Re: Best Way To Determine Periodic Error?
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Hi Sonny,
I have an Orion SSAG camera too.? ? Now I'm using some newer design ASI cameras, and I realize how inferior the Orion SSAG is (today... in its heyday it was fine!).?? The SSAG has some hot pixels and a lot of noise, making it hard to find weaker guide stars.
I don't want to spend your money, but consider upgrading your SSAG to maybe a ZWO USB3.0 ASI camera.? There are many to?choose from. ? ? The ASI120MM is mono, very high sensitivity and low noise.? I? have them in USB2.0, but recently I tried a large chip ASI178MM that I planned for planetary work. ? ? That 178MM is USB3, and really low noise and sensitive. ? ? I find the USB3.0 cameras to be far more reliable than?the USB2.0 versions.... stronger cable connector at the camera, and faster speed leads to less "dropouts".
Anyway, I'm glad you are enjoying the Drift tool in PHD2.?? Another amateur, in Missouri, Bob Runyan, showed me that Drift tool a few years ago, and it was really a good discovery. However, if I don't do the rough polar alignment with a polar scope (or your better new alternative) then I find Drift alignment is impossible... you have to be pretty close else you cannot find the Drift improvement.
Have fun and continued progress and success.
Michael
On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 10:24 AM Brian Valente < bvalente@...> wrote: Sonny
I do agree that PA improvements will help
you basically have field rotation.?
There is an easy way to visualize this if you still have your original images. Stack them using maximum instead of average and it will show you the rotation
what's happening is it's tracking correctly, but due to PA misalignment, your image frame is rotating around the center,?
Also FYI the pattern within the image that also shows this (called 'walking noise') can be eliminated by using dithering.?
On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 02:37 AM, Michael Herman wrote:
More later...going to sleep now at 2:30 am...
Thanks Michael! I finally called it a night at 4 AM. LOL!
After the disappointing smeartation, I did venture into PHD 2 and tried out the Drift Alignment Tool.
That was easy to use, although I wondered if it was accurate.
So last night I used the Drift Alignment Tool first, then built my model.
Things worked a lot better! (I think) No Smeartation, anyway. Two victims.
No to an RA mounted scope. I tried one of those with my defunct and gone away AVX (POC!)
I do have Sharpcap. If I could remember to use it.
I basically just run as many 3 West, 3 East, 3 West, 3 East scenario's as needed until the stars are landing as near center as they will.
Last night (this morning) I did a PHD 2 Drift Align before running my Model. Centered up my victims, started PHD 2, and shot way. (No Meridian crossings, because I was aimed NNE)
So far, the PHD 2 drift align is easiest for me to work with.
I'm using an Orion SSAG camera, do run a dark library with it, and it has been the one piece of equipment that has always worked good from day 1. (It's a mono camera BTW)
My Jury is still out, but I think my bumbling onto the Drift Alignment Tool has helped. Can't hurt.
Thank You!
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SonnyE
(I suggest viewed in full screen)
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Brian?
Brian Valente portfolio
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Michael Herman