I have seen the check boxes for the RA and DEC 4x mode. By default each time they were unchecked. I had to check them to activate them. I assumed this was called high resolution mode. I don't have the hand controller in front of me at the moment.?

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Doug

On Thu, Sep 12, 2024 at 09:34 AM, Dnorton wrote:

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, I hate to ask a question that may have already been asked... I recently bought the G11 with Gemini 2 at Level 6. I promptly updated the firmware with the firmware update program.

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In the HC menu is a high-resolution tracking mode for RA and Dec. I have tried to find out specifically what that means. I cannot find it. Maybe I am stuck on the word "tracking". Is it high resolution for slewing from object to object or is it high resolution tracking for guiding during astrophotography? I've been out under the stars with the mount exactly twice and I did two nights of photographing the Cocoon Nebula. A total of 10 hours. First night I had it turned off. Second night I had it turned on. I couldn't tell a difference. Using the ASIair Pro, my guiding error was .25". If anyone can explain this high-resolution tracking to me, I would appreciate it.?

Hi Doug,

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Sorry, I'm not sure what "high resolution tracking mode" you're talking about? The HC has the RA/DEC 4x resolution encoder settings. These should be turned on. Or are you talking about something else?

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Whether or not that will help you depends on how good your tracking and guiding is, image scale, seeing, etc. It increases the resolution of the servo motor encoders from 0.5626 arcsec/tick to 0.1407 arcsec/tick. Since L6 was primarily designed and tested to work with this new 4x encoder setting, you should have these turned on for best results.

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, I hate to ask a question that may have already been asked... I recently bought the G11 with Gemini 2 at Level 6. I promptly updated the firmware with the firmware update program.

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In the HC menu is a high-resolution tracking mode for RA and Dec. I have tried to find out specifically what that means. I cannot find it. Maybe I am stuck on the word "tracking". Is it high resolution for slewing from object to object or is it high resolution tracking for guiding during astrophotography? I've been out under the stars with the mount exactly twice and I did two nights of photographing the Cocoon Nebula. A total of 10 hours. First night I had it turned off. Second night I had it turned on. I couldn't tell a difference. Using the ASIair Plus, my guiding error was .25". If anyone can explain this high-resolution tracking to me, I would appreciate it.?

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Doug

Yes, I’m using SkyTrack. ?I’ll figure out the video posting, I did successfully get the space station last night but still on my wide setup so it’s just a dot. ?Now that I know things are working I’ll swap out for a longer focal length and see what happens.

Yes, with the RA horizontal for balance and great polar alignment, I am getting guiding at 0.4" most of the time.

I get quite better guiding when my very old 1995 G11 is very carefully balanced (needs good polar align too ). It has fresh grease and sometimes gives me below 0.5arcsec guiding, on good nights.?

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Only trick I use is for Dec balance, its done with AD set horizontaly, 90° on the side.

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On Tue, Sep 10, 2024 at 04:37 PM, Bill Grogan wrote:

I finally got around to trying this. ?There’s a video out there that discusses default setup and I followed it. ?Tried it last night and it works great. ?Had a Cosmos satellite I tracked for a couple of minutes. ?Make sure your polar alignment is as good as you can get it, your mount is in good shape and the time on your pc and mount are very accurate. ?So far just an internet connection was sufficient for time sync. I also started with my widest FOV setup I have which is a Stellarview SVX102T and its reducer around 535mm

Follow the default video, it will get you started. ?I have some drift so I’ll start fine tuning things tonight.

I finally got around to trying this. ?There’s a video out there that discusses default setup and I followed it. ?Tried it last night and it works great. ?Had a Cosmos satellite I tracked for a couple of minutes. ?Make sure your polar alignment is as good as you can get it, your mount is in good shape and the time on your pc and mount are very accurate. ?So far just an internet connection was sufficient for time sync. I also started with my widest FOV setup I have which is a Stellarview SVX102T and its reducer around 535mm

Follow the default video, it will get you started. ?I have some drift so I’ll start fine tuning things tonight.

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Thanks everyone.

As for how to get a baseline, set up the PHD2 profile, and follow Michael Herman’s steps here in the attached file. This is one he gave me about a month ago. I’m not sure if this was the process you followed/referred to below but it worked well for me.?

Hey Bryn

With a wide field scope like the Z61 you should be able to achieve sub 1 arc-sec at the very least. Once your worm is adjusted I imagine you could achieve ~0.75 (maybe better?… seeing dependent).

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Personally my G11G was guiding at 0.75-1.1 arc-sec without too much trouble once I fully understood the worm adjustment procedure and balanced the mount well. That was for the first 18months of ownership. At that point I had a better understanding of the adjustment process and managed to fine tune it a little more with good PEC and I’m down to 0.5-0.6 arc-sec. This is with the default PHD2 settings the whole time.?

I’d aim for sub 1 arc-sec for now. With time and practice, it will come down.?

Thanks Jonathan, I’m hoping to start the process in a day or two as currently in the process of reconfiguring scopes away from the ASIAir setup. I eventually want to go to a dual Z61 setup once I’ve sorted the mount and got familiar with pHD2 and NINA.

Thanks Paul. By baseline I was really looking at how is my mount performing currently so that I can determine what effects the upgrades have.

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However, your point regarding what can I expect from it I’ve never actually thought too much about. Sub 1 would be good I guess as I extend my focal lengths?

Bryn,

Hi Bryn

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having a baseline performance for your mount is a good, systematic way of improving it, especially if your guiding is consistently in the 1.5” region, there’s improvement to be had for sure.

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For now I would suggest a couple of things.

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1- first try to learn PHD2 and use it to get a more realistic guiding performance compared to the watered down version in the AAir. Especially try to get PPEC algorithm going to try and tame your mount’s inherent PE.

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2- once you have a better understanding of the baseline guiding, get a long session in, preferably with unguided tracking (guiding assistant run for about 40 minutes) and then import the resulting guide curve into a number of software available to analyze the behavior of the mount’s moving parts. This analysis will tell you exactly where to improve. It can tell you whether the worm is the more significant cause of PE, or the oldham couplers, etc.

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For the most part step 2 can be done with your guiding sessions as well, as long as they’re long enough. If you feel like you have PHD2 setup and configured properly already, you can kill two birds in one fell swoop. Do your test guide (close to the meridian) for the required 40 minutes and then import the guidelog into PHD2 logviewer to analyze the graph.

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Share the results here and people will be more than happy to guide you (pun somewhat intended).

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Good luck

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Jonathan

So, after a few years of on/off use of an old G8 with Gemini 1 with the AsiAir, I’m keen to up my game by moving to NINA and properly getting into guiding and PEC.?

Additionally, as my mount has steel worms and separate worm blocks, I have got replacement brass worms and single piece worm blocks. With the AsiAir and this setup with a Z61 OTA, I’m getting between 1.5 -2.2 guiding in a bottle 5/6 back garden.I also plan to clean and re-grease.

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So, before I do anything, I’d like to get a baseline of the system performance so that I can compare it with the post upgrade performance.

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My question is, how do I get such a baseline using PHD2/NINA/something else? I’ve only used the ASIAir, so all other software is new to me. But I do at least have some concept of PHD, but no actual experience of using the full product in anger (yet!).

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Any advice/guidance on what to do gratefully received. (I have checked out Michael Herman’s approach in the documents area but not sure this is the best current approach?)

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thanks Bryn

You should post on NINA Discord.? Include you log file.

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Jim W
Phoenix, AZ. USA

Losmandy G11G w/ L6, NINA 3.0 / ASTAP, ASI2600MC Pro, Sky-Watcher Scopes, Canon L Lenses.

Hey Russ,?

Are you using a Refractor or Reflector? OAG or guide scope?

Are you using the Advanced Sequencer in NINA? There is a guiding command trigger called "Restore Guiding" that you can try putting after your Meridian Flip Trigger.

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Are you waking up in the morning and seeing that it isn't happening? or are you monitoring the flip?

Hard to say without more data.

Ryan