Guiding near the north celestial pole?

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Mike Harden

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Mar 21, 2022, 10:04:54 PM3/21/22
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Experiencing fantastic tracking accuracy with my permanent observatory setup. Actually,  exceeds my expectations.  However, an attempt to image Bodes Galaxy resulted in PHD2 warning of guiding near the pole. In repeated attempts, it stops guiding after only a few minutes.  I know there's trouble when guiding near the pole. My search for "tricks or tips" to succeed have failed.  Can anyone guide me to any posts that deal with this problem? I was using my wide field setup at the time. WO Zenithstar 73, Ioptron GEM45, Astrophotography Tool,  PHD2 and WO 50mm guide scope. I will be switching to my 130mm apo for the longer focal length.  
Thanks, Mike

bw_msgboard

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Mar 21, 2022, 10:24:19 PM3/21/22
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This doesn't sound familiar at all to me.  You need to post the guide and debug log files from the session where you ran into trouble so we can see what's going on.  Obviously, most of us have imaged M81 and M82 while guiding with PHD2 so I'm perplexed.  When you post the log files, you should also tell us what latitude you're working from.
 


From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mike Harden
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2022 7:05 PM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: [open-phd-guiding] Guiding near the north celestial pole?

Experiencing fantastic tracking accuracy with my permanent observatory setup. Actually,  exceeds my expectations.  However, an attempt to image Bodes Galaxy resulted in PHD2 warning of guiding near the pole. In repeated attempts, it stops guiding after only a few minutes.  I know there's trouble when guiding near the pole. My search for "tricks or tips" to succeed have failed.  Can anyone guide me to any posts that deal with this problem? I was using my wide field setup at the time. WO Zenithstar 73, Ioptron GEM45, Astrophotography Tool,  PHD2 and WO 50mm guide scope. I will be switching to my 130mm apo for the longer focal length.  
Thanks, Mike

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bval...@gmail.com

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Mar 21, 2022, 10:42:34 PM3/21/22
to Open PHD Guiding
Mike are you talking about guiding near the pole, or calibrating near the pole? 

I image M81 every season and use PHD without fail, as Bruce mentioned and as many do

I definitely avoid calibrating near that target

Mike Harden

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Mar 22, 2022, 7:02:47 AM3/22/22
to Open PHD Guiding
i understood that you re-calibrate every time you slew to a new target. So i went from imaging the Rosette in the south to Bode's galaxy in the north and re-calibrated PHD2 there. I'm going to try the galaxy again this weekend as the weather is supposed to be great and no moon. So i will calibrate and then slew to Bode's. Thanks for your help. 

David Kerber

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Mar 22, 2022, 7:23:07 AM3/22/22
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You only calibrate for each target if you're doing ST-4 guiding. For
pulse guiding, you calibrate once near the intersection of the meridian
and the ecliptic, and you're good to go.
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