Autoguiding accuracy and equipment
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 2:41 pm
I spent one night practicing autoguiding to see if I could improve the resolution. I used Ekos' internal guider on my Losmandy G11S with OnStep and the 6" Mak Newt . I tried multiple gains and also the multi-guidestar feature. I was not able to get below 1" and stayed generally below 2" total.
I wanted to try PHD2 from Ekos but could not figure out how the two work together. Maybe I need to start PHD2 before Ekos, I just read. But frankly the Ekos internal autoguider looks fine to me, I doubt if switching will help.
My guiding system is an ole trusty Orion MMAG with the original QHY5 and a 50/162 mm guide scope. I noticed that the guider produces noisy and banded images occasionally so maybe that is part of the problem. I just ordered an ASI120MM mini, they are only $150 including scope and have good reviews.
Any thoughts on how to debug the performance and how to improve? Any idea if the guiding hardware could be the bottleneck?
I wanted to try PHD2 from Ekos but could not figure out how the two work together. Maybe I need to start PHD2 before Ekos, I just read. But frankly the Ekos internal autoguider looks fine to me, I doubt if switching will help.
My guiding system is an ole trusty Orion MMAG with the original QHY5 and a 50/162 mm guide scope. I noticed that the guider produces noisy and banded images occasionally so maybe that is part of the problem. I just ordered an ASI120MM mini, they are only $150 including scope and have good reviews.
Any thoughts on how to debug the performance and how to improve? Any idea if the guiding hardware could be the bottleneck?