I’m finally getting to the point of purchasing SGP, but wanted to know if there has been any issues with PHD2, SGP and the IF ONAG. Since the ONAG operates in NIR, CCDAP has, at a rather high frequency, had trouble working with Maxim in finding guide stars. Currently, I’m just using PHD and Maxim for image acquisition. John refuses to incorporate PHD into ccdap, so it’s time to move on. Any insights would be appreciated.
I have downloaded the trial version, but due to lousy weather here in the Midwest and FW problems, my time ran out before I could put it to the test…Thanks for any help.
Your question is a little difficult to answer since there are so many dependent variables involved. I use SGP, PHD2, and an IF ONAG-SC in my setup which is an AT8RC at approximately 1625mm focal length. Depending on the selected target, I usually have to spend some time adjusting the ONAG X-Y stage to find a good guide star. How well it works depends heavily on the quality of your guiding camera. My guide camera experience has been with a Lodestar (very good) and a QHY5L-II (not so good but usable).
I have experienced no interfacing difficulties with SGP and the newly revised autofocus routines work well with the ONAG output. The SGP developers have discussed integrating the IF autofocus technology but, to the best of my knowledge, this is still in the discussion stage.
Well thank you Bob. That information is very helpful. I have the xm version of the onag and I have only had to use the x-y platform once to find a star. I'm using an Ultrastar for guiding camera on a 2148mm f/l AGO IDK scope. Problem that I currently having are the random crashes of maxim and not being able to utilize ccdap with PHD2. Hence, the need to move on to SGP.
I am glad to see that the focusing routine has been improved, so thanks for your insights…Jerald
I’m not sure how relevant my input is for you Bob since I am using a Starlight Xpress AO OAG unit with a Lodestar X2 for a guide camera on an RC12 with .8 reducer for 1960mm. But in case it is useful, this set of OAG hardware has been working perfectly with SGP and PHD2 and producing excellent and reliable tracking. It has never failed to find a good guide star in its field of view. So the communication between SGP and PHD2 is right on.
Outstanding! Thanks for your input. I’ve been very pleased with the performance of the IF ONAG and PHD2 also. Guiding is no where near the chore it used to be using a self guiding fw or a MMOAG. Those things drove me nuts at times trying to find a guide star…Jerald