Autoguiding first attempt, got a lot to learn!

[Daniel]

Hi All, finally got out to try my autoguiding setup last night, can't say it was particularly successful yet, Im using PHD to guide, I was wondering if there are any settings that I should be aware of, I found the guider would wander off axis quite a lot, admitedly, I wasn't able to bring the guide camera to proper focus, for some reason, It just won't allow me to focus in enough when connected to my refractor, does anyone have any idea's for getting the tracking a little better and any tricks for achieving focus, when the focuser can't get close enough to the barrel?

:O)

[JohnP]

Um...! You could try using a low power barlow  which I think will push focal point - is there anyway to mechanical modify either focusser or webcam to get the CCD of webcam closer to telescope? It'll be tough guiding if you are not in focus... Did it all calibrate OK with PHD?

John

[Mike]

What is your guide scope and camera? Seems unusual you can't reach focus on a refractor. If it can't lock onto the star properly due to focus issues it will wander off quite a lot. Was there a lot of dew that night? Do you have dew ehaters. Dew cam also cause the star to bloat and guiding to wander.

[Daniel]

Hey guy's, thanks for the suggestions, think I've cracked it as far as focusing the guide cam is concerned, turns out i shouldn't have used a diaganol, and when I used the back end of a barlow as an extender without the diaganol, it focused just fine.

That said, I'm not having nightmares with the long exposure dropping out so many frames, one of the reasons I couldn't tell how my focusing going before Is that I was looking at hot pixels most of the time!