I set up late but everything went well, M51 in sights, perfect sky only problem was, every image drifted, guiding was completely off. Never had it before. It got to 11pm & I looked into everything to correct it, to no avail. I was doing 300 secs exposures & could see that the guide star was moving slightly off the centre all the time. My GPUSB, has a red light, which I am sure goes to green when making a correction. I am sure that apart from when it was turned on, the green light never came on, although corrections were being made.
I looked at one of the images & M51 had drifted up to the top of the frame & yet the guide star was still in the same place, strange, I thought , am I on a hot pixel? When I moved the mount the star did move.
Checked for sticky keys on handset.
I was trying to think what I did different, to when I went out about 2 months ago!!!!
PHD 1.8 used to have 1.6
I aligned on two stars in Ursa Major, never done that before, always have a big distance between alignment stars.
Had message when PHD calibrating " star not moving enough" was this because of the above, everything happening near the pole & in the same area?
PHD started doing backlash corrections, when calibrating - never had that before.
Help!
So did it finish the calibration OK or not...? What guide camera was you using...? Sounds like your polar alignment was way off if m51 was moving across whole frame in a 300secs sub unless PHD was forcing it to move...
John
Yes it finished the calibration after about 4 tries. I was using DMK, forgot to mention that, my polar alignment looked ok I rechecked it. Could the camera affect it?
I had exactly the same issues one night. Spent a frustrating hour trying to figure out what was wrong with my settings, re-polar aligning, etc. before I suddenly realised I had forgotten to connect the guide cable fromt eh camera to the mount. DOH!!! :oops:
I know what you mean, Mike, half the time it is something silly, but it was connected.
Fay - I would suggest going back to what you know works as a starting point. Have you got your LX webcam back - if so try that & just make sure all works & then switch to using DMK... at least this way you can eliminate your GPUSB box & PHD. If you have issues with the DMK it must be to do with the way it is setup etc. in S/W.
Thks, John.
John, yes, that was in my plan, to switch camera's. Perhaps I have something that should be setup in the DMK folder. I will have a go tonight, if it is ok.
What program does Chris guide with?
I think he still uses K3 - but he doesn't use the DMK for guiding (I don't think) - I think he uses his QHY5 or whatever it is called....? I might be wrong though.
John
John, regarding Chris's UBA post, he used the dmk for guiding. I have sent a post to the Stark yahoo group forum, to ask if I may need a special plug-in for the DMK, just in case, probably not.
Could be an answer. Just noticed that my RA agressiveness was on zero. Default is 100!!
I think yours is 100 John?
correct - Aggressiveness 100 - Hysteresis 10... Looks like you have found the problem....
Don't know how that got changed I have never looked at it, just left it on default. Must always wear glasses!!!!!!
Yep. If it's on zero then there will be no movement on that axis. Problem solved !!
Well, that was the proble. All is now well, thank God, did M51 last night, not that good as I only had time to get 9x300secs. I am just glad that guiding was ok & the mount isn't toasted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will post when it's ready but don't expect too much. Grateful for small mercy's at the moment