Astrofriend's homepage

www.astrofriend.eu
Share: Twitter Reddit Facebook Gmail Gmail Email
Search Astrofriend's homepage:

Valid CSS!

All pages shall now have been validated

Info Cookies (Kakor) / GDPR

Navigation

Advertisement /
Annons:

Tutorial News

Advertisement / Annons:

My astronomy project:
Setup of EQMOD and PHD2 for auto guiding


Contents:

  1. Setup EQMOD
  2. Setup PHD2

Note:
I take no responsibility or liability for what are written here, you use the information on your own risk!


2, Setup PHD2:

After my first test of the EQ6 modified mount with timing belts I understand I must do a much more accurate setup. I can't have my old parameters as a base for my rebuilt EQ6 mount. I'm also sure that the old setup wasn't optimal. I have to search internet for some guide how to setup the EQMOD and PHD2 software to get it optimal.

The document "PHD2 Best Practices" by Bruce Waddington and Andy Galasso:

EQ6 Mount, Setup EQMOD and PHD2 from scratch Credit PHD2.

After a half hour of searching on the internet I found a lot of guides how to setup PHD2, but this guide stands out, "PHD2 Best Practices" by Bruce Waddington and Andy Galasso. Andy I know from earlier and he helped me with the comet offset guiding. This guide looks to be very good and I try to follow it as long I can.

At PHD2 you can download this guide as a PDF file, there are three languages to choose from:

Other useful links how to use and setup PHD2:

What I written below is how I have setup my equipment with help of the above information.


Advanced Setup, Global:

EQ6 Mount, Setup EQMOD and PHD2 from scratch Credit to PHD2.

I click on the "Brain" button in PHD2 and choose Global setup.

The Global setup is just the standard.


Advanced Setup, Camera:

EQ6 Mount, Setup EQMOD and PHD2 from scratch

In the Camera setup I do the following:

  • Check the pixel size, 5.2 micron. No difference than earlier.
  • Target SNR = 6, a bit lower than the recommended 9 (my choice to get more guide stars).

Advanced Setup, Guiding:

EQ6 Mount, Setup EQMOD and PHD2 from scratch

I check the focal length of the guide scope, 400 mm, ok. All other parameters according to recommendation.

Click the advanced button.


Advanced Setup, Guiding (Detailed Calibration Parameters):

New window open, "Detailed Calibration Parameters":

EQ6 Mount, Setup EQMOD and PHD2 from scratch

I can read that the recommended guide speed are from 0.5 to 1.0 sidereal. I only had set it to 0.3 in my old setup. I increased it to 0.9 now. I have also change this in EQMOD. Click the reset button and get new Calibration step, ms = 550.


Advanced Setup, Algorithms (before):

EQ6 Mount, Setup EQMOD and PHD2 from scratch

This is the parameters I used when the EQ6 mount had spur gears. I reset both RA and DEC parameters.


Advanced Setup, Algorithms (after reset):

EQ6 Mount, Setup EQMOD and PHD2 from scratch

With the parameters reset I start with a new fresh setup. Later I also enabled the backlash compensation and got much better guiding in the DEC axis.

Go Back to content

Go Back
To page III, During work

Advertisement / Annons: