Autoguiding - Stop messing with the settings

You're getting into guiding and you've watched every video, except this one. Your nice new telescope is ready for long exposur,e but you have to get your head around guiding.
This brief look into why you should not play with the settings is a must for beginners and pros alike. A common cause of headaches is the constant messing with settings. The short answer, don't. It's not called Push Here Dummy for nothing.
Products featured in the video:
Sky-Watcher Evoguide 50DX - telescopes.net/sky-watcher-ev...
QHYCCD Polemaster - telescopes.net/qhyccd-polemas...
QHYCCD QHY268M Camera - telescopes.net/qhy-qhy268m-cm...
QHYCCD OAG - telescopes.net/accessories.ht...
ZWO Mini GuideScope - telescopes.net/zwo-mini-guide...
Telescopes.net, your one-stop shop for all things astronomy!

[@DylanODonnell]

Agree 100%. It's not called PHHHHHHHHHHD Guiding.

[@3SistersAstroOldAcct-fh3hd]

Thank you for making the only guiding videos we will need to use.

[@wesleydonnelly2141]

Why didn't I see this video sooner!? Absolutely exactly what I have been looking for for months! LOL. Seriously, THANK YOU! Wes, Liverpool UK.

[@rickevans33050]

Concise and informative. This is one of the best PHD2 videos I've watched so far.

[@getawaydance]

Thank you. I'm getting flat curves now instead of ziggty zaggity curves. Reset my settings, worked great. Ran the guiding assistance, works even greater now :)

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

Excellent video!

[@thomasmastrocinque7132]

Awesome Vid. I chuckled all the way through!

[@steveammer6617]

Excellent presentation. I like this. Great job!

[@tribble1027]

Bravo...nicely done and very helpful!

[@Guido_XL]

Great! I just finished fixing my cheap Dayteon T7C (a ZWO ASI 120MC clone) wiring to the ST-4 interface of my Sky-Watcher EQ5 motor-drive. The ST-4 wiring was not according to the convention, but now it is, thanks to persistent testing and mitigation. It boils down to swapping three of the six wires. Perhaps tonight I will have a chance of setting up and testing PHD2 with my Orion 70/279 finder, the T7C camera as guider and the EQ5 as the guided one. The manual guiding works like a charm, so this better works in actual practice during auto guiding as well. My polar alignment appears to be quite good. All I do is read out Polaris' transit-time from Stellarium, calculate the time difference between now and then, and adjust Polaris' position on the polar scope's reticle according to that time difference, starting at the six o'clock position (actually twelve o'clock, but the image is upside down), counting counter-clockwise and assuming that a full clock circle matches 24 hours. If done properly, this polar alignment method is very accurate.

[@seanmolony-redstickastro238]

Well Done! I just shared it with 5 complainers and 1 good friend

[@donaldmartin7109]

First time to view this video. excellent teaching. thank you.

[@JoeBob79569]

Yea, I did something really silly recently. I "thought" PHD2 was taking exposures that were too long, and I was thinking that if the exposures were faster then PHD2 could compensate more quickly, so I set the exposure time down to a fraction of a second. Then I sat back, happy, watching the magnified star and the little red crosshair, frantically jumping all over the place as PHD2 was trying to compensate... and of course my guiding was terrible. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realise I was "chasing the seeing" and it hit me like a ton of bricks, when I realised that the 60s subs I was taking _before_ I started guiding were far better than the subs I got while guiding! I really felt like they put the D in PHD2 just for me at that moment..

[@royzview6254]

Indeed one can adjust the settings to so sensitive that PHD over corrects and becomes the problem itself. The answer is simply stop being paranoid, adjust once and leave it alone.

[@pulsar9628]

Best video on phd2 so far! :D

[@jesuschrist2284]

Great video ty

[@hael8680]

Great theatricality but short on details. A bit more info on each possible settings would have been welcomed. Maybe there is a follow up video?

[@andysPARK]

Patronising title, but justified and brilliant explanation and video production... Bahh..switched from default dislike to.....like 👍

[@M31glow]

Great post!

[@ricardoabh3242]

Fantastic

[@aerozg]

If people just read the PHD2 manual, the sections about guiding and mount issues, there would be a lot less drama all over the forums and groups.

[@seafurymike]

ive taken the defaults but im getting errors. star didn’t move enough or RA may not be accurate. im not sure where issues lies, other than with me!! Any suggestions for debugging

[@StarlancerAstro]

I find slightly off balancing my scope does wonders for guiding, having that spot on perfect, look at me and how my scope never moves where I put it balance, actually makes my guiding worse. By engaging the gears with some slight off balance (as in if I let it go it will slightly drift) there is less back and forth correction in PHD

[@zbnmth]

that's a little gem of knowledge, thanks, will try!

[@tacomaastro7462]

This needs to be published again (renamed). I don't know how many times I've seen comments on group pages where they're trying to adjust PHD2 to fix their mechanical problems.

[@sixinchesunder5262]

What a great video! LOL

Are you suggesting my guiding setup with an asi120mm held in place with electrical tape to the stock finderscope on my 1000mm newtonian might cause guiding issues? Preposterous, it's definitely my phd2 settings!

[@larry5488]

🤣🤣🤣

[@jefflucas_life]

I use guide assistance and i’m happy with rms.45.

[@TheImprovisations]

What unit? Pixels? Arc seconds?

[@qwertyu2387]

Here is question I was puzzled by for quite some time. My main scope is Skywatcher Explorer 200pds with focal length 1000mm. What is recommended guider scope focal length for this telescope?

[@sammyairlines9307]

I use a 50mm guide scope with a 162mm focal length and it works well for me with a similar setup.

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

Can l use staraid Revolution B camera with skywatcher evoguide scope (242mm)

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

as a Autoguider

[@keithhanssen7413]

👍🏻

[@-WhizzBang-]

99% of the time, the DEFAULT settings are good enough. I NEVER touch them unless I understand exactly what the setting is for and if it will do what I need for something very specific!

[@neile4580]

Predictive pec just to keep it interesting? Go on press that button 😂

[@michaeldemocratssuck9114]

Get your thyroid checked

[@TheImprovisations]

Who?