Best practice for old mount and sw?
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Morten B Kristensen
Oct 1, 2025, 8:34:04 AM (11 days ago) Oct 1
to Open PHD Guiding
Hi
I have a couple of questions re. best practice for calibration in PHD2, and hope someone has the time and experience to suggest answers.
My mount is an Vixen Super Polaris from 1992, equipped with two slow MT-1 motors.
The control-unit and its software ("WinCTC") is almost equally old, from about 2003.
It was made specifically for the Vixen Super Polaris mount and MT-1 motors, by COAA in Portugal. GoTo is extremely slow, but that is of no concern to me.
- However, when it comes to guiding in PHD2, there are a few problems:
The control-sw uses some variant of the LX-200 protocol, and it responds to PHD2-guiding commands. Running Calibration Assistant near the South meridian at 0 degrees DEC, PHD2 typically says "calibration was successful". However, the control-sw cannot tell PHD2 where the telescope is pointing. So when I use the wizard in PHD2, to setup a new camera/lens, I choose "Ask for coordinates". This means that whenever I calibrate, a pop-up appears asking for declination. If I don't choose "Ask for...", PHD2 will assume that the telescope is still at 0 degrees DEC. Which it is not... That causes problems.
- Question 1) However, if I enter a DEC of e.g. +40 degrees, PHD2 will complain, but I choose "Calibrate here" anyway. Usually it works ok. But is it okay?
- Question 2) What is best practice for calibration when there is no "communication" between the control-sw and PHD2 when it comes to telling the latter, where the scope is pointing?
- Question 3) In the pop-up menu in PHD2 that asks for DEC, it also wants to know where the scope is pointing. East or West? However, when using the calibration assistent at or near the South meridian, the scope is obviously ....pointing South! So what should be chosen? What does "pointing" mean here? Actual pointing i.e. towards - or on which side of the mount the scope is positioned?
ps 1. COAA once made an ASCOM-driver for the control-sw "WinCTC". I tried it years ago in Cartes du Ciel, but gave up. Could not get it to work. It was a dead end.
ps 2. Of course, I have thought of updating the mount with new control-sw and motors. But I want to make sure that I am getting the most out of what I already have before spending money. Regardless of its age and quirks :)
I have a couple of questions re. best practice for calibration in PHD2, and hope someone has the time and experience to suggest answers.
My mount is an Vixen Super Polaris from 1992, equipped with two slow MT-1 motors.
The control-unit and its software ("WinCTC") is almost equally old, from about 2003.
It was made specifically for the Vixen Super Polaris mount and MT-1 motors, by COAA in Portugal. GoTo is extremely slow, but that is of no concern to me.
- However, when it comes to guiding in PHD2, there are a few problems:
The control-sw uses some variant of the LX-200 protocol, and it responds to PHD2-guiding commands. Running Calibration Assistant near the South meridian at 0 degrees DEC, PHD2 typically says "calibration was successful". However, the control-sw cannot tell PHD2 where the telescope is pointing. So when I use the wizard in PHD2, to setup a new camera/lens, I choose "Ask for coordinates". This means that whenever I calibrate, a pop-up appears asking for declination. If I don't choose "Ask for...", PHD2 will assume that the telescope is still at 0 degrees DEC. Which it is not... That causes problems.
- Question 1) However, if I enter a DEC of e.g. +40 degrees, PHD2 will complain, but I choose "Calibrate here" anyway. Usually it works ok. But is it okay?
- Question 2) What is best practice for calibration when there is no "communication" between the control-sw and PHD2 when it comes to telling the latter, where the scope is pointing?
- Question 3) In the pop-up menu in PHD2 that asks for DEC, it also wants to know where the scope is pointing. East or West? However, when using the calibration assistent at or near the South meridian, the scope is obviously ....pointing South! So what should be chosen? What does "pointing" mean here? Actual pointing i.e. towards - or on which side of the mount the scope is positioned?
ps 1. COAA once made an ASCOM-driver for the control-sw "WinCTC". I tried it years ago in Cartes du Ciel, but gave up. Could not get it to work. It was a dead end.
ps 2. Of course, I have thought of updating the mount with new control-sw and motors. But I want to make sure that I am getting the most out of what I already have before spending money. Regardless of its age and quirks :)
kind regards
Morten B Kristensen
Brian Valente
Oct 1, 2025, 10:37:57 AM (11 days ago) Oct 1
to open-phd...@googlegroups.com
Hi Morten
Please upload the logs for your guiding, it will tell us more about how you have the mount configured and your results, so we can better help you
1. If you cannot get to Dec 0, get as close as you can. However, in the statement above your question, you mentioned you ran the calibration at Dec 0, so i'm not sure what is the disconnect. But, see 3. below
2. If you can communicate with the mount to your computer, you can use the Aux connection to connect your mount and provide pointing information. If it's a GoTo mount and can be connected to the computer to provide it's coordinates via an ASCOM driver, it can use this approach. If there is no communication from the mount regarding its pointing position, your best bet is probably to just use ST-4 and recalibrate for each new target and when you do a meridian flip.
3. East or West means are you pointing east of the meridian or west of the meridian
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