So last night attempted 80 subs on the California Nebula. I reduced guiding exposures to 1s, tightened up my guide scope in its ring mounts and secured cabling. I didn't see where I could change the amount of time between dither settling and shooting in the ASIAIR however. Got 14 good subs before the error manifested again...this time to the left of the star...after the first good 14, I lost subs 15-22, 23 was good and lost 24 - 37 before the issue went away and was gone for the rest of the night. I have my guide settings in my guide cam set pretty aggressively as mentioned above (and shown below for ease of scrolling)...I'm going to try toning those down a bit as another potential solution in my next go. 2000ms Calibration Step 500ms Max Dec and RA Duration RA Aggr 70% Dec Aggr 55% Dec Mode Auto I saved my PhD2 log but have zero idea how to interpret the data in there...cant tell where the subs are annotated amidst the correctional data. I noticed it has "Backlash comp = disabled" buried in the log detail but I'm not sure where to change this in the ASIAIR...should that be on or off?  |
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You can download phd2 log viewer here: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-log-viewer/That will allow you to look at the logfiles and see if anything out of the ordinary manifest itself around the time you loose frames. As the stars elongate in the same direction, I would guess that, if guiding is the culprit, the logfiles should give some indication. Post the logfiles here as well. In the full version of PHD2, the system can analyse the backlash for you and give guidance on the setting. I can’t remember how it works on the ASIAIR and I don’t know if backlash is even a thing on the AM5 mount.
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Chris:
What are your meridian flip settings? Looks like a short exposure near a longer one?
Stop tracking 5 min before Meridian Hi, if you stop tracking 5 min before the Meridian, then you should stop exposing as well, otherwise you will get weird stars. BTW. I image (and track) till well after the meridian (5 Minutes + the remaining time of the current exposure) and then have the software perform the flip, realign, restart guiding and continue .... Regards Dirk
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Hi Chris, if this is not a single frame after the meridian flip (I had it solved by extending the settle time after meridian flip in NINA) it looks as if the scope was restrained to move for a short while till it was able to move and follow. Have you check all your cables to avoid any drag on the mount or even worse a cable hooking somewhere? Another issue with the AM5 is that you have to secure the azimuth and altitude correctly because without counterweight when you track the center of gravity will move around the mount and exert a force that can induce some move of the mount especially in the vertical plane (altitude tuning). Another check is related to the power supply of the AM5 and the voltage. The AM5 doens't like input voltage dropping below 11v, but your frame looks really as if there was a first track, a fast move then a long track and this is much too wide to be related to guiding IMO.
Frédéric
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Christian Bennich:
You can download phd2 log viewer here: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-log-viewer/
That will allow you to look at the logfiles and see if anything out of the ordinary manifest itself around the time you loose frames.
As the stars elongate in the same direction, I would guess that, if guiding is the culprit, the logfiles should give some indication.
Post the logfiles here as well.
In the full version of PHD2, the system can analyse the backlash for you and give guidance on the setting.
I can’t remember how it works on the ASIAIR and I don’t know if backlash is even a thing on the AM5 mount. Thank you very much! After viewing, I can see the first hour went well...then after the re-focus, dither things started to go awry. I realized last night I calibrated guiding near the pole with this camera...I'm going to try and keep all settings and calibrating well away from the pole to see if that doesn't fix the problem on my next session. Attached my logs as well. You can see the first hour of dedicated guiding was good and then things went awry for several hours before settling down. PHD2_GuideLog_2024-10-29_204038.txt |
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Chris:
Christian Bennich:
You can download phd2 log viewer here: https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-log-viewer/
That will allow you to look at the logfiles and see if anything out of the ordinary manifest itself around the time you loose frames.
As the stars elongate in the same direction, I would guess that, if guiding is the culprit, the logfiles should give some indication.
Post the logfiles here as well.
In the full version of PHD2, the system can analyse the backlash for you and give guidance on the setting.
I can’t remember how it works on the ASIAIR and I don’t know if backlash is even a thing on the AM5 mount.
Thank you very much! After viewing, I can see the first hour went well...then after the re-focus, dither things started to go awry. I realized last night I calibrated guiding near the pole with this camera...I'm going to try and keep all settings and calibrating well away from the pole to see if that doesn't fix the problem on my next session. Attached my logs as well. You can see the first hour of dedicated guiding was good and then things went awry for several hours before settling down.
PHD2_GuideLog_2024-10-29_204038.txt That does indeed look somewhat strange. Have you also double-checked your Polar Alignment? If at all possible, you could try connecting another system to control your scope with NINA and "real" PHD2. I started on the ASIAIR, but after switching to a "full" version of PHD2, there are many more options for checking and tuning your guiding. I also can't recall how to check the potential guide backlash on the ASIAIR. Others currently using it might be able to help on how to do that. Can't remember if you can easily drift align the mount with ASIAIR - I recently tried that for Polar Alignment with PHD2. That improved the already good guidance for my widefield system. There are many threads regarding the AM5 backlash and potential loose belts - don't know if that could be worth checking as well. One example here: https://bbs.zwoastro.com/d/17745-am5-erratic-dec-backlashIs there anything that could "shift" around on your scope or setup that would introduce any slight imbalance when you are around the meridian?
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Mine is definitely the new ASIAir update. I have the ASIAir plus and see the same issue. I changed it out for my old ASIAir pro and problem solved. Interesting.
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Chris H:
Mine is definitely the new ASIAir update. I have the ASIAir plus and see the same issue. I changed it out for my old ASIAir pro and problem solved. Interesting. Well that sucks I don’t have a Pro… im going to try calibrating near the meridian next time and seeing if that doesn’t improve it a bit and save me some subs. I’m also tracking the ZWO AM5 webpage where there is some good advice about guide settings I’m going to give a go…
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Chris wrote: I didn't see where I could change the amount of time between dither settling and shooting in the ASIAIR however. To configure the settling time after dithering (on the ASIAir Plus), go into 'Guide' menu, then select 'Guiding Advanced Settings', then choose 'Guide Stability' to call up this screen...  I have my AM5 set to wait for guiding to settle to within 2 arcseconds for a period of 5 seconds before continuing to shoot more subs. This works well for me and the AM5 settles very quickly (maybe 7-10 seconds total). My guess is that re-calibrating your guide setup and adjusting the dither settling will correct this problem.
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Michael Cory:
Chris wrote: I didn't see where I could change the amount of time between dither settling and shooting in the ASIAIR however.
To configure the settling time after dithering (on the ASIAir Plus), go into 'Guide' menu, then select 'Guiding Advanced Settings', then choose 'Guide Stability' to call up this screen...
I have my AM5 set to wait for guiding to settle to within 2 arcseconds for a period of 5 seconds before continuing to shoot more subs.
This works well for me and the AM5 settles very quickly (maybe 7-10 seconds total).
My guess is that re-calibrating your guide setup and adjusting the dither settling will correct this problem. Thank you!! Will definitely try this next time out
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Update: it was, in fact, the dither settings…after allowing for a 10s post dither settle in ASIAIR…I lost far fewer subs on my next session. Thanks to all for the comments and help!
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