New issue with no declination movement with EM-200

[Jim Miller]

I have successfully been using PHD2 with my EM-200. Recently, though when doing a calibration, there is no movement in declination. I can move declination with the Temma Control center and see the star move during calibration in either guide or slew mode, if i am using Temma. Without this manual movement, nothing happens. On my attached file, please note that only the last calibration attempt is valid, because I was moving the star during calibration with Temma to make sure I could.

https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_kTY2.zip

Many thanks

Jim Miller

[Bruce Waddington]

You can't draw any conclusions from this because you're losing the guide star all the time.  And that's made worse by your insistence on trying to pick the star yourself rather than doing an auto-find with PHD2.  To get any insight into what's going on, you need to do the following:

1.  Make sure the guide camera is well-focused using the Star Profile tool or some other method that gives you quantitative feedback

2.  Run the test when there are clear skies and don't point near the moon

3.  Disable star-mass detection in PHD2

4.  Build and use a dark library

5.  Always use PHD2 auto-find to select multiple guide stars

6.  Make sure the scope is well-balanced and all clutches are completely tight

7.  Use the Calibration Assistant for all calibrations and follow all of its recommendations.  Don't ever try to calibrate while pointing at the celestial pole.

You should probably also review the Basic Use section of the User Guide and the Best Practices document which cover all these topics.

https://openphdguiding.org/documentation/

https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/

If you do all of these things and still can't get a calibration, we can take another look at your log files and try to help you out. 

Regards,

Bruce

[Jim Miller]

Here is the new calibration attempt (2) using the suggestions. For some reason, the first attempt was not centered within the star profile, but the second was. Still no movement of declination during calibration, but if I use the Temma control to move it, even within PHD2 (not with this download) the declination moves.

https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_9Sgo.zip

Thanks for having a look

Jim  

[pollya...@gmail.com]

Hello Jim,

Quick comment from  beginner - You seem to be calibrating at the Celestial Pole.

Have you tried the new Calibration Assistant - (preferably using PHD2 v.2.6.13dev5).

Cheers,

-Jack T

[Bruce Waddington]

In February, you had a similar problem which you evidently fixed but didn't tell us how.  Maybe you need to revisit that?

https://groups.google.com/g/open-phd-guiding/c/BGfkbhrivHE/m/GV-h4agCBQAJ

Bruce

[Jim Miller]

I was calibrating from Altair, nowhere near the pole. 

[Jim Miller]

Jack, you got me thinking. The Temma controller says the position is at the celestial pole, but when I manually moved the mount, say to Altair, and the Temma position does not change. That position must be in the log which was why you made your observation. I will connect with NINA, do a slew to the south, and see if the Temma position updates which results in declination movement In PHD2. Thanks for your comment.

On Friday, July 19, 2024 at 2:10:24 AM UTC-6 pollya...@gmail.com wrote:

[Jim Miller]

I honestly cannot remember what I did. It was not moving at all, but now moves in RA but not dec.

[Jim Miller]

Still waiting on a clear night. 

[Jim Miller]

I found out my mount clears its position relative to PHD2 each time I start PHD2 even though the mount is not turned off. Restting to a corrcet psoition enabls me to get dec calibration movement.

[Jim Miller]

The Guiding Assistant recommended 10 and 20 Min/move for RA and Dec respectively, but much better results were obtained with 20 and 60.