PHD2 Calibration just got a lot easier! PHD2 Auto-Calibration Tutorial

[@32gibby]

Thanks Cole. I had real trouble with calibration in the past. Now all I need is clear skys.

[@ColeRees]

I’m glad this helped! Previously it was either “use planetarium software for pointing or suffer with bad calibration.” No more!!

[@stardebrisx9]

Nice, I'm going to give this a try soon whenever there's clear skies ...

[@ColeRees]

Let me know if it makes a difference!

[@JonnyBravo0311]

I use an iOptron mount (CEM40) and the Commander software. I've always just manually slewed my mount to about 0 dec and just west of the meridian. Nice that the PHD devs included a way for me to do that in a single button click. Thanks for the video showing this newly added feature!

[@ColeRees]

Nice rig! Glad my video helped :)

[@deansnyman3533]

Good job cole!!!

[@ColeRees]

Thank you, dean!

[@gazza9839]

Cheers Cole, liked and subbed 🙂

[@ColeRees]

Thank you, Gaz Za!

[@anata5127]

How do you know that it will improve your guiding? Are you just presuming, or you run actual tests?

[@ColeRees]

This ensures guiding calibration is done at the point of the sky with optimal results (where the grid lines on the celestial sphere are closest to squares). Previously you either had to pick a spot yourself and know where to properly go, or you’d hit calibrate while pointed at your target and it wouldn’t be as accurate. This new feature eliminates the extra hassle of doing it properly so you’ll never have to guess about where your calibration is being done! It will not make your guiding better if you ALREADY calibrated at the celestial equator, but it will make it easier in the future!

[@anata5127]

@@ColeRees This is not experimental approach. I guided long time with many systems and know that all your explanations are based on presumptions, which you read somewhere. You could apply all these fancy theories, but badly calibrated quality mount will still come on top of sheeit mount. Now, will your fancy approach improve guiding with quality mount? Just marginally. Get good mount and you will not give flying f*** about these fancy approaches.

[@ColeRees]

@@anata5127 sounds like you’ve got a good idea of how to calibrate your mount, then. Like I said in the video, if you know how to calibrate already then it just adds convenience by making one of the steps automated. This video was just an explanation on this new feature. I didn’t try to explain how to improve guiding beyond that, as it’s beyond the scope of this video. I apologize if you did not find it very helpful, but let’s keep the comment section civil. Edit: I should mention, sometimes you can’t just “buy a better mount”. One of our scopes is 1200 pounds. You’ve gotta work with what you’ve got and dial it in where you can.

[@anata5127]

@@ColeRees Of corse, I have idea how to calibrate. But this is not a point. Point is that calibration at right or wrong point of sky will have no significant baring on outcome. Mount quality is paramount for success. For example, I have AVX remade by me. If I use calibration and PHD2 tells me that it is in non optimal spot of sky, I still proceed and it guide fine. If I don’t get message, and sky spot is perfect, it guides in the same way. On other hand, bad mount IOptron CEM 70 was sheeit in guiding no matter calibration approach. Bottom line, get good mount and you will not pay attention to all these intricate details of calibration, they will not matter.

[@ColeRees]

@@anata5127 I don’t disagree about getting a good mount. Making the step up to a pro level mount will always make a big difference. Lots of people start out with a mount that isn’t as nice though and good calibration will make a difference for them, along with aggressive tuning of their guiding parameters. If you can afford an expensive mount, great! But if you’re stuck with a lower end system, steps like this could make a big difference (my guiding directions would often not be orthogonal unless I calibrated right by the equator with my EQ6)

[@Wheeljack678]

Somehow this new feature completely eluded me. When it gets dark enough again (Northern skies have no darkness this time of year), I'll be sure to give this a try. A most useful feature for sure!

[@terrencemartin7847]

Thanks for the tip!

[@paulwilson8367]

Ok, I got a new mini guidescope and got it focused to what appears to be acceptable stars. Guiding failed totally. Last night I didn't have this newest assistant for calibration so I have now installed it. But the screen last night had first told me that my target, up in Hercules overhead, had too few stars to calibrate. I was sitting inside remote viewing the mini PC on the scope in the driveway. It said that it needed stars closer to the "celestial equator". I went ahead and hit "slew". That was a mistake, it looked like it was looking at a solid object. I went outside and it was pointed at the ground. The celestial equator was below the horizon! Does this version consider where I am and what sky is available? The milky way is not yet up and there are no thick starfields available. How do I get PhD to work? On the ASIAIR pro, guiding was so easy I took it totally for granted. It would also calibrate and it took a couple of minutes, but it NEVER tried to go outside of my local, limited horizons. Frustrated. Without guiding I can't image at all.

[@ColeRees]

The celestial equator is always above the horizon towards the equator (south in the northern hemisphere) unless you’re at the north or South Pole. The calibration assistant goes to whatever location you pick in the settings, but the default ones should be good. They go to the equator and close to the meridian facing south. You shouldn’t need more than one star to calibrate, though, since all it is doing is finding the directions of the scope axis’ with respect to the guide camera. If the telescope slewed to the ground, you either had incorrect pointing before (I don’t believe this was your issue) or the coordinates punched into the calibration assistant were incorrect. That would be my first guess.

[@paulwilson8367]

@@ColeRees I didn't put any coordinates into the guiding assistant. There were a good number of stars visible through the guide scope. PhD2 had selected stars. Vega was nearby! I don't know why it slewed down, that kind of thing doesn't typically happen to me and I have imaged a bunch of targets over 4 years. The lat/longs in NINA are correct, I checked, and the scope had been polar aligned.

[@Calzune]

Looking forward to try this out in 3 months when summer has ended 😄

[@ColeRees]

I feel ya there, it’s been a rough winter for us here in the PNW. Barely any clear skies. And now it’s somewhat clear but we only have 2-3 hours of nighttime 😭 oh well!

[@Phil-Elias]

good video

[@ColeRees]

Thanks, Phil!