M101 LRGB

[+Derbyshire Dave]

Finally managed to get a bit of clear sky last night, after weeks it would seem. All the kit seemed to have a mind of it's own, and my guiding is just bonkers, so limited my exposures to 1 minute.

 

So this is M101, 5 x 1 minute exposures in L,R,G,and B. Crikey that's not much eh, so noisier than I'd like, hopefully tonight will be a bit clearer ...

 

 

 

 

[+RonC]

Not too bad David, what's the problem with the guiding?

[+Derbyshire Dave]

It's weird Ron.

 

 Originally I had a Phillips webcam for the camera input, and a board called a GPUSB from Shoestring Astronomy which basically outputs from the laptop to the autoguider input on the mount.

 

These were OK, but the images weren't very bright, so at the start of last year I bought a ZWO ASI120MC camera as a guide camera. I connected the guide output of the ZWO to the autoguider input of my mount.

I struggled to get this to control successfully, it would always work for so long, but then seem not to have the 'oomph' to drive the mount for a long time. Eventually, I thought that I would try, instead of using the ZWO guide output, to use the GPUSB board. There was immediate success, and I have worked that way ever since, and the guiding has been bang-on.

 

The last four times or so though, PHD2 has calibrated, and then come up with the message something like 'Little or no South movement detected, check your cables, guiding might be severely impaired'

 

I obviously checked the cables. Not sure what has changed. I could try PHD1, or I could try removing the GPUSB, it seems unlikely that the mount has failed

 

It's just so frustrating.... grrr