSI540wsg. lodestar, MaximDL.

I found the following page very useful and much easier than the SX manual http://www.rarcher.net/sxao.html
Geoff