Drift alignment using phd guiding software

A new polar alignment technique using byeos backyardeos. Driftalignmentwithphd2 openphdguidingphd2 wiki github. Thats partly because of the price free, but it also happens to be a darn good guiding tool. Align your mount as closely as possible using one of the alternative methods. Contribute to openphdguidingphd2 development by creating an account on github. Can connect with byeos fine and see my star, but when i switch over to. One can then make various adjustments to minimize this drift. This is an important aspect of deep sky astrophotography because it allows you to focus on capturing successful long exposure images and get the most out of your telescope mount. Once guiding starts you will see the ra and dec corrections. The drift align tool is described in the phd2 help file and in the online help. Level your tripod or fixed pier it makes life easier. The drift align tool in phd2 can be used to quickly obtain a precise polar alignment of your equatorial mount. Phd2 is guiding software inspired by stark labs phd guiding. Hi, launch phd first and enable server under the tools menu, launch apt, gear, double click guiding and adjust the parameters as per russe instructions, for a dslr you want a high ditter and a longish settle time, with a cooled ccd more conservative settings will be fine but allow long eough settle time for the guiding to resumue.

You still have to do the drift alignment, but you use your dslr which is already in place to drift align instead of swapping it for an illuminated eyepiece. Autoguiding a telescope for deep sky astrophotography basic. Mar 31, 2018 introduces the polar drift alignment tool. My choice of equipment and software to do drift align. In the meantime, if you can get polaris on the main display you can select it and go from there. These settings generally apply to any losmandy mount with a gemini ii goto system, including g8, g11g, g11gt, and titan. Nebulosity is designed to be a powerful, but simple to use capture and processing application for windows 7810 3264 bit and os x 10. Phd guiding basic use and troubleshooting blackwater skies. Although you can still follow these instructions, many of the steps have been automated with the drift align tool. Your images should also be free of field rotation distortion in the corners. You will be in the menu of choose first star, choose second star and iterate, as shown on the left. Smart calibration with automatic adjustment for sideof. Beginners guide to setting up your losmandy equatorial mount. I would recommend that you align your camera to the radec axis of the telescope.

A huge array of cameras are supported for capture see below and images from just about anything can be processed support for many fits formats, png, tiff, jpeg, dslr raw files, etc. This can be greatly speeded up using a ccd camera, since subpixel centroid measurements can easily be made. Use one of the many methods to roughly align using polaris. The drift alignment tool is a wizardlike sequence of dialogs that can help you work through the drift alignment process and get quantifiable results. I am also covering what is phd guiding and how to use phd2 for longer exposures. Easy polar alignment for astrophotography step by step. I should have said that i use astrotrac with 200mm lens and as far as i know in order to use phd polar alignment feature one have to have a separate guider camera like qhy, orion etc. For beginning imagers setup wizard to get guiding started with just a few mouseclicks.

Phd2 is a telescope autoguiding software that automates the process of. The following is a list of all the polar alignment software that i am aware of. Phd stands for push here dummy, and it very easy to use, once everything is set up properly. Just recently an acquaintance ted rafferty put me on to doing the drift alignment using the popular auto guiding program phd available for free at starklabs. Part 1 covers basic settings on phd2 part 2 covers calibration, drift alignment, reading the graph, and tweaking settings for given conditions. Polar drift alignment pda and static polar alignment spa. My autoguiding graph in phd2 using the skywatcher eq6r pro telescope mount phd2 guiding settings for astrophotography. The process begins as all the other drift alignments. Assistance with guiding lx200gps using meade wedge lx200. Phd2 is free of cost, open source, and communitydeveloped and supported.

I dont do drift alignment i use the eq6 alignment routine and it seemed to line up on targets ok. I intend to include more detailed comparisons, but in the short term, i hope that the following is useful. Apt dithering settings for phd getting started with. Drift alignment issue using phd2 tried fine tuning my mounts alignment last night and had a strange issue of not being able to calibrate when close to. There are several things you can do if your corrections are large. This feature in byebyn replaces the need for a illuminated eyepiece. And you also need a guide camera, i have the qhy5 and its connected to the main telescope through an offaxis adapter. Ive received a lot of requests from people that have asked if i could show what my settings are in the phd2 auto guiding software. In general guiding is not very sensitive to small changes in calibration, but it does not hurt to recalibrate after the drift alignment is done to get it more precise. Precise polar alignment declination drift technique astronomy. Although based on video guiding, metaguide can stack frames to create the effect of a long exposure that reaches faint guide stars. For the highest precision for longexposure imaging, see the next section of drift polar alignment.

Polar drift alignment pda and static polar alignment spa they can be viewed here. Phd2 is a telescope autoguiding software that automates the process of tracking a guide star. Preparation make sure your mount is reasonably level. This includes entering in your guide scope focal length and autoguiding camera pixel size. Phd guiding from stark labs has to be the most popular guiding software in use today. This is accomplished by using a great piece of free software developed by stark labs. First perform a quick alignment using the proceedure described above. Personally, i skipped the middle bits and went straight to guiding. Phd guiding is a free software among the most used for autoguiding since its very easy to use.

More details on this process can be found at ccd drift alignment. In this tutorial we will explain how to set up this software using an atik titan camera but the same steps can also be made using other autoguiding cameras. Im using my qhy5ii camera attached to a skywatcher 9 x 50 finder scope. Note, i did exclude the beginning and the ending i think i slewed the scope before i stopped guiding. Obviously there could be others that i am not aware of. If long exposure photography several minutes or more is planned, then a better polar alignment is required. Metaguide is highly quantitative, and provides live measurements of the radial profile of a star and its fullwidth at halfmaximum for comparison to diffraction theory. I think having an rms of 1 or less is very good and as you can see i was at 0. You will need to select 2 stars for this alignment process.

For those that dont know, drift alignment relies on pointing the scope at the sky and analysing how the stars drift. This is a very popular telescope mount for beginner to intermediate astrophotography enthusiasts. After you have cold started select menu align more polar align assist menu item. Polar alignment of my neq6 mount consists of putting the tripod on some painted marks on the patio and spending five minutes using eqmod and the polar scope to do a rough alignment. Using the phd2 log viewer you can see below my longest guiding session for that night.

The drift align method can be used in either hemisphere by using free software called phd2 guiding. Celestron mount connection openphdguidingphd2 wiki github. The closer you get here, the shorter time you will spend drifting. Hy guys, i want to try to solve a problem that usually appears when using phd2 guiding. Turn on the guiding program phd, select the mount and camera and run through your calibration as usual.

Write down your personal set of instructions for use out in the field. Macroberts article outlines the drift method for polar alignment as it is universally quoted, where the drifts of stars in two equatorial fields are used to determine the direction towards which to move the polar axis to better align the it with the celestial pole. Drift alignment with phd2 the drift align tool in phd2 can be used to quickly obtain a precise polar alignment of your equatorial mount. Make sure your scope is balanced and ready for guiding. Theoretically, guiding through a serial link to the mount usually via. Once you have read the directions below, you may wish to print out the drift alignment quick reference to have with you in the field. Phd2 drift alignment the drift align tool in phd2 can be used to quickly obtain a precise polar alignment of your equatorial mount.

To check the ra alignment chose a star at 0 elevation close to the meridian. Portions of this text are lifted directly and without shame but with permission from notes created by neil heacock. Ken has put together some video tutorials on the new phd2 polar alignment tools. Drift alignment with phd2 the bookmark technique beginning.

Phd2 with a dslr eaa observation and equipment please. You can view the drift alignment tutorial through phd s website. Page 1 of 5 drift alignment with phd2 the bookmark technique posted in beginning and intermediate imaging. You can redo the calibration after the drift alignment if you had to make large altaz adjustments. The drift alignment method is one way of achieving this. Here is a link to the astro imaging channel that has an extensive discussion of pempro with the author. Phd and many other software programs recommend against running programs. This can be as rough as just getting polaris in the center of your sighter scope. If you have done a drift align to get your mount polar aligned you know its very precise but also very time consuming. I have it secured in some baader guide scope rings, which are bolted directly onto a. This can be done by turning dec aggression to 0 while guiding, or running the drift align procedure in phd2.

I have been using this software for a long time, starting with the original phd 1 verion. If all else fails and you just cant get your ra and dec to hug the 0 line then you should try a drift alignment under the tool menu to check your polar alignment and apply the corrections. The results are in from the 2007 astrophoto insight survey run by skyinsight and in the category of guiding software, there was a standout winner phd guiding. Phd2 with a dslr posted in eaa observation and equipment please read the forum rules and comply with them.

The tutorial was written by andy and converted to pdf by doug duncan. Oct 25, 2015 part 1 covers basic settings on phd2 part 2 covers calibration, drift alignment, reading the graph, and tweaking settings for given conditions. Phd will automatically disable declination guiding, however it will guide in ra. There are methods for using ccd imaging programs to aid in drift polar alignment, or, hell, even using phd guiding to get you on the pole. Assistance with guiding lx200gps using meade wedge posted in lx200 series. Polar alignment software for astronomy the wilmslow observatory. I have found phd2 guiding to be an incredible tool for my backyard deep sky astrophotography. I have a video on how to polar align which i can do. An eyepiece with illuminated cross hairs or reticle is needed for the drift alignment method. Hi everyone, i setup phd2 last night to do some test guiding, but im getting a very spikey graph. Many of you may already be aware of the fact that phd2 can be used to perform polar alignment. Here you can set all of the specific details of your gear. The builtin equipment profile wizard in phd2 guiding allows you to tell phd exactly which hardware you are using. Since i cannot see the polaris from my site, in order to better align the telescope, for long exposure pictures, i want to use the drift alignment tool in phd2.

Phd2 guiding is the successor to phd guiding, which i used for several years before upgrading to phd2. The equipment used in this example a skywatcher heq5 german equatorial mount. The log viewer is awesome and i am just learning how to use it. Phd guiding, free software for autoguide astronomy academy. Phd2 is the next generation of guiding software for amateurs of all experience levels. Misalign your altitude or azimuth by a known amount say, 5 degrees, and practice getting back in alignment using the drift method. Introduction welcome to the official tutorial on using phd2 and the bookmark technique to dial in extremely precise polar alignments. This will give you a more accurate value for dec backlash. Phd guiding readers choice gear of the year for 2008 on cloudy nights 2007.

To set the dec alignment choose a star as close to the e or w horizon as possible. With pempro version 3 you can now correct your mounts periodic error, polar alignment and backlash using your ccd camera or webcam to dramatically improve tracking and guiding. Drift alignment phd2 problems beginning and intermediate. But there is also software expressly designed for polar alignment. Alternative polar alignment using phd2 ive started on a change that will let you pan the helper display around. Finally, identify which direction the dec drift is in. Get excellent guiding with phd2 what is phd guiding. The drift method of polar alignment requires the use of an illuminated crosshair. Phd guiding from stark labs has to be the most popular guiding software in use.

This software can also do other useful astrophotography tasks such as drift alignment, which is helpful for those who cannot use polaris for polar alignment. Jun 03, 2018 after three further poor alignment attempts, i decided to try my hand at drift alignment using the phd2 autoguiding program as a helper. For drift aligning i use the software tool drift align within phd2. This an overview for those who have never guided, and some tips for advanced users who already know their way around a guiding graph.

Phd guiding has been downloaded over a quarter million times 2008. I am hoping someone can provide some information on how to do a precision alignment or drift alignment of my 10lx200gps mounted on a meade wedge. This guide does not apply to the older gemini i system or nonlosmandy mounts. This star stuff video series episode has some great tips on phd2 setup and troubleshooting. Sadly phd is the only software i feel im really good at, but i could take a stab at others. As your polar alignment improves you are going to find that dec backlash becomes harder to control. You should try configuring phd to perform dec guiding in one direction only.

Click the drift button, and let phd start the drifting process. Phd guiding basic use and troubleshooting imaging tips. April 26, 2018 polar alignment tool video tutorials. I find that using the dec hysteresis algorithm with 70 to 90% hysteresis works well for me.

Turn on the guiding program phd, select the mount and camera. This includes accurate polar alignment and balancing the weight of your payload. If youre having a hard time getting you drift alignment routine just right, or youre using an old mount, or you just want to see it work, i strongly recommend using phd2s polar drift alignment tool to get yourself as closely aligned as possible. Drift alignment phd2 problems posted in beginning and intermediate imaging. First steps when phd guiding is launched it does not automatically connect to your camera or mount. Try to get your mounts polar axis roughly aligned by using your mounts polar alignment scope if it has. This is the easiest to use of the polar alignment tools in phd2. Phd2 log viewer phd2 log viewer is a tool for quickly visualizing your guiding performance and spotting problems in your phd2 guide log. Here are 5 tips you can try with phd2 guiding to increase your chances of.

So, can i not use a dslr with phd2 for the life of me i dont see any mention of how to connect a dslr except with v2 simulator and even then i get no image. My comments about recalibrating phd had to do with the specific case of pointing the guide scope elsewhere than the same area as the image scope, and even more specifically if then changing the relationship between the two scopes overall not something commonly done. Drift alignment issue using phd2 tried fine tuning my mounts alignment last night and had a strange issue of not being able to calibrate when close to the meridian like the instructions say to do. The process takes a little bit of practice, but after doing it a few times, you should be able to obtain an accurate polar alignment in minutes. The process takes a little bit of practice, but after doing it a few times, you should. An easytofollow tutorial on how to polar align a telescope mount using the drift align utility available in the free phd2 guiding software. As we will discover, the longer the effective focal length of your imaging scope, the more likely it is you will also need to get good polar alignment, to use pec as well as guiding, or drop five or ten grand on a new mount. Unfortunately it is very time consuming, since the drift of a star over time must be observed. Trouble shooting phd2 guiding with jerry hubbell part 1 2 4 19 duration. Once polar aligned accurately and with a few synced alignment points, your mount gotos will work better, targets wont drift out of frame, youll be able to take short exposures without guiding, and very long exposures with guiding. Autoguiding a telescope for deep sky astrophotography.