Autoguide Option 3 Test

Time/Date

03072023T1800-2345

People

Shrey, Roy(left at 1930), Onkar, Connor(arrived at HHMM)

Spaces Occupied

401, 433C, Dome

Goals

• Test Autoguiding option 2 & 3 mentioned in previous(enter exact date) blog post

• Attempt autoguiding of objects

Log

• Opened the dome at 18:10

• Connected the finder scope camera through the LBD2 cable and switched it on using the network outlet

• Attached the ZWO Color camera with the filter wheel on-axis through the Icron extender box

  • should be noted visible filter was unscrewed from the filter wheel assembly due to the adapter being stuck

• connected dc to asi178mm via USB cable in control room

• connected st4 to asi178mm

• Connected the pins from the ST4 cable to the Autoguider pins on the TCS BackPanel in the following way:

  • Blue = Unused

  • Yellow = GND → Pin 6

  • Green = West  → Pin 4

  • Red = South → Pin 2

  • Black = North → Pin 1

  • White = East → Pin 3

• Connected PHD2 → Guide → Connect Equipment and connected ASI Telescope ST4 Driver (ASCOM) in Mount

• Connected PHD2 → Guide → Connect Equipment and connected ASI482MC in camera

• attempted to view capella

  • finder scope see nothing (completely black), static on on-axis

  • receiving error about USBst4 drivers "an error occurred while trying to connect to your zwo usbst4 mount"

  • unplugged and plugged back in telescope cameras, still nothing

  • unplugged usb from asi178mm to dc, finder scope suddenly works

  • slewed to capella again, no vis on-axis

• slewed to moon

  • took some purdy pictures

  • verified spotter and color cameras are working

• driver woes

  • attempting to download the zwo usbst4 mount drivers

  • reconnected asi178mm in control room, st4 connection still there

  • downloading and installing "ASIStudio Windows X64" and "ZWO ASCOM" onto DC

  • now getting filter wheel errors as well as the same errors from before

  • disconnecting filter wheel from icron extender, going to figure this out later -onkar

• slewed to moon

  • verified cameras working

  • focus slightly off for onaxis but whatever

• slewing to capella

  • nailed it

  • took some pics

  • attempting autoguiding

• autoguiding attempt #2

  • connor takes helm

  • started phd2

  • connected to color camera

  • connected to mount

  • asi178mm connected back to dc, st4 side connected to ag port

  • clicked on circle arrows button to begin looping, taking two second exposures

  • Tara and Nat join (When)

  • disconnected color camera in sharpcap

  • switched to aux track to sim bad tracking

  • undo that

  • changed to 1-second exposure on phd2

  • phd2 auto-detected capella, yay

  • attempted movement, phd2 yelled at us, told us to calibrate at -20 to +20 dec

    • clicked "ok" and attempted anyway

    • went to tcs->telescope->rates-handpaddle rates->guide rate

    • changed from 5 to 100 arcsec/sec

  • attempting again

    • TOO FAST

    • changing guide rate in tcs to 10

  • third attempt

    • too slow

    • changed to 25

  • fourth attempt

    • still too slow

    • changed to 50

  • fifth attempt

    • still too slow

    • going calibrate and stop being dumb

• calibration time

  • slewed to sirius

  • RA/DEC 

    06h 
    46m
    10.2s
    -16°
    45'
    02.3"

  • refocused to 2274.3

  • reconnected camera to phd2, having trouble following star still at 0.01seconds
    
    

  • consulting manual: https://openphdguiding.org/PHD2_User_Guide.pdf

  • reset guide rate to 5, going to let it calibrate properly

  • "it needs to see how fast the scope moves when it sends pulses" -connor

  • attempting calibration

    • changed guide rate to 1 arcsec/sec

    • clicked on the "guiding button" the one that looks like a radar

    • green crosshairs, random flashing red every now and then

    • says "guiding" so WORKING????

• stress testing phd2

  • since it works, want to see how well it works

  • slewed to mars

    • too dim or too fuzzy

  • slewed to Gaia DR2 810952158347151360

    • worked

  • we changed phd2 to use finderscope

    • exposure at 0.5 seconds

    • successfully calibrated event with filled of stars

  • slewed to m42, still using finderscope for phd2

    • successfully tracked center of nebula

ToDo

• next steps for autoguiding

  • acquire usb2st4 adapter

  • acquire amp9 connector

  • make permanent cable

  • test permanent solution

  • figure out sharcapp ascom autoguiding maybe

• look into colour space and whats better for color camera

  • (RGB24, RAW16)

• see what's wrong with the filter wheel drivers

Notes

Overall connections

• ASI482mm → icron USB extender → data computer → USB3.0 cable → ASI178mm → st4 cable → each color to alligator clip → respective alligator clip to autoguide port

Weather

Data

Normal place, synced to Google Drive