Struggling to improve my telescope guiding performance

I agree to shorten the exposure time. Then another thing is to balance both RA and dec as best you can with the methods described in the 150i’s manual.

Have you run the guiding assistant?

Thank you for everyone’s feedback! On the next clear night, I’ll try 0.5s - 1s exposures again on PHD2 and see what I’m able to get.

I don’t have a Harmonic mount. But I do have a long history of guiding and running PHD since PHD1.

Set up is important, just plopping down and a quick setup, Polar Alignment that is not thoroughly addressed, and other haphazard setting up will give frustrating results. Been there, done that! And it is why I’ve chosen to keep my equipment setup and covered when not in use. I eventually found “My Spot” and have used it for over a decade.

Too often I see people frustrated (I was, too.) until I started going long on my setting up. Anytime a mount is moved or even bumped it can throw things off. Then everything must be checked and readjusted for where the mount is now. And why pier mounted equipment excels over tripod in many cases. The pier mounted does not get moved or bumped out of its setup easily.

When you do your Alignment or Modeling, you are teaching the mount where it is in relation to the sky. One star? 3 stars? How about 10 or more West, and 10 or more East? What I’ve found by going long on my basics is better performance and accuracy in actual use. Better basics and better care will yield better results. It’s not all in the readings. Consistency comes from being methodical in your setup. Your setting up is all the mechanical bearings on the end result.

Try going long on your setup and see if you don’t find more satisfaction in your guiding results. PHD2 is a great yardstick for the end results. But it can’t give you better without your basics being as good as you can give your equipment. Impatience often gives frustration.

Plate solving is good but will struggle if other factors are sloppy. Including poor seeing. Take the time to Go Long on your basics and see if things don’t improve. Seeing variations will also cause your graph to get all wowie, as well as your mounts mechanicals.

Try setting up where you can keep your mount set up and then just uncover each night and run through setting up. You will see everything improve night after night because your mechanicals will get closer and closer. Each night you will see your PHD2 readings get better and better.

I run 1 second exposures so corrections are not great, just little bumps. As you see your graph grow tighter you can reduce your spread on it. Eventually you’ll find the minimum wiggles your mount will do.

But the end result is, “Are you happy with your images?” Are you getting tiny stars in the background? If you are, then there is little to worry about. Don’t worry about others, this isn’t a race. Just do your best. 😉

I upgraded to the 150i from a HEQ5 and it has some settings/issues that are so different for guiding. Save the profile and as mentioned seeing is a big deal so don’t play with it every night and certainly not multiple settings. I run best at 1 second or I should say if seeing allows it. Mediocre nights I have run at 1.5 seconds and it helped. An OAG definitely improved my guiding. I got numbers under 1 with a guide scope but, that sucks now. I start to get annoyed when my number gets over .6 and often run well below. Use the counterweight. I leave my scope connected and carry the whole rig out each session(without the counterweight). Good PA, Focus on both cameras, and make sure your knobs are tight. It really takes some patience with all of the variables other than the mount. I have not setup offsets for my filters yet and just use autofocus on the filters with and OAG. I have found adjusting your guide camera focus to get the lowest HFR is helpful of course immediately after get your main scope in focus. I did this the other night when my guiding HFR was over 4 and got it around 3 then saw my guiding numbers go under .2 with 5 minutes subs under .3. They say don’t fool with OAG focus and guiding focus isn’t that important but, it helps!

CS, Paul