Issues with PHD2 guiding

[Julio Cruz]

hello everyone, i have yet to successfully guide with PHD2..I'm new to guiding and have read most of the manuals and faqs.   Some friends have looked at my phd log and  have said i have mount issues. They suggested I attach it here and hopefully some experts wwill weight in..  Thanks.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oygaqj95305z6fo/AACUfFIcI403eYyOri-tG9RAa?dl=0

Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

[bw_msgboard]

Hi Julio.  You’ve posted two debug log files.  Those don’t tell us anything useful about your guiding, and you haven’t given us any idea what sorts of things you are having trouble with.  

 

https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

 

 

If we know more about your concerns and can get the correct log data, we can probably give you some help.

 

Regards,

Bruce

 

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[Julio Cruz]

Bruce, sorry.. didn't realize i grabbed the wrong one.. I had done a calibration and started guiding... it started out well but then it went erratic.. haven't been able to do a good calibration since.  

Here's the correct guide log and a few screens.  I was using pulse guiding on an Atlas Mount. 

Thanks. 

Julio

On Monday, May 27, 2019 at 9:52:12 PM UTC-4, bw_msgboard wrote:

Hi Julio.  You’ve posted two debug log files.  Those don’t tell us anything useful about your guiding, and you haven’t given us any idea what sorts of things you are having trouble with.  

 

https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

 

 

If we know more about your concerns and can get the correct log data, we can probably give you some help.

 

Regards,

Bruce

 

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From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Julio Cruz
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2019 9:11 AM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: [open-phd-guiding] Issues with PHD2 guiding

 

hello everyone, i have yet to successfully guide with PHD2..I'm new to guiding and have read most of the manuals and faqs.   Some friends have looked at my phd log and  have said i have mount issues. They suggested I attach it here and hopefully some experts wwill weight in..  Thanks.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oygaqj95305z6fo/AACUfFIcI403eYyOri-tG9RAa?dl=0

 

Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

 

 

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[Julio Cruz]

Images are upside down for some reason.. :( 

[Brian Valente]

Hi Julio

 

You seem to have significant polar alignment issues – both RA and DEC axis show PHD is unable to guide them effectively, as all corrections are on one side of the mount

 

I’d suggest revisiting your polar alignment to make sure it’s good, and then run a fresh calibration and run the guiding assistant, and follow those recommendations

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Brian

 

portfolio https://www.brianvalentephotography.com/

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[bw_msgboard]

Hi Julio.  You seem to be using a peculiar set-up for guiding.  You have an ASCOM driver for your EQ mount (a good thing) but you’re guiding via ST-4.  I think you’ll be better off if you ditch the ST-4 guide cable and guide through the EQ ASCOM mount driver.  When you do that, be sure you adjust the EQ guiding parameters according to this:

 

https://github.com/OpenPHDGuiding/phd2/wiki/EQASCOM-Settings

 

I suspect the mount is currently trying to guide at a very low guide speed, something like 0.1x sidereal.  That just makes the mount extremely sluggish for guiding.  If you get that guide speed up to 0.9x sidereal, things should improve.  When you do all this, run the new-profile-wizard to create a new profile, being careful to input the correct values.  Don’t try to do it manually, you’ll just run into trouble down the road.  Try to get a clean calibration with the new set-up, then run the Guiding Assistant so we can get a better idea of what the mount is doing.  Some of the huge guide star excursions are probably caused by something loose on your system or something touching or interfering with the ability of the mount to track smoothly.  

 

Good luck,

Bruce

 

By the way, we don’t generally need screen snapshots, upside-down or otherwise. <g>  The log files generally have the info we need.

 

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From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Julio Cruz

Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2019 1:54 PM

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[Julio Cruz]

Bruce, thank you very much.. i will try this tonight and report back how it goes.. 

Julio

[Julio Cruz]

Bruce, i did what you said.. ditched the ST-4 and changed the setting and had a semi-successful guiding session.  I say semi because the RMS Error Tot stayed between 1-2. I couldn't get it under 1. I have a PoleMaster on the way and once i get my polar align perfect, i think the guiding will be spot on.  

I have attached my log just in case. i'm way ahead than what i was 2 days ago.. 

Thank you very much... 

Julio

[Julio Cruz]

Brian, thanks.  i tried to get a better polar alignment last night and i think it helped.  I have a polemaster on the way and should help a lot.  

Thanks, 

Julio

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Coach Julio Cruz

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[Brian Valente]

Sounds like a good plan – I use polemaster as well, it’s one of the better tools

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[bw_msgboard]

Hi Julio.  Yes, you were over a degree off-target for polar alignment so we can’t tell much from that.  But you don’t want to do calibrations pointing so close to the pole.  First slew the scope to an area near Dec = 0 (celestial equator) and somewhere near the celestial meridian (the imaginary line running from the north pole through the zenith and then south toward the opposite pole).  Also, we can tell your mount has a lot of Dec backlash, so nudge/slew the mount north a bit immediately before starting a calibration.  Since you are just getting started, you should do a fresh calibration at the start of each night’s session, then use that for the rest of the night.  And whenever you are testing your guiding or trying to make improvements, you need to again work near the celestial equator and at least 60 degrees above the horizon and not pointing over something like a roof that is radiating heat.

 

Good luck,

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[Brian Valente]

Bruce made most of my points I was just writing J but one other thing is to make sure you run Guiding Assistant. There’s a fair bit of DEC backlash and it will probably pick up on that

 

 

Thanks

 

Brian

 

portfolio https://www.brianvalentephotography.com/

 

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[Julio Cruz]

Thanks. I know the celestial meridian but how do i know where the celestial equator is?  Sorry about all the questions.  I wasn't able to take the scope out last night but will try it tonight... 

So slew to the celestial meridian but not straight up right?  And then find the celestial equator and slew towards it a little?  I'm so confused right now.. :|  

Thanks everyone.. 

[bw_msgboard]

Hi Julio. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_equator

 

Declination = 0 is the celestial equator.

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[Julio Cruz]

Hmm.. so perpendicular to the celestial pole.. does that mean that when my mount is pointing to Polaris, my DEC should be 0 or close to it? 

I finally got my polemaster and my tracking looks great now... but.. i'm still getting oblong/elongated stars even after adjusting my mount east-heavy... any ideas? 

[Andy Galasso]

Julio,

Polaris is near declination 90 degrees.  Here's a related post you may find helpful: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/open-phd-guiding/FZSddV-hONo/M23MJubfBAAJ

Andy

[Julio Cruz]

That makes sense... i was also getting that error and didn't know why... simple explanation on how to do this.  Thanks.