phd 2 with orion starshoot autoguider pro, and gemini 2 with losmandy g-11 mount
Greg Lewicki
bw_msgboard
Hi Greg – I’ve embedded some answers below…
From:
open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Greg Lewicki
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2016 9:53
AM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: [open-phd-guiding] phd 2
with orion starshoot autoguider pro, and gemini 2 with losmandy g-11 mount
I just bought the starshoot autoguider pro from Orion yesterday with the 60 mm guidescope (240 mm f/4). Orion's manual says to download the ascom drivers, the SAGPRO driver and phd2. Did that. Went to the phd website and saw a newer version of phd (2.6.1). Downloaded and read the manual and watched the 1.5 hr video on the website. I have the following questions:
Thanks for taking the time to go through the documentation and the video. I think it will probably help you avoid a lot of confusion down the road.
1) the phd website shows the preferred connection going from autoguider to laptop and then to mount using usb. The orion manual says to use the phone cable to go to the RJ-12 autoguider port on the mount, while connecting the usb cable to the laptop. Anyone know the best way using this setup? I have G-11 mount with gemini 2.
Most of the camera vendors will recommend this approach because it fully uses their product and they won’t have to answer questions about ASCOM software for mounts. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, lots of people use it, but it has two drawbacks:
1. The guide cable from the camera to the mount is a common source of trouble. First, it isn’t a “phone cable” (although it looks like one), and it’s a common point of failure – it can be damaged, the connectors will corrode or loosen, etc. It’s also a “black box” in the sense that we have no way to know what signals are actually being transmitted to the mount or what delays are being created by the camera.
2. You’ve got an extra cable moving around with the telescope, and most new users already have trouble with cables dragging or snagging on stationary objects. Fewer moving cables is usually better.
More importantly, you will want to have an ASCOM connection to the mount so that PHD2 can know the pointing position. Without that, you will miss out on many of the PHD2 enhancements. So if you’re going to have an ASCOM connection to the mount anyway, why not use it for guiding? There are some mounts where this might not work well, but the G-11 doesn’t fall into that group. It has a good ASCOM driver and should behave very well for guiding.
Net result, we recommend using ASCOM guiding for your set-up but the on-camera option will work.
2) I downloaded the latest ascom driver from the phd website on my windows 10 laptop. Following along with the long video in the discussion for Connect Equipment then pick Connect camera, I selected the starshoot autoguider for the camera and "On Camera" for the mount, phd could not connect to the autoguider. Using orion's manual, it says to use ascom camera chooser, then pick CMOS SSAGPRO. Did that. Then picked "On camera" for the mount. This connected. Is this the proper connection for this equipment?
I hope you didn’t get an ASCOM driver from our website – we don’t distribute drivers, ASCOM or otherwise. If you take our advice to use ASCOM guiding, you’ll need to download and install the G11 ASCOM driver via the downloads from the ASCOM site. Following the Orion recommendations for the camera driver is probably a good idea, and you were entirely correct to ignore the old PHD2 version you got from Orion. We can only support versions that come from our website.
3) I have a Williams Optics GT102 703 mm f/6.9. Will the 240 mm f/4 guidescope allow good guiding for this scope? Orion says yes. Does 2 second intervals sound right?
Ideally, we should know the pixel size of your main imaging camera. What matters in these discussions is the ratio of the image scales, not the focal lengths. That said, you have a short focal length imaging system, so it’s very likely you’ll do fine with this set-up. 2-second guide exposures is a good starting point. Once you are up and running and are comfortable with the whole operation, you can analyze the guide logs and run the Guiding Assistant to see if there’s some reason to change.
Comment: the guide assistant and drift align tool seem to be great bonuses for the software.
It sounds like you’re off to a good start, hope things go well for you.
Bruce
Greg Lewicki
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Andy Galasso
1) the phd website shows the preferred connection going from autoguider to laptop and then to mount using usb. The orion manual says to use the phone cable to go to the RJ-12 autoguider port on the mount, while connecting the usb cable to the laptop. Anyone know the best way using this setup? I have G-11 mount with gemini 2.
2) I downloaded the latest ascom driver from the phd website on my windows 10 laptop. Following along with the long video in the discussion for Connect Equipment then pick Connect camera, I selected the starshoot autoguider for the camera and "On Camera" for the mount, phd could not connect to the autoguider. Using orion's manual, it says to use ascom camera chooser, then pick CMOS SSAGPRO. Did that. Then picked "On camera" for the mount. This connected. Is this the proper connection for this equipment?
3) I have a Williams Optics GT102 703 mm f/6.9. Will the 240 mm f/4 guidescope allow good guiding for this scope? Orion says yes. Does 2 second intervals sound right?