Hello fellow Astrophotographers. So I was trying to image the Heart and Soul nebulae last night (under Bortle 3 Skies and very good weather conditions). I was trying to guide with PHD2 and imaging with APT. Also I always use automatic dither in RA axis and manually in Declination. However, there was an issue with Guiding. PHD2 was trying to give really big corrections for some reason and the result was severe star trails in my images and PHD2 was giving me a message that it couldn't give sufficient corrections. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I tried Different settings for guiding, I used a dark library for my guide camera to minimize the noise, I tried pointing the guide scope in a slightly different angle and still the problem was persistent. So I was wondering maybe that particular area of the sky doesn't have bright enough stars to properly guide? Maybe I should use a guide scope with different focal length? Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? I apologize for the long text and thank you in advance for your comment.
I use the following equipment:
Imaging camera:Canon 250D
Lens: Samyang 135mm
Star Tracker:SkyWatcher Star Adventure 2i
Guide Camera:ZWO ASI 120MC-S
Guide Scope:ZWO 30F4 Miniscope |
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Hi, did you recalibrate after you moved the guide scope in relation to the main scope? That is required or else PHD2 will act very erratic usually. When I have had PHD2 act up, I like to go back to basics. Reset stock parameters, recalibrate within 20 degrees of the celestial equator, then run guiding assistant and apply recommended changes and advice. This is a good guide if you haven’t seen it yet. Good luck with your troubleshooting.
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I assume that you have had good success with this guiding setup previously.
I agree with apennine104.
Any time that PhD2 has acted irrationally for me in the past (not often at all), I start from scratch with a new profile and default settings. Create a new dark library, calibrate PHD2 near the meridian/celestial equator, and definitely run the Guiding Assist.
Note: I have had PHd2 act wonky at the start of a session and a pc restart corrected the issue.
Good luck!
Jim
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Let phd2 do a fresh calibration! This solves most of the problems. If you don't succeed with that, run the guiding assistant! Best of luck!
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What mount are you using ? This may be an issue. I had frequent problems with my iOptron mount with encoders.
Phd2 is a good software but it is what I call an "engineer's software", with so many settings that the simple amateur wastes entire nights fighting with it.
With such a short focale, you should ba able to image without guiding. Anyway, I solved years of guiding issues when I started using ASIAIR. This cheap micro computer does all the job, and it starts guiding in a few seconds, for hours, meridian flip included !
Philippe
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A few thoughts.
Guiding with a color camera is not optimum.
I didn't do the math for your guiding fl, but double check it.
The fundamentals others have stated related to calibration at the south celestial equator and the value of running the guide assistant for a worm cycle are table stakes. Don't proceed until you've been successful in calibration.
If your polar alignment is off, it'll show. If your fl is wrong, it'll show.
Follow it's recommendations!
Best to run again after making corrections until you get a solid calibration.
cheers!
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I've had those symptoms before. It was caused by forgetting to tighten the mount clutches (which some mounts don't have).
When a mysterious problem pops up on a system that worked well before, it's typically hardware, not software.
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Ensure you are not trying to use a hot pixel for guding.
Paul
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How do you manually dither in dec? How do you tell phd2 that you’ve manually dithered in dec?
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I have had this issue till I did a hy[ertune on my EQ6-R Pro. Problem is the settle time. I dither 5 to 10px, before the hypertune I was also getting star trails. After the tune my mount can settle within 6 to 10 seonds.
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Had this message together with an large peak in guiding every 6 minutes. In my case the belt of my eq6r was damaged.
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How do you manually dither in dec? How do you tell phd2 that you’ve manually dithered in dec? Well i auto dither in RA every single frame. After 3-4 frames i pause the program in APT and then stop the guiding, i move the dec manually and start guiding again. This takes about 10 seconds. So far this has always worked perfectly and didn’t give me any strange guiding behaviour. The downside is that i have to be constantly monitoring the sequence.
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Hi, did you recalibrate after you moved the guide scope in relation to the main scope? That is required or else PHD2 will act very erratic usually.
When I have had PHD2 act up, I like to go back to basics. Reset stock parameters, recalibrate within 20 degrees of the celestial equator, then run guiding assistant and apply recommended changes and advice.
This is a good guide if you haven’t seen it yet. Good luck with your troubleshooting. This was very helpful thanks
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