Guide rate settings

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coenie777

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Sep 10, 2015, 6:19:55 AM9/10/15

to Open PHD Guiding

I need some advice please.

I use an NEQ6 mount and St-4 mode.

I have two places where I am asked to set "guide speed":

- The synscan hand controller
- The Eqmod interface

First question is around which one of the two affects PHD2, and if these two settings need to be the same; hand controller and Eqmod?

Secondly, in the Eqmod interface for ST-4 you can set guide rate for RA and DEC. Should these two values be the same?

There seem to be wide ranging views on this, but for NEQ6 and PHD2 what would be the suggested settings?

I did read a comment on the group before where it is suggested to take 10 min exposures with the different settings and see what work best, I am hoping for a shorter suggestion here please : - )

Regards

Coenie

Andy Galasso

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Sep 10, 2015, 11:35:03 AM9/10/15

to Open PHD Guiding

Hello Ceonie,

I don't know whether the synscan hand controller and the Eqmod interface values need to be the same. I suspect not, but you might want to ask on the EQMOD forum.

PHD2 will usually work best with a guide speed between 0.5x and 1.0x sidereal rate. The exact value is not important since PHD2's calibration will figure out the actual rates. Personally I would set the rates on both axes to the same value to keep things simple, but it is not required that the rates be the same, and PHD2 makes no assumptions about the rates being the same.