This is going to be interesting … first I contacted celestron to see what cables I need to plug in first 😂 as I wait I’ll learn PHD2. I’m using an alt az and im not looking to be as perfect as you but the general facility without extreme trails, with low wobbles. 😄 I downloaded PHD2, now I just got to get a guide scope and an imaging train together for my CPC Deluxe 925… 👀 I’m worried more about backlash. 🤷‍♂️ I don’t want to fry the chip with quick response, if it time lags in resolving that’s fine… that’s what backlash is for… i think 🤷‍♂️ Assuming you are on a eq mount I double the length in my estimate as ra 25 and dec 58, it’s going to be on a wedge so right ascension will be easy as its the whole mount turning while declination is the vertical. 😃 i get poked in the eye alot with being alt az, at first I’m not going to be conservative with my guide cam and when I get good enough hopefully i can hit 1.5 to 2 second exposure after I align and pec.

Now, can you do an updated version? 😁 Thanks, it helped a lot!

this video is a SCAM i didnt get phd

I'm using PHD2 2.6.9dev4 using the multiple star feature as introduced by Dylan O'Donnell. So far I've only tried this in sim mode. My question to you is that while I'm in sim mode if I change the Pixel size to my QHY 5L-ll M's pixel size of 3.75 I keep losing the star (sim mode). What's going on? Should I switch this to 3.75 in the field? I'm pretty new to this stuff and your video is just what I've been looking for. Thanks.

For being new to this you know a lot. What I've been looking for !! thanks, Monty

Ohhhhkaaay.... What about the physical setup???

At 1 minute you have a Polarscope up. How do I make my Polarscope on my EQM-35 PRP mount line up correctly ie like a clock with 12 at top 6 at bottom etc? Mine is slewed off at an awkward angle which for me makes it impossible to place precisely.

Thanks for the great video! I am curious that after doing the three-star alignment can improve the polar alignment, plus the auto-guiding further improves the accuracy. Is it still necessary to do an additional drift alignment?

The host's version of PHD2 is not the same as mine (which is 2.6.9). So, unfortunately, the menu structure is different, making it nearly impossible to follow.

What do you think about this uloz.to/file/ZyTiXWCjLIuY/guiding20200723andkalib-png

nice tutorial！helps me a lot!thank you!

I was having the same problem up until PHD2 decided not to even connect to the camera in the first place. It all went downhill from there because PHD2 will not now connect to my mount as well. I tried fixing this by testing on three different computers and two operating systems, Win 7 Pro and Win 10 Pro. Same results. The first sign of an issue actually goes back a couple months when the iOptron Commander program decided not to work. Upon startup, Stellarium would not recognize the program and indicated via a pop up that no iOptron devices were detected. I stopped using Stellarium and worked around gotos using the handpad, the old way. The last sign of a total failure was when I set up one night, turned on EOS and PHD2, and for just a few moments a screenshot appeared, but the guide cam (QHY5L II) screen showed an image of large vertical white streaks on a black background, it then shut down. PHD2 would shut down each time I tried to connect the camera and at this time nothing I have tried works. I tried isolating each device without success thinking that perhaps the camera fried and infected the rest of the setup. I can't even get the camera to work on its own at this point unless I'm connecting it wrong somehow. I opened a ticket with QHY today and summarized the problem I'm having with the camera and I also contacted iOptron tech help as well. They have always been responsive and indicated that I might have to send the mount back east and they may have to replace some of or all boards in the mount. I believe I'm on an extended warranty and the more I think about it the more I think the root problem might be an electrical issue somewhere in the mount.

Thanks, what happens if I can’t see the south Horizon can I go further up ?

Really helpful - thanks.

NICE PHD DETAILS www.ooeconsultancy.com/phdprogram.aspx

Good video! Small remark: I'm using PHD2 version 2.6.6. In the manual for that version, it sais you should adjust the Azimuth (or Altitude) until the drift star is ON the magenta circle, not half way toward it! openphdguiding.org/manual/?section=Tutorials.htm#Drift_Align When trying this out myself, I initially used your recommendation of moving the drift star half-way out, and found that I had only halved the error, not eliminated it. When doing what the manual sais, i.e. moving the drift star ONTO the magenta circle, I pretty much cancel out the relevent alignment error. So it seems the manual is right, at least for my version of PHD ;)

Very basic question. Am I correct in assuming that you slew to your target first and then pick a guide start that is close? Thanks.

Great video but why would anyone do drift alignment these days if they already did a polar alignment with other software such as Sharpcap or the like?

Thanks for putting the effort to create such an excellent tutorial.

What Tank is that? looks larger

The terminlogy maybe confusing. On Azimuth, it's better to say adjust it towards East / West rather than saying "West knob", because either it means the knob at the West side (when facing North, left hand knob), or the knob that moves the Azimuth to the West (the right hand side knob). I suggest you add it to the notes to clarify when you say West kob in means turing Azimuth to the West or East, and North knob means increasing the altitude or decreasing altitude.

Excellent tutorials - got more out of watching 45 minutes than reading the pdf front to back! Many great tips and tricks. Will develop my checklist from this video and the Best Practices PowerPoint that one of the developers provided in the user groups. The hint on disconnect was particularly helpful in my case - AVX and my laptop don’t play nicely together - seems much better with a few trial and error adjustments. Jim

Great video, thanks! It was the perfect length for me to finish my lunch. I noticed around the 11:00mins mark you read the notes correctly, which says that the star is 'East' of the meridian, when in fact your star was 'West' of the meridian. You then changed your notes, but I believe they were right to begin with. I could be wrong, as I'm still learning all this jargen.

Thanks!

Great video !

That’s was very helpful. I am new to astrophotography and don’t know much about guiding. This video has helped me a lot. Really appreciate bro. Nice work

Interesting video but somewhat confusing because you say things which are in contradiction with what we see on the drift curve.

Wow I just connect,refresh,guide on average I get 0.30 to 0.40 total 🤷‍♂️

I had RMS of 0.45 seconds of arc when I used Sharpcap as my alignment tool. Yes I have photos with 2 minute subs and they are round except for not having well aligned optics.

If you get sub 10 arc second accuracies with Sharpcap polar alignment is the drift star necessary? Will doing this step after that alignment method+drift alignment improve your PhD2 guiding?

Perfect point. I'm a very low energy consumer, no TV, no microwave or coffee maker... Having only 200w solar to a 110A AGM (little one, don't you think?) fits to stand independently for days. Winter is a season with a different pair of sleeves, then the diesel heating has to be switched on with a very low or even no yield from the panels. Driving around in the winter to charge the battery was not really energy efficient and involves a lot of unnecessary engine wear, fuel costs and extra pollution. Without daring to mention a noisy generator. With no further expansion of solar panels on the roof possible, due to the limited space and no real good space for an second battery. Finally I made the decision and placed an Efoy fuel cell as close to the battery as possible in a corner. A major investment but until now I have not regretted it for a single moment. After two winters effortlessly enjoying the freedom I experience in the summer, this was the most interesting solution for my profile given my space and weight limitation. Can I still improve this, yes absolutely. Replacing the AGM with a LiFePO4 battery to almost double the existing supply of energy, but then only when the AGM reaches the end of its life cycle. Above all, let's not forget that AGM or lead-acid batteries are by no means faded technology. As a source of energy, these batteries are a lot friendlier and robust, require less attention compared to Lithium, with their many additional internal or external (for example: BMS) components that can break when used.

I heard that your guide camera was a QHYCCD 5 II C . Did you have any issues with downloading the drivers for it? I recently purchased one and the instructions for the drivers are all over the board. I finally downloaded a driver that does display a frame, but I don;t know if I am doing it right. I am going to try the whole setup in a few days after the wind settles down. BTW, my mount is a Star Watcher Star Adventurer. It only have guiding for the RA, no DEC. Hopefully you can guide me into the right direction.

Thanks so very much for taking the time, in a clear precise way, without disturbing music. Very well done and extremely helpful. I wish the software writers and telescope makers made such informational video's.

Thanks for this! I know this is quite old but I do have a question. Does Cartes assume you are starting from polaris, so when you slew to your first star it knows where it's going? I'm a bit confused as to how the mount knows where Altaris is, right from the start.

I'll just leave this here kzbin.info/www/bejne/jH7IooCjerengpI

THX!!

The wattage you need depends a lot on where you live and what your needs are. I have a 320 Watt system but I wish I had 600 Watts. In Europe during the summer 300 Watts will do. In wintertime the system is giving me only 5 to 10 percent of its peakrating. Not enough to get the refrigerator going. We have a 120 Amp household.battery. In the summer we can’t store all the energy comming of the roof. During winter it would be handy if we could charge an second battery from shorepower so we could be longer independent without driving for alternator power. All appliances are 12 volt. Only the tv and laptop are 230 Volt on a 500 Watt inverter.

Hi.....I just subscribed, nice tutorial. I'm fixing to task myself with learning to drift align, although I am wondering if I have enough view of my horizons to do the job......I thought I read that drift alignment requires a good view of the east and west horizons, IDK. Does the drift alignment method necessitate calibrating prior to each session? Thanks.

Hi, just a quick question. When you're carrying out the west drift alignment, you're adjusting the altitude knobs?

I tried using ASCOM to connect for Pulse Guiding, but even when moving East/West it says "Star did not move enough", or sometimes, it says "Suspicious blah blah, check if axes are perpendicular. After that just to check, I closed PHD2 and attached my ST4 cable and tried calibrating with that. It did within 3 steps, and again said "Suspicious blah blah". Now what do you reckon I should be doing to get my ASCOM working right with PHD2? TIA.

Thank you very much for these two videos. I've been having a horrible time with PHD2 so far, but you seem to cover most of my mistakes. I'll try this out tonight. Hopefully it will improve the experience. Cheers!

probably the best 2 videos for guiding i have seen, these give me a good basis to set up my PHD2 . thanks, keep up the videos

Thanks for this and part 1. They've helped me understand PHD2 a lot more. All I need now are some decent nights to practice - hopefully in time for when I can start imaging M31 again!

hey nice tutorial i watched the videos a few times and started guiding, did t have a clue what was what, am guiding tonight and am capturing m81, and the guiding is doing good, but from just re watching the video i learned so much,, i did nt do a polar align drift so i have an error of like 20 arc/min lmao,, but i do now understand how this program works ,, thanks again..

Great Vids, thanks for the info. Clear Skies!!!

Hey, nice video, it's help me a lot but I still dont understand what the "slew to near the merdian and the equator" does that mean that i have to point my telescope the most possible toward the south?

This video really has help me understand and setup PHD2. It does a great job explaining the settings and cause/effect. Thank you!

Thanks for sharing this awesome tutorial it is very useful. One question i have thouhg is should i turn on or off Dec compensation in phd2. I have the 2.6.3 version. Maybe if i do so i should disable it on my controllers avx mount. And what about dithering? Should i check do it random, spiral or better just in Ra only? Thanks in advance

Great video, thanks for sharing! Ive been trying to work out some guiding issues through forum conversations, which has been great, but nothing really compares to watching things work.

Hello! Have a question?on EQMod what should I have my tracking rate with PHD2 guiding? I think I heard you say you have an orion atlas mount I do to... thanks