A Guide to PHD Guiding

Copyright 2011, Greg Marshall

Introduction "PHD Guiding" from Stark Labs has to be the most popular guiding software in use today. That's partly be ause of the pri e !free"# but it also happens to be a darn good guiding tool. $ut e%en if it ame with e& ellent do umentation !it does not"# there would still be a need to e&plain many of the fun tions and settings of PHD# espe ially for the beginner. This "guide to guiding" was reated to fill that %oid. Portions of this te&t are lifted dire tly and without shame !but with permission" from notes reated by 'eil Hea o k. (t is based on PHD Guiding %ersion ).)*. Some features may be different for other %ersions. First teps +hen PHD Guiding is laun hed it does not automati ally onne t to your amera or mount. ,ake sure your guide amera is onne ted and powered on# then li k on the amera i on in the lower left orner to bring up a list of supported ameras and sele t your guide amera from the list. Depending on the type of amera you might be prompted to sele t some options. To onne t to your mount# first sele t it from the -,./'T0 menu. The hoi es are 1S2.,# GP/S$# GP('T !at %arious port addresses" or "on3 amera" !meaning a guide port built into the guide amera# if a%ailable". 1S2., is used to onne t to a mount through a software dri%er that is ompliant with the 1S2., standard. GP/S$ and GP('T are hardware de%i es !a essed %ia a /S$ port or parallel port# respe ti%ely" that onne t on the other side to an ST34 ompatible guide port on the mount. +hile parallel ports are rarely found on modern omputers# the GP/S$ de%i e is a %ery popular way to onne t a omputer to a teles ope mount. The "on3 amera" sele tion relies on the dri%er for the guide amera to pro%ide a guide port interfa e. 1fter sele ting the mount type# li k on the teles ope i on to onne t. 1s with the amera# you may ha%e to make additional sele tions depending on the mount and interfa e. The status bar at the bottom of the PHD window shows whether the amera and mount are onne ted !PHD refers to the mount as "s ope"". (t will show "no am"# "no s ope" and 5no al6 !no alibration" initially. This status bar pro%ides other useful information that is often o%erlooked# so get familiar with it. The -T..LS0 menu also has some important features# but we'll get to those later. The other menus are not important !unless you don't read this do ument# in whi h ase the -H7LP0 menu will be essential". .n e the amera is sele ted you an li k on the "loop" i on !*rd from left" to start displaying images from the guide amera. The first thing you want to do is sele t the e&posure time

from the pop3up menu to the right of the "stop" i on. To some degree the e&posure may be defined by the brightness of a%ailable stars and the sensiti%ity of the amera. Howe%er# e&posure duration is also important in that too short an e&posure will yield images that are affe ted by atmospheri disturban es !seeing". /nless seeing onditions are e& ellent you should use e&posures of at least 8 to * se onds. This will a%erage out the %ariations in star position aused by atmospheri disturban es# thus allowing PHD to more a urately al ulate the true entroid of the guide star. .n e you ha%e sele ted the e&posure time !and amera gain# if a%ailable"# li k the "Take Dark" button and ap the guide s ope as dire ted. This will apture a referen e dark frame that will be subtra ted from subse9uent frames from the guide amera. This is important to impro%e the a ura y of entroid al ulation. 'e&t to the e&posure setting is a slider that is supposed to ad:ust the appearan e of the displayed images. ('%e ne%er found it to be useful and it doesn't affe t guiding# :ust how the image is displayed to you. Howe%er# you should play with it to see what position looks best in your system. (n the lower right orner is the 5 amera dialog6 button. ;or some ameras you an li k on this button to hange settings in the amera dri%er. +eb ams typi ally pro%ide su h an interfa e. (f your amera does not support it the button will be grayed out. !he "#rain$ 'ow we ome to the all important and widely misunderstood "brain" i on. 1lthough it is des ribed as "1d%an ed setup"# it is a near ertainty that you will need to hange something in this menu at some point. 1nd e%en if you don't# it's %ery helpful to understand what the options are. 7a h is des ribed below< )" =1 aggressi%eness< 1 setting of )8> means that you are going to apply )8>? of the al ulated orre tion to the =1 mo%ement. This is probably too mu h. 1nywhere from @> to )>> should likely be what you want# sometimes less# but ne%er o%er )>>. 8" =1 Hysteresis< Determines the degree to whi h pre%ious orre tions affe t the urrent al ulation. The idea here is that a 9ui k hange in the measured error in guide star position is probably due to a bad measurement !perhaps due to atmospheri disturban e"# so the orre tion is "diluted" by mi&ing in some of the re ent orre tion trend. (n addition to sensiti%ity to seeing onditions# this setting is influen ed by the hara teristi s of the mount. 1 good mount will not ha%e sudden large hanges in the =1 position# so a large hysteresis setting is appropriate to filter out bad measurements. *" ,a& =1 Duration !millise onds"< Defines how large of a orre tion PHD is allowed to make !in millise onds". 1s with other settings# the idea here is to limit the damage aused by bad measurements of the guide star position. 1llowing a %ery large orre tion !in one y le" might re9uire a large orre tion in the other dire tion later. (f there really is a large error the e&posure is probably ruined anyway# but in any ase it isn't going to be mu h worse by breaking up the orre tion into multiple y les# whi h is what happens when the ma& duration limit is hit. /nlike parameters spe ified in pi&els# the proper setting for su h timing

parameters depends on the guide rate set in the mount. +ith the typi al guide rate of >.AB !A>?"# the ma& =1 duration should be set at something like *>> millise onds# whi h orresponds to a mo%ement of about 8.A ar 3se onds. 1nother onsideration is that in most mounts !espe ially using an ST34 guide port" the guiding pro ess is delayed for the duration of the orre tion pulse# so allowing a large orre tion in one a&is may delay a ne essary orre tion in the other. Theoreti ally# guiding through a serial link to the mount !usually %ia an 1S2., dri%er" ould make the orre tion more 9ui kly# but this is generally not done. The ne&t guide e&posure annot begin until the mount mo%ement is done. 4" Sear h =egion !pi&els"< This defines the siCe of the area ! entered on the pre%ious position of the guide star" to sear h for the star to find its new position. The default of )A pi&els !i.e.# a *> & *> area" is generally 9uite ade9uate. Larger areas take more time to pro ess and if it gets that far off you'%e got a serious problem that is probably not going to re o%er anyway. A" ,in ,otion !pi&els"< This is the minimal amount that the star is allowed to mo%e DwithoutD sending a orre tion. (t applies to both =1 and D72. (f it were set to .8A# the star would be allowed to "float around" a 9uarter pi&el without PHD sending orre tions to the mount. This is like a non3linear %ersion of =1 aggressi%eness< The idea is to eliminate orre tions that are probably erroneous# but in this ase it is done through a threshold rather than a linear modifi ation of the orre tion %alue. 1 setting of >.)A is typi ally good# but it will depend to some degree on the relati%e magnifi ation of the guide system and imaging system as well as on the seeing onditions and the 9uality of the mount. E" 2alibration step !millise onds"< This is the length of a pulse in millise onds that PHD will send to your mount during the alibration pro ess. /nfortunately# no single re ommendation for this parameter will suffi e be ause it depends on what part of the sky you are imaging# what the guide s ope magnifi ation is and what guide rate is set in the mount. Start with the default setting of A>>ms. During alibration# look at the status bar to see how mu h the sele ted star has mo%ed from the initial position !the goal in pi&els is shown in parentheses 3 this number is al ulated by PHD based on the hara teristi s of your amera". (f it is mo%ing :ust a few pi&els per iteration you ould speed things up by using a larger setting for alibration step. .n the other hand# if it e& eeds the goal in :ust a ouple of iterations the alibration may not be a urate. Howe%er# a high degree of a ura y in alibration is not ne essary. (f it takes at least 4 iterations it's probably lose enough. 'ote that this setting also defines the duration of pulses used to manually guide the mount !see -T..LS0 menu". 1fter alibration is done you an safely hange this setting to the duration you want for manual guiding# but remember to hange it ba k before you alibrate again. @" Time lapse !millise onds"< 1 delay after a guide mo%ement before the ne&t guide amera e&posure. (n some ases the mount mo%ement may not be omplete or may not ha%e settled when the "pulse" is done. Setting some delay here will pro%ide time for the mount to settle so that the ne&t e&posure is done entirely at the new position.

F" L7 port and L7 read delay< These settings apply only to guide ameras that use a parallel or serial port on the omputer to ontrol the "long e&posure" mode of a modified web am. $eyond that ( an't gi%e you any information on how to use them. G" D72 guide mode !.ffH1utoH'orthHsouth"< 'ormally you would lea%e this set at "1uto". (f your polar alignment is e& ellent you might prefer ".ff" to a%oid spurious orre tions. (f D72 is drifting you an note whi h way it's drifting and enable orre tions only in the opposite dire tion. This an be ad%antageous be ause it a%oids sending D72 orre tions that aren't really ne essary. )>" D72 1lgorithm !Lowpass filterH=esist swit h"< The default sele tion is 5resist swit h6# whi h means that PHD will make orre tions normally if they are in the same dire tion as re ent orre tions# but will ignore small errors in the other dire tion until they be ome large. The lowpass filter option effe ti%ely a%erages the orre tions so that most spurious mo%ements are a%oided# but small steps to orre t for drift are applied. The latter strikes me as the better hoi e# but it does not seem to work in the urrent %ersion of PHD. The orre tions e&e uted are mu h too small. (f D72 guide mode is set to "'orth" or "South" a setting here of "=esist swit hing" has no affe t# so lowpass filtering should be the better hoi e I if only it would workJ ))" D72 slope weight< The author of PHD# 2raig Stark# doesn't e&plain this well and ( ertainly ha%e no insight# but suggest taking him at his word and lea%e it at "A". )8" ,a& D72 Duration !millise onds"< Same as for ,a& =1 Duration. 'ote< (t has been suggested that setting ma& D72 duration to some %ery high %alue su h as 8>>> millise onds will orre t problems with ertain mounts# su h as the 2elestron 2G7,. The problem that is addressed by this setting is that the D72 motor sometimes won't respond to a small orre tion due to me hani al issues. (t is true that allowing a large D72 orre tion will e%entually o%er ome this fault in the mount# but the e&posure will already be ruined. .ther than fi&ing the mount# the only solution to su h a defe t is to get the polar alignment good enough that D72 guiding an simply be turned off. )* Star ,ass Toleran e< To ensure that it is guiding on the orre t star# PHD he ks the "star mass" !basi ally# how bright it is" on ea h e&posure. (f it hanges by a fa tor greater than the spe ified toleran e# a warning will sound. 1 %alue of >.A is reasonable# but you may sometimes get false warnings due to %arious onditions that affe t the apparent brightness. (n this ase# you an a%oid the warnings by setting a higher toleran e. 1 setting of ).> disables the feature. )4" 'oise redu tion !noneH8&8H*&*"< 'ormally set at "none"# but if you're working with a dim guide star and an't in rease the e&posure time# you might want to try one of the other settings. +hat it does is to trade off resolution for sensiti%ity !like binning# but done after the apture rather than in the amera". This an be espe ially useful for ameras that ha%e %ery small pi&els. Su h ameras may pro%ide more resolution than is useful# but suffer from low sensiti%ity and noise that degrades the a ura y with whi h PHD an al ulate the entroid of

the guide star. )A" 2amera gain!?"< This setting is a%ailable only with some types of ameras and the re ommended setting depends on the amera model. (n general# you want to use the setting that pro%ides the best signal to noise ratio. )E" ;or e alibration ! he k bo&"< +hen he ked# li king the PHD "target" i on will start a alibration y le# then start guiding. +hen un he ked# PHD will use the pre%ious alibration data and begin guiding immediately when the target i on is li ked. PHD automati ally 5 he ks6 this item when laun hed and 5un he ks6 it when a alibration is su essfully ompleted. Howe%er# when you mo%e to a different part of the sky you will ha%e to he k it to do a new alibration. )@" Log info ! he k bo&"< (f he ked# PHD will write all alibration and guiding iteration information into a log file. ( always lea%e this he ked so that ( an later he k how well the guiding performed. 'ot that ( always do su h a he k# but it's good to know that you an in%estigate later if ne essary. PHD reates a new file for ea h date in whi h logging is started. This is mu h better than simply o%erwriting the old file !whi h older %ersions did"# but an still be onfusing if you start logging after midnight on one night and then start it again before midnight the ne&t night. )F" Disable guide output ! he k bo&"< +hen he ked# PHD does e%erything the same# e& ept that no ommands are issued to the mount. This is useful be ause it allows you to study the beha%ior of the mount without guiding. (n parti ular# by disabling the output and enabling logging you reate a log file that an be imported into a program to analyCe the mount's periodi error and generate a periodi error orre tion !P72" file. )G" =13only dither ! he k bo&"< Dithering is a feature that re9uires using both PHD Guiding and 'ebulosity. ;or details on dithering please refer to the 'ebuosity do umentation. 'ormally# dithering is applied to both =1 and D72# but he king this bo& for es it to apply dithering only to =1. This is a good idea if you ha%e problems guiding in D72 be ause it might take too long for D72 to settle after a dither mo%e. 8>" /se subframes ! he k bo&"< Some ameras are apable of reading pi&els from only a portion of the aptured image. (f this sele tion is he ked and your amera supports the feature# PHD will use it to de rease the amount of time it takes to download an image by reading only the area around the guide star !the sear h region". Cali%ration .n e the ad%an ed settings are made we are ready to begin alibration. 1s noted before# alibration is the pro ess of measuring how the stars mo%e !apparent motion" in response to guide ommands. PHD measures both the speed and dire tion of mo%ement. 'ote that it is theoreti ally possible to guide with the amera at any gi%en angle# but you will find it least onfusing to orient the amera su h that =1 and D72 mo%ements orrespond to horiContal and %erti al mo%ement on the s reen. (t's not too important whi h a&is is horiContal or

%erti al# but you should keep it the same so you are familiar with how it mo%es. (f the guide amera has non3s9uare pi&els it's a good idea to turn it su h that =1 mo%ement orresponds to the smaller dimension be ause =1 guiding is more important !indeed# with proper polar alignment# D72 guiding should be unne essary". ;or e&ample# with my ,eade DS( Pro amera the pi&els are G.E & @.A mi rons !horiContal & %erti al"# so ( ha%e it turned G> degrees from what would appear to be normal to get =1 on the more a urate %erti al a&is. 2alibration must be done on a star that is reasonably lose to your imaging target. +ithin a few degrees should be 9uite ade9uate !e& ept near the pole# where guiding gets 9uite tri ky# but is also relati%ely unimportant". 'ote that when doing a meridian flip the dire tions for guiding hange. PHD pro%ides a sele tion under the -T..LS0 menu to flip the alibration data. 1fter slewing to the target area# li k the loop i on to see what stars are a%ailable. Kou ould do the framing of your target first and then alibrate at the final position# but ( like to get alibration out of the way first. +hile PHD is looping !or after you stop looping" you an li k on any star and see the metri s for it in the status bar. Primarily# you want the highest S' !signal to noise ratio". (t's fairly ob%ious that you shouldn't use a dim star for guiding or alibration# but it's less ob%ious that you also don't want one that's too bright. Spe ifi ally# if any pi&el in the star image saturates# the al ulation of the entroid will be degraded. PHD doesn't gi%e a %ery lear indi ation of how bright a star is or whether it is saturated. ;ortunately# the S' ratio will be poor for a saturated star# so you an :ust go by that and pi k the star with the best reading. $e aware# howe%er# that the S' ratio may hange o%er time. PHD has a fun tion to automati ally sele t a star# but it doesn't work well with ameras ('%e seen# so ( don't re ommend it. Kou should also try to a%oid stars that ha%e other stars of similar brightness nearby be ause PHD ould sele t the wrong one. De reasing the siCe of the sear h region might help in su h a ase. .n e a star has been sele ted li k the "target" i on to start alibration. PHD will attempt to mo%e the mount in =1 and you should see the star mo%e. Kou an see the numeri measurement of the mo%ement !in pi&els" in the status bar. (f there is no signifi ant mo%ement after a few iterations# li k "stop" and in rease the alibration step siCe before trying again. PHD will measure the mo%ement in one dire tion# then re%erse dire tion to get ba k to the starting point. (f D72 guiding is enabled it will repeat the pro ess for the D72 a&is. The amount of time needed to mo%e a gi%en amount in either a&is %aries with the =1 and D72 position. (n parti ular# when imaging near the pole =1 will appear to mo%e %ery slowly. /nfortunately# you an't spe ify different step siCes for =1 and D72# so patien e is your best option. PHD usually does not go all the way ba k to the starting point before it stops alibrating and starts guiding# so there will be a slight shift in your framing. ( prefer to alibrate before doing the final framing and amera rotation# then sele ting a new star to guide on !without doing the alibration o%er again". +hen alibration is done PHD will automati ally begin guiding on the sele ted star. 1t this point you may want to stop it as you ad:ust the s ope to get the target framed and fo used be ause PHD will likely lose the guide star during this pro ess and omplain about it. .n e the target is framed and fo used# go ba k to PHD and repeat the pro ess to sele t a guide

star. +hen you did the alibration PHD automati ally un he ked the "for e alibration" option# so you an :ust li k a star and then li k the "target" i on to start guiding. Kou should wait a bit before starting to image. (f D72 Guide ,ode is set to "auto" and 5resist swit h6 PHD will wat h the D72 drift and then fa%or orre tions for the dominant drift dire tion# although it will still make orre tions in the other dire tion if the error gets large enough. To use the "north" or "south" settings K./ are the omputer and need to wat h whi h way it is drifting and sele t north or south a ordingly. !ool !i&e 'ow that basi guiding is in operation you an start the image apture pro ess. $ut this is also a good time to look into the -T..LS0 menu< )" ,anual Guide< $rings up a window with 4 buttons labeled 'orth# South# 7ast and +est. 7a h time you li k on one of these buttons PHD will mo%e the mount in the sele ted dire tion for a period defined by the " alibration step" parameter. .b%iously# you wouldn't normally do this while auto3guiding. (t is sometimes useful to make a small orre tion in position# either to better frame the image you are apturing or to get the guide star away from the edge of the frame# but it's generally too slow to make %ery mu h of a mo%e. (t is also a on%enient way to make sure that PHD is a tually talking to the mount and to determine whi h way stars mo%e on the s reen in response to the guide ommands. ;inally# if for some reason you an't or don't want to let PHD auto3guide# you an wat h the star position and guide it manually using this tool. ( don't re ommend it. 8" 7rase Dark ;rame< ( an't think of any reason you would want to erase the dark frame !as opposed to repla ing it with a new one"# but here's the option# :ust in ase. *" 1uto3sele t star< This feature was dis ussed pre%iously. ( don't re ommend using it. 4" 7nter alibration data< This ould ha%e been a useful feature if it supported sa%ing and loading alibration data toHfrom a file. (nstead# it simply prompts you to manually enter the numbers. The numbers an be found in the log file for an earlier alibration. This would be useful if you were returning to the same target a se ond night# but finding and entering the data is so awkward that you might as well :ust re3 alibrate. 1nother potential use of this feature is to in rease or de rease the 5gain6 for ea h a&is. (f alibration is already done PHD will show the measured rate and angle. To in rease the D72 gain# for e&ample# redu e the D72 rate number. PHD will then use a larger orre tion for a gi%en amount of positional error. This works the same as =1 aggressi%eness# but an be done to either a&is. A" ;lip alibration data< /se this button when you do a meridian flip !and ontinue imaging the same target". PHD will in%ert the pre%ious alibration so that it is orre t for after the flip. E" .%erlay sele tion !'o o%erlayH$ullseyeH;ine GridH2oarse Grid"< +hen one of the o%erlay patterns is sele ted PHD will display the pattern on top of the image. The bullseye is useful if you want to enter a star for some reason. ('%e ne%er used the others.

@" 7nable logging< Same as the "Log info" he k bo& in the ad%an ed setup. F" 7nable star image logging< 1lso logs a small image of the guide star for ea h y le. This would be useful for a really detailed analysis of guiding issues. +ay beyond what almost anyone would want to do. G" 7nable ser%er< This opens a link between PHD and 'ebulosity !another Stark Labs produ t" to support "dithering". This is a useful feature# but beyond the s ope of this do ument. )>" 7nable Debug logging< 1s with "star image logging"# this is only for %ery serious analysis of guiding issues and is mostly used by the author. ))" 7nable Graph< This is what you wantJ 1s soon as you start guiding# enable this graph and mo%e the window it brings up su h that you an see the guide star# the PHD status bar and the graph. Some of the ad%an ed setup parameters an be ad:usted in real time within the graph window. This is %ery useful. This is also where you will find the display of =,S error# the best measure of how your guiding is performing. =,S is al ulated o%er the same period as the graph# whi h an be ad:usted to A># )>># 8A> or A>> iterations !personally# ( wish that the B a&is of the graph were true time rather than :ust iterations# but so be it". =emember that the =,S error %alue shown is only for the =1 a&is. )8" 7nable Star profile< This sele tion brings up a window that shows you a detailed graph of the most re ent a 9uisition of the guide star image. This an help you determine whether you ha%e a good guide star. )*" 7nable manual lo k position< This option allows you to pla e the guide star at a spe ifi lo ation in BHK oordinates of the guide amera. This is rarely useful# but if you are parti ularly anal# you ould spe ify the enter of the image to make e%erything %ery neat and tidy. .r you ould spe ify something like !)>># )>>" so that the guide errors are easy to e%aluate arithmeti ally. PHD will prompt you for the oordinates you want and when you start guiding it will attempt to mo%e the sele ted star to the spe ified oordinates. !he Graph 7nabling !and wat hing" the graph is highly re ommended. The buttons to the left of the graph are des ribed below# starting with the top button< )" HoriContal s ale< 2li k to toggle between A># )>># 8A> or A>> points. 'ote that these are guiding y les# whi h ha%e a somewhat %ariable time omponent# so there is no spe ifi time s ale to the plot. 8" Lerti al data type< 2li k to toggle between =1HD72 and d&Hdy modes. The former is the default and shows the errors in terms of the =1 and D72 a&es of the mount. "d&Hdy" mode instead shows the errors in terms of the image aptured from the amera. How the two

modes orrespond depends on the rotation of your guide amera. Kou an hange the olors of the plot lines by doing a "shift li k" !for =1Hd&" or " ontrol li k" !for D72Hdy" on this button. *" Hide< 2li k to hide the graph. Data will still be olle ted and when you enable the graph again you an still see up to A>> "old" points. 4" 2lear< 2li k to reset the graph and lear the os illation and =,S error al ulations. This is useful when you ha%e made a hange in the setup and want to see the results without influen e from pre%ious settings. $elow the graph are a few sele tors for some of the "brain" settings. They work the same as under the "brain" menu# but an be hanged here on the fly. The other ad%an ed settings an only be hanged in the "brain" menu# whi h re9uires you to stop guiding. The settable parameters are =1 aggressi%eness# =1 hysteresis# ,inimum motion# ,a& =1 duration# ,a& D72 duration and D72 guide mode. General Guiding Concepts That o%ers :ust about e%erything in PHD Guiding# but there are some general omments on guiding that should be understood< Di''erential Fle(ure ;irst and most importantly# guiding uses one amera to ontrol the pointing angle of another. (t seems ob%ious that for this to work there must be a fi&ed# solid onne tion between the two imaging systems. +hat is not so ob%ious is that a %ery small amount of differen e between them !well below unaided human per eption" an destroy the usefulness of guiding. This problem an be greatly redu ed by using either an off3a&is guider system or a dual3 hip amera !essentially# two ameras in one"# but su h systems ha%e other issues# so they are not always the right hoi e. Polar Align&ent 1lso %ery important is polar alignment and the idea that you should stri%e to eliminate the need for guiding. (n parti ular# D72 guiding should# for the most part# be totally unne essary. (f polar alignment is absolutely perfe t# %irtually all D72 guiding orre tions ome from fa tors that are short3term aberrations that should not be orre ted for be ause they will go away by themsel%es. The only real e& eption is that atmospheri refra tion hanges slightly with the thi kness of the atmosphere and therefore hanges the apparent position of the stars !albeit %ery slowly" as you tra k the sky. +hen polar alignment is not perfe t you get "D72 drift" 3 apparent motion of stars in de lination. The dire tion and magnitude of this drift depends on both the dire tion and magnitude of the alignment error and what part of the sky you're looking at. Howe%er# for a gi%en mis3alignment and imaging target# D72 drift will always be in the same dire tion !north or south". (f you disable guiding outputs and wat h the PHD

window you an see whi h way it drifts !e%entually you'll see the star mo%e away from the rosshair# but it's 9ui ker to :ust wat h the status bar and see whi h dire tion PHD is predominantly trying to mo%e the mount# paying attention only to northHsouth orre tions". (f polar alignment is good the a%erage northHsouth orre tion will be near Cero. (f there are a lot of orre tions in both dire tions it is probably aused by atmospheri disturban e !"seeing"". Kou should not try to orre t for seeing be ause the system annot respond 9ui kly enough to do any good and the a%erage will be near Cero anyway. $ut if there is a "trend" toward either north or south you an enable orre tion for :ust the opposite dire tion. .ther fa tors might still ause errors in the other dire tion# but the onstant drift will soon ompensate for it. The amount and dire tion of the D72 drift an also be used to orre t your polar alignment. This is alled "drift alignment"# but ( won't go into the details here. D)C Guiding 1s indi ated abo%e# you should not try to orre t for errors aused by seeing. 1nother reason to minimiCe orre tions in D72 is that# unlike the =1 a&is# if orre tions are allowed in both dire tions of D72 the motor has to hange dire tion and you are then dealing with ba klash# whi h an really ompli ate things. (f you allow D72 orre tions in :ust one dire tion the gears will always be engaged in the same way !unless some other for e# su h as wind# pushes it the other way"# produ ing mu h more onsistent results. This is not an issue !normally" with =1 guiding be ause the motor is always mo%ing west 3 guiding simply hanges the speed. (n most mounts you an set the "guide rate". There are se%eral different ways of spe ifying guide rate# but they all relate to the normal tra king rate !sidereal rate". (n almost all ases a "west" orre tion annot e& eed two times sidereal rate and an "east" orre tion at most stops all =1 motion. That is# it ne%er re%erses dire tion in =1 for guiding. +hile there are some mounts that are apable of re%ersing dire tion for =1 guiding# you should definitely a%oid su h settings. Determining the best guide rate is dis ussed in more detail below. *A #alance $e ause the =1 motor is always going forward# we an sele t a "bias" in the balan e to impro%e tra king onsisten y. That is# by shifting the ounterweight slightly# gra%ity keeps the gears engaged on the same sides of the teeth at all times. (t is preferable to bias the balan e toward the east so that the motor is always pushing up on the weight rather than letting it down. Howe%er# this means that when you mo%e from one side of the meridian to the other you ha%e to hange the balan e. Kou don't want to loosen the lut hes to he k the balan e in the middle of an imaging session# so it's a good idea to e&periment with balan e beforehand and mark positions on the ounterweight shaft for the two possible positions of the weights. Guide yste& Magni'ication The relationship between the magnifi ations of the guide system and imaging system is somewhat fle&ible# but annot be totally ignored. ,agnifi ation is also referred to as "image s ale" and is e&pressed as ar 3se onds per pi&el. The guide amera an ha%e a higher

magnifi ation !lower ar 3se onds per pi&el" than the imaging system# but if the guiding system magnifi ation is %ery high you may ha%e trouble finding a good guide star# parti ularly sin e high magnifi ation usually means a slower fo al ratio. .n the other hand# a guiding system an ha%e lower magnifi ation than the imager be ause PHD !and other guiding software" an find the enter of the guide star to mu h finer resolution than an indi%idual pi&el. $ut if you take this too far guiding performan e will suffer. ( would re ommend that the image s ale of the guide system be no more than two times that of the imager !half the magnifi ation". Guide tar +uality There is also some fle&ibility in the 9uality of the guide star image. ;or e&ample# an ine&pensi%e a hromati refra tor will usually work %ery well# although you might get %ery slightly better performan e from an 7D doublet or true apo hromati s ope. (t has been said !( know be ause ('%e said it myself" that guiding an a tually be better with a slightly out of fo us image. This is theoreti ally true be ause if a star is so tightly fo used that all its energy lands on :ust one pi&el the software annot determine the star's entroid to anything smaller than that one pi&el. 'ormally# the energy is spread o%er many pi&els and the brightness at ea h lo ation an be used to pro:e t where the enter is to a mu h higher pre ision. Howe%er# in the real world it almost ne%er happens that a star image is that well rendered on the image sensor# espe ially if the s ope is not of top 9uality. (n fa t# ( re ommend that most people should fo us their guide s ope as well as possible be ause this will yield the greatest brightness and signal3to3noise ratio. Sin e guiding is done with relati%ely short e&posures# sensiti%ity of the system is often the most riti al feature and a fuCCy image greatly redu es the ability of the amera to leanly dete t the guide star. Pi(els and Durations PHD does not know anything about your magnifi ationHimage s ale !some guiding programs do". (t also doesn't know your guide rate or what part of the sky you are imaging. (t doesn't really need to know these things to do its :ob# but it is helpful for you to understand the relationships between these parameters. ;irst# al ulate your image s ale with this formula< imageMs ale N ar sin!pi&elMsiCe H fo alMlength" D *E>> 5pi&elMsiCe6 and 5fo alMlength6 must be in the same units. Sin e pi&el siCes are typi ally stated in mi rons and fo al lengths in millimeters# di%ide the pi&el siCe by )>>> to on%ert it to millimeters. The ar sin fun tion returns the image s ale in degrees per pi&el. ,ultiplying by *E>> !E> minutes H degree D E> se onds H minute" gi%es you ar 3se onds per pi&el. Kou an use this formula for both the guide system and the imaging system. =emember that pi&els may ha%e different dimensions for height and width# in whi h ase the image s ale is different for the two a&es. /se the effe ti%e fo al length of the s ope after a ounting for any fo al redu er or e&tender.

Sidereal rate is )A degrees per hour# whi h !%ery on%eniently" on%erts to )A ar 3minutes per minute or )A ar 3se onds per se ond. So without guiding# an e9uatorial mount is mo%ing west !in =1" at appro&imately )A ar 3se onds per se ond and does not mo%e at all in D72. This rate is the same as the apparent motion of the stars# so we an think of it as 5not mo%ing6. Guide rates are spe ified as a fra tion of sidereal rate# but there are se%eral ways of e&pressing it< (f the a%ailable guide rates are all greater than 5)6 !usually up to 586"# the number is the multiplier applied to sidereal rate for a +7ST orre tion. (f the a%ailable rates are 5)6 or less# the number represents the fra tion of sidereal rate that is added to !+7ST" or subtra ted from !71ST" the normal motion rate. That is# the number represents the apparent rate of motion I what we would see looking through an eyepie e. (f the guide rate is spe ified as a per entage this is the same as the se ond e&ample# e& ept that the fra tion is e&pressed as a per entage. So a typi al guide rate might be gi%en as 5).AB6# 5>.AB6 or 5A>?6. These all mean the same thing. !Personally# ( think the first method# used by .rion# is onfusing and should be a%oided. The se ond method is mu h better# but is too easily onfused with the first. So the third method is the easiest and most lear. 'aturally# it is probably the least ommonly used." 1 guiding system ontrols the motion of the mount by ontrolling the duration of a pulse. +hen an ST34 guide port is used the omputer does the timing dire tly. ;or most 1S2., interfa es the omputer al ulates the duration and sends this information to the mount# but the a tual timing is handled by the pro essor in the mount. (n either ase# there is a desirable range for the pulse duration< (f it is too long you ould be missing hanges in the tra king while it is e&e uting the mo%e. (f it is too short the a ura y of mo%ements suffers be ause the pro essor annot measure the time period that pre isely !espe ially if it is doing other things at the same time". So the guide rate should be sele ted su h that typi al guiding ommands are in the range of )> to *>> millise onds. The image s ale of the guide system will affe t this hoi e. (n most ases the image s ale will be 8 to A ar 3se onds per pi&el and a guide rate of A>? is re ommended. (f the image s ale is greater than A !su h as when using a %ery short guide s ope" a higher guide rate is probably appropriate I as mu h as )>>?. (f the image s ale is less than 8 you might want to go down to 8A?. This would often be the ase when using an off3a&is guider through a long 's ope su h as an S2T. (n any of these ases# the hara teristi s of the mount might also influen e the hoi e of guide rate. 1 %ery well beha%ed mount should use a slower rate to get the best pre ision in pulse timing# but one that mo%es errati ally might need a faster guide rate to keep the pulses reasonably short. 'ote that the term 5sidereal rate6 is really only appropriate for =1 motion# but mounts use the e9ui%alent motor speed to define D72 guide rates. +hen setting the alibration step siCe you an use image s ale to determine how many pi&els it will mo%e per step. ;or e&ample# if the image s ale is 8.A ar 3se onds per pi&el and you set the step siCe to )>>> millise onds !) se ond" with a guide rate of A>? you ha%e< !!)A ar 3se onds H se ond" D ) se ond D A>?" H !8.A ar 3se onds H pi&el" N * pi&els This may be a reasonable %alue# but wat h the status bar during alibration for the rightmost

number !in parentheses". (t is the 5target6 for the total mo%ement# as determined by PHD. Kou want to rea h that goal in A to )> steps# so di%ide the number by A to )> to determine your goal for pi&els per step. Howe%er# the abo%e is really only true when D72 is near Cero. 1s D72 approa hes G> !or 3G>" degrees the amount of mo%ement in =1 de reases proportionately. ;or e&ample# at 4A degrees D72 you would want to double the step siCe. Kou might noti e that this suggests that apparent motion be omes Cero at the pole. That is orre t and it means that you really an't guide at the pole. 1ll of the motion is rotation around the pole. +hen imaging e%en *> degrees away from the pole !D72 0 E>" you will noti e that you ha%e to signifi antly in rease the alibration step siCe and within )> degrees !D72 0 F>" it :ust gets ridi ulous. ensiti,ity and *esolution There is a %ery real trade3off between sensiti%ity and resolution. ;or a gi%en siCe of sensor hip# to get higher resolution you make the pi&els smaller# but that de reases the sensiti%ity. So a guide amera should be sele ted based on the needs of both resolution !image s ale" and sensiti%ity. 1 %ery short guide s ope will need higher resolution to get a suitable image s ale# but that will then re9uire either longer e&posures !thus re9uiring a better 9uality mount" or a fast fo al ratio in the guide s ope. ,ost ameras used for guiding do not support binning. That's unfortunate be ause a hoi e of binning ratios would allow you to ad:ust the trade3off between sensiti%ity and resolution to mat h the e9uipment and situation. $e ause sensiti%ity and low noise are important to guiding# a olor amera should pretty mu h ne%er be used. The olor filters substantially redu e the amount of light that rea hes the sensor. ;urthermore# differen es in brightness between red# green and blue filters will ause errors in al ulating the lo ation of the guide star's entroid. -nderstanding *M 5=,S6 stands for 5root mean s9uare6 and it is a ommon way of spe ifying the a%erage !mean" magnitude of a %arying signal# espe ially one that goes both abo%e and below the Cero point# be ause it a ounts for the magnitude without regard for the dire tion !positi%e or negati%e". ;or e&ample# 12 %oltages are usually e&pressed as an =,S %alue. ;or a sine wa%e the =,S %alue is pretty easy to understand I it's basi ally the a%erage o%er a full y le where the negati%e portion is in%erted !=,S %alues are# therefore# always positi%e". $ut for a more omple& signal# su h as the error in the position of a guide star# short term errors ha%e relati%ely little effe t on the =,S. This is apparent when you look at the PHD guiding graph and see spots where the error is one or two pi&els# but the =,S %alue shown is mu h less than one pi&el. (ndeed# if there is any 5bias6 in the error !if =1 tends to stay a bit abo%e or below the line"# the =,S will probably be dominated by this bias. 1nd if the bias stays the same through a whole sub3e&posure the resulting image 9uality may be better than the =,S %alue would suggest !be ause what really matters is that the position stays onstant# not that it is e&a tly where it's supposed to be"# but that is not usually what happens. =,S tells you the range o%er whi h most of the energy from a star will be distributed. That is

not to say that an =,S of >.8 pi&els means that the star image !or e%en most of the star image" will be :ust >.8 pi&els in diameter. The nominal star siCe will be determined by the opti al system and then the error in guiding will 5enlarge6 the star image. /nless something is wrong with the system# most of the error will be in the =1 a&is# so the star will be elongated by an amount proportional to the =,S %alue !remember that PHD shows =,S only for the =1 a&is". 1lthough =,S is a great metri of guiding performan e# it doesn't tell the whole story in terms of image 9uality. ;or e&ample# say a star is bright enough that it is twi e the saturation le%el of the sensor. 7%en though most of the energy is onfined to the area defined by the opti s and =,S error# pi&els at half the peak le%el will re ord :ust as brightly as the peak and so the error will appear larger. 1 similar effe t happens when we stret h an image to bring out faint details. Stars that were .O before the stret h be ome saturated and more elongated. ( don't know of any easy way to 9uantify the image 9uality that will result from a gi%en guide graph. The best that we an do is to make ad:ustments to get the =,S as low as possible and wat h out for larger# short term errors. Connections (n general# there are two ways to onne t the omputer to the mount< 1n ST34 ompatible guide port or a proprietary interfa e !typi ally an =S38*8 serial interfa e". The latter type is proprietary to ea h mount manufa turer be ause there is no standard interfa e definition. There is# howe%er# a standard software abstra tion of the interfa e# the 1S2., standard. 'ot so many years ago# omputers had parallel printer ports that ould be easily set up to dri%e an ST34 interfa e. 'ow that parallel ports are pretty mu h none&istent# a de%i e su h as the GP/S$ from Shoestring 1stronomy is typi ally used instead. (t plugs into a /S$ port on the omputer on one side and the mount's ST34 guide port on the other. !'ote that mount manufa turers usually don't use the ST34 designation# as that name omes from an S$(G produ t# a stand3alone guide system." ,ost mounts also ha%e some way to onne t dire tly to a omputer 3 the proprietary interfa e. (t is usually an =S38*8 serial interfa e and# again# many modern omputers do not ha%e su h ports on them and a /S$3to3serial adapter is re9uired. These are simple and ine&pensi%e de%i es that generally work pretty well# but often ha%e the annoying beha%ior that the %irtual 2., port assigned to the de%i e hanges ea h time you plug it in to a different /S$ port. (t's a good idea to always use the same /S$ port for these adapters so you don't ha%e to hange settings in your software. .n e the physi al onne tion is made you must sele t the interfa e !i.e.# sele t whi h dri%er to use" in PHD and other appli ation software. Dealing .ith eeing 1tmospheri disturban es ause the apparent position of the stars to %ary slightly# but 9ui kly# and this an be problemati for guiding !the degree of su h disturban e is alled "seeing"". +ith an adapti%e opti s !1." system it is a tually possible to "guide out" these disturban es and produ e %ery sharp images. Howe%er# this re9uires a lot of speed in all the omponents<

The guide amera must produ e a lean guide star image# the omputer must pro ess this image and the 1. system must respond to guiding ommands all within a small fra tion of a se ond. Perhaps the hardest part of this is getting a good guide star image with su h a short e&posure. 1. units are generally fast enough to handle moderate seeing onditions# although this apability does not ome heaply. The other way to deal with seeing is to a%erage the guide star image o%er a long enough period that the effe ts of seeing are mostly eliminated. This usually re9uires a period of at least 8 or * se onds. The easiest way to do it# of ourse# is to simply use an e&posure time of at least 8 or * se onds and let the amera integrate the star image. ,any astro3photographers try to set the e&posure time as low as possible so that orre tions an be made to the mount position before they be ome too large. Howe%er# unless seeing onditions are e& ellent the " orre tions" sent to the mount will be erroneous and guiding will be worse rather than better. Conclusion (n fa t# it is wise to adopt the attitude that measuring the position of a guide star is always impre ise e& ept when you a%erage many measurements o%er a signifi ant period of time. Therefore# the positional errors dete ted in a single y le should be treated not as "fa ts" but as "suggestions" of what might be a good way to mo%e the mount. Parameters su h as =1 aggressi%eness# =1 hysteresis and minHma& durations are the tools to implement this attitude. +hen you ombine the abo%e attitude with the importan e of polar alignment and minimal fle&ure# the approa h to optimal guiding an be summed up as 5The best guided mount is the least guided mount6. That is# you should stri%e to minimiCe the fre9uen y and magnitude of guiding orre tions.