Drift Alignment

[José Carlos Silva]

Hello

I need your help, because I am getting a strange behavior during drift alignment.
The  blue line don't move, only the red line moves. They aren't parallel.
Another strange behavior is the error starst positive, it decreases goes through zero and begins to increases negative.Or It starts negative and increase positive.
That happens in AZIMUTH.

I am using a Celestron CGE with Equatorial Mount.

Follow images.

Thanks a lot!
 

[Bryan]

Jose

I think your drift alignment behavior is normal.

You only need to monitor the Dec trendline (the red one) whether in Altitude or Azimuth mode.  Note the instructions.

The trendline will jump around early in the process until sufficient data is collected for a smooth trend slope. This may take several minutes or more.

Bryan

[Andy Galasso]

Jose,

There is a PHD2 Drift Align Tutorial here.

From the screenshots, it does look like your mount may not be responding to RA guide commands. Try using the Manual Guide Tool to see if the mount responds in all 4 guide directions (N/S/E/W).

Andy

[José Carlos Silva]

Hi, Andy.

I have used PHD2 Drift Align Tutorial.
I used the Manual Guide Tool too and my mount replied in all 4 directions.
   

Thanks

[Andy Galasso]

José,

If the PHD2 Manual Guide Tool is working and moving the mount in all 4 directions, I guess another possibility could be that your calibration is way off. Did you do a fresh calibration before you started the drift alignment?

Andy

[José Carlos Silva]

Hello, Andy.
I did a new calibration. But, the letters "cal" below are in yellow and when I ran "review calibration", the calibration data didn't appear in the windons. But, I re-calibrated and continue same way.

José Carlos

[Andy Galasso]

Hello José,

If you hover the mouse over the yellow "Cal" you will see the following explanation:

Calibration: Completed, but scope pointing info not available/not in-use.

This just means that you are using an ST4-type connection to your mount (like On-camera), and have no Aux Mount selected so PHD2 does not know where you scope is pointing and it's up to you to re-do your calibration whenever you slew to a different target.  This is normal and expected when you are using an ST4 mount connection, but if it is an option for you we do recommend using ASCOM or INDI for the mount connection or Aux Mount.

Andy

[Brian Valente]

Andy

 

>>> and it's up to you to re-do your calibration whenever you slew to a different target. 

 

 

Just to clarify that’s only IF you want to re-calibrate when slewing to a different target, do I understand correctly?

 

I’m assuming we can calibrate once per night and it will be okay

 

Thanks

 

Brian

 

 

Brian Valente

Brianvalentephotography.com

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[Andy Galasso]

Brian,

To clarify, it depends on how PHD2 is connected to you mount, and whether that connection allows PHD2 to know where the mount is pointing (declination and side of pier). With an ASCOM or INDI connection PHD2 knows where the scope is pointing. Otherwise, PHD2 does not know where the scope is pointing. Guiding varies with declination and side of pier.

ST4 connection and no Aux mount:  recalibrate when you slew to a target at a different declination from where you did your calibration. When you change side of pier, either flip your calibration data or recalibrate.

ASCOM or INDI connection (Mount or Aux Mount): calibrate once near celestial equator (declination zero). PHD2 automatically adjusts guiding based on declination and side of pier; no recalibration or manual flip of calibration data required.

For ST4 users who do not have access to ASCOM or INDI, you can set Aux Mount to "Ask for coordinates" and PHD2 will ask you for the declination and side of pier when guiding starts.

Andy

[Brian Valente]

Thanks – definitely helps clarify

 

Thanks

 

Brian

 

 

Brian Valente

Brianvalentephotography.com

 

From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Andy Galasso
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2017 11:31 AM
To: Open PHD Guiding <open-phd...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [open-phd-guiding] Re: Drift Alignment

 

Brian,

--

[José Carlos Silva]

Hello, Andy.

I'm using ASCOM to connect my mount.

Thanks.

José Carlos

[Andy Galasso]

José,

We'll need to see your PHD2 Debug Log to see why the calibration indicator was showing that dec compensation was not in use.

Andy

[José Carlos Silva]

Andy,

Follows the requested file.

José Carlos

[bw_msgboard]

Hi Jose.  The warning is because you disabled declination compensation:

 

 

When you un-check that option, it tells PHD2 that it shouldn’t adjust the guide rates based on the pointing position of the scope.  You should always leave this option checked unless you’re using a particular type of mount that makes the correction in its firmware.  I think in the past another user confused this option with Declination backlash compensation, which is a different thing and resides on a different pane in the brain dialog.

 

Good luck,

Bruce

 

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From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of José Carlos Silva
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2017 4:58 PM
To: Open PHD Guiding
Subject: Re: [open-phd-guiding] Re: Drift Alignment

 

Andy,

--

[Andy Galasso]

José,

In addition to Bruce's explanation of why the calibration indicator was yellow, I noticed that your calibration information is very unusual in that your x/y angles are exactly 0.0 degrees and 90.0 degrees, and your calibration rates are exactly equal to each other.  The only way I can think of this happening would be if you had entered your calibration information manually.  Is that what you did?  If so, was there some reason for not letting PHD2 do an ordinary calibration?  If you did not do an actual calibration, that would also answer the question in your original post regarding your unexpected drift alignment results: a valid calibration is a prerequisite for the drift alignment tool.

Andy

[José Carlos Silva]

Andy,

Really, I did! So, I should leave PHD2 in default calibration or when I select a star and after click on the PHD2/Guide icon button, the Phd2 calibrates alone?

José Carlos 

[Andy Galasso]

Ok, good, so all is coming clear now!

Here's what you should do (reiterating what is in the drift alignment tutorial):

1. use your polar scope to get a rough polar alignment

2. loop exposures on a star near the meridian-equator intersection

3. calibrate PHD2 (hold down shift and click the Guide button, or clear your calibration using menu Tools, Modify Calibration, Clear Calibration then click Guide)

4. use the drift align tool to polar align

If you had to make very large corrections to your mount's polar axis, then you could do another calibration after the polar alignment is complete, but this is probably not necessary.

Andy

[CyScape]

Great info on this one and a good reason to keep coming back. I was also getting the yellow indicator with my calibrations. Hoovering over it gave me the same message.  I chalked it up to the fact that I was using nextremote and connecting phd via the virtual port. After reading this post, I opened PHD and it was unchecked. I'm sure it's checked by default when phd installs? I never had a reason to uncheck it so it must have been one of them computer gremlins? It's now checked!

[José Carlos Silva]

Hello, Andy!

Sorry for the delay in aswering. However, in my city the wheather was very bad, a lot of clouds and high humidity. I followed your instructions and got this calibration. Check for me, please. Picture attached.

[...]

José Carlos

[Andy Galasso]

José,

Sorry, I lost the context of what the problem was that we were discussing.  That looks like a normal calibration... did you have any particular concerns about it?   (If so, please post your logs -- debug log and guide log so we can investigate.)

Andy