No stars

Eric Brotman

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Sep 7, 2021, 12:12:06 PM9/7/21

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Unable to see any stars. Using ZWOASI Mini with 50mm Orion Scope.

Shooting in Los Angeles suburbs.

There is some atmospheric distortion e.g. haze

Stars are still clearly visible.

See attached screenshot using ASI Studio

Changed Gama, adjusted exposure up to 10 seconds nothing.

Attaching logs from the last few nights of the same problem.

Any help is appreciated.

Best

Eric

PHD2_DebugLog_2021-09-05_144636.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2021-09-05_144636.txt

PHD2_GuideLog_2021-09-06_182113.txt

ASIImg_V1.5 (64bit) (ZWO ASI120MM Mini_ 23.0C) 20.png

PHD2_DebugLog_2021-09-06_182113.txt

Jason Schella

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Sep 7, 2021, 12:53:04 PM9/7/21

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My guess is that you are out of focus. You won't see anything if out of focus, regardless of exposure time.

You can get focus close during the day by pointing at a distant object (the further the better).

Best of luck,

Jason

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bw_msgboard

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Sep 7, 2021, 1:26:43 PM9/7/21

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It looks like you're not connecting PHD2 to the correct camera - it's connecting to the ASI1600MM Pro. To get going, you can disconnect the main imaging camera and make sure PHD2 is connecting to the guide camera. Also, look in the Basic Use section and read the section "Multiple Cameras of the Same Type".

https://openphdguiding.org/man/Basic_use.htm#Camera_Selection

Bruce

From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Eric Brotman
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2021 9:12 AM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: [open-phd-guiding] No stars

Jason Schella

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Sep 7, 2021, 1:32:54 PM9/7/21

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Sorry,

I misunderstood your post. I thought you meant that stars are not visible in the guide image and so assumed the attached image was the main camera.

Someone with experience in looking at the debug log will have to help you out.

Sorry, your focus is good.

Jason

Eric Brotman

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Sep 7, 2021, 1:42:55 PM9/7/21

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Thank you. I am sure PHD2 is connected to the 120mm mini. That is how I set it up in the profile

Just FYI when the few times I could get past the no stars I always got the message that there were not enough stars or a bad Signal Noise ratio.

Best

Eric

bw_msgboard

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Sep 7, 2021, 1:46:45 PM9/7/21

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I am looking at the log data, I'm not guessing. You are connecting to the camera I described, not to the 120mm mini. Please read the section of the manual I referenced.

Bruce

From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Eric Brotman

Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2021 10:43 AM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: Re: [open-phd-guiding] No stars

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Brian Valente

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Sep 7, 2021, 1:48:19 PM9/7/21

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Hi Eric

what are the chances you have 2 zwo cameras and are using the asiascom camera connection in PHD?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/open-phd-guiding/05FE7632D18D44FA962844E5FA8F31B5%40HomeDesktop.

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Brian

Brian Valente

portfolio brianvalentephotography.com

wave...@talktalk.net

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Sep 7, 2021, 1:49:38 PM9/7/21

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Blimey, I was right. I was just about to send a suggestion when I saw two new messages had appeared.

So, I'm really chuffed that I interpretted the logs correctly so I'll post it anyway. I never was fast on a keyboard.

- - - - Hi Eric, my own skies have been cloudly for the past three months solid, so I don't get much practice and I'm having to learn by following other peoples' PHD2 outings. What looks a bit odd to my untrained eye is that your DebugLogs seem to imply that you're guiding with an ASI1600. Two ASI cameras are referenced in the logs so I suspect this is a case of PHD2 picking up the wrong camera as guider. I assume you are actually using the 'ASI mini'. If so, then I believe it's a matter of setting things up differently in the Profile Wizard.. There have been several recent threads discussing this problem. Here's one.

Of course I may be wrong and have simply confused the issue even more, in which case I apologise.

I'm sure a PHD2 guru will be along soon to sort it out for you.

Cheers,

Jack

Eric Brotman

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Sep 7, 2021, 2:10:43 PM9/7/21

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Hi Jack

Thank you so much for the thoughtful reply and help. Tonight I will disconnect my main camera the ASI 1600 when setting up a new profile. Hope that works.

If that does not work I see there is talk of only using only ZWO drivers and not ASCOM. Will try that has plan B.