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1100AE mediocre guiding
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Dick C
Thanks for the responses. I figured I would have to get the mount dialed in as last night was my first try, although I was surprised it didn't do better right out of the box. My guide scope is a WO 61, 360mm f/l, good quality optics and enough f/l for a 910mm main scope, so that should not be an issue. I put in PHD2 all of the settings the video recommended; the video assumed dev1 and I'm using dev4, so maybe that's part of the issue??: 1. In the profile I checked "this is a mount with absolute encoders" 2. I checked "use variable exposure delays" (short 1 sec, long 10 sec) 3. I changed minimum star SNR for Autofind to 20 4. In algorithms, I changed it to lowpass2 for both axes (it said to do this in the video, but I noticed the program did not put these in by default) 5. It set aggressiveness at 80; the log doesn't show it, but I changed agressiveness up and down a couple times to try to improve guiding 6. Based on the results of the Guiding Assistant run I initially set min/move to 20, later reduced it to 15, then 13 I attach the guide log. (is the Guiding Assistant run in the Debug log??) I was aware of the flat topped guide star and as you can see I changed guide stars frequently trying to find one that was smaller and less saturated, with not much success. I changed exposure from 3 secs to 5 secs, 4 worked best, 3 was not too bad, 5 was worst. I change min/move gradually down to 13. I was aware from the video of the "bump guiding" principle and perhaps with my settings PHD2 was trying to guide too often for an AE mount?? Anyway, the guiding varied from around 0.55 to more often 0.85 up to 1.2 a/s. Surprisingly the subs are not that bad. Just a quick look using Blink, most seem to be acceptable. Tonight the weather is iffy, but if I can I will try to run Guiding Assistant for 15-20 min per Brian's suggestion. Where do I find the log for Guiding Assistant?? |
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Dick
Some comments.
Good luck! Bryan |
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What kind of scope is your main scope? If it is a compound scope with a floating primary mirror, only off-axis or on-axis guiding will ever give best results. The only time I ever use piggyback guide scopes is with Astro-Physics refractors.
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Generally good advice but I recommend against the Phd. Eat practices for anyone with an encoder mount. Those practices were developed before we had better solutions for encoders Also Dick v4 is fine. The requirement is v1 or later. Waiting to see the unguided output. It won’t be separate than any other guiding in the guide log, but it will be indicated in Phd log viewer as guiding is turned off.
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Brian Brian Valente astro portfolio https://www.brianvalentephotography.com/astrophotography/ portfolio brianvalentephotography.com |
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Sorry I recommend against the Phd best practices for encoder mounts. Not eat practices!
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Brian Brian Valente astro portfolio https://www.brianvalentephotography.com/astrophotography/ portfolio brianvalentephotography.com |
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Roland Christen
I figured I would have to get the mount dialed in as last night was my first try, although I was surprised it didn't do better right out of the box. Roland
-----Original Message-----
From: Dick C <dixiemail123@...> To: main@ap-gto.groups.io Sent: Fri, Mar 17, 2023 5:30 am Subject: [ap-gto] 1100AE mediocre guiding Thanks for the responses. I figured I would have to get the mount dialed in as last night was my first try, although I was surprised it didn't do better right out of the box.
My guide scope is a WO 61, 360mm f/l, good quality optics and enough f/l for a 910mm main scope, so that should not be an issue.
I put in PHD2 all of the settings the video recommended; the video assumed dev1 and I'm using dev4, so maybe that's part of the issue??:
1. In the profile I checked "this is a mount with absolute encoders"
2. I checked "use variable exposure delays" (short 1 sec, long 10 sec)
3. I changed minimum star SNR for Autofind to 20
4. In algorithms, I changed it to lowpass2 for both axes (it said to do this in the video, but I noticed the program did not put these in by default)
5. It set aggressiveness at 80; the log doesn't show it, but I changed agressiveness up and down a couple times to try to improve guiding
6. Based on the results of the Guiding Assistant run I initially set min/move to 20, later reduced it to 15, then 13
I attach the guide log. (is the Guiding Assistant run in the Debug log??)
I was aware of the flat topped guide star and as you can see I changed guide stars frequently trying to find one that was smaller and less saturated, with not much success.
I changed exposure from 3 secs to 5 secs, 4 worked best, 3 was not too bad, 5 was worst.
I change min/move gradually down to 13.
I was aware from the video of the "bump guiding" principle and perhaps with my settings PHD2 was trying to guide too often for an AE mount??
Anyway, the guiding varied from around 0.55 to more often 0.85 up to 1.2 a/s. Surprisingly the subs are not that bad. Just a quick look using Blink, most seem to be acceptable.
Tonight the weather is iffy, but if I can I will try to run Guiding Assistant for 15-20 min per Brian's suggestion. Where do I find the log for Guiding Assistant??
-- Roland Christen Astro-Physics |
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