ASIAir - Improve Guiding Performance

ASIAir – Improve Guiding Performance

This video is jampacked with information, and it might be hard to keep it all straight.   Therefore, I’d recommend reading two specific articles that will clear up any confusion.  The first is from East Wind Astrophotography.  He goes into detail on how to adjust the Guiding Speed, Aggression, and Calibration Step parameters.

The second article is actually a forum post on ZWO’s website.  This is what I followed to fix the poor guiding on the AM5N mount.  Be sure to follow the link in the second paragraph of the post to see even more detailed information on the guide settings.  The main takeaway is that most harmonic mounts need faster corrections and a faster guide exposure.  So, if you are encountering lots of large RA spikes on the guiding graph, it could be because your guide exposure is too long and your corrections are too aggressive.   Try using a 1 second guide exposure, or even a 0.5 second exposure, with a lower RA / Dec aggression and also a lower Max RA / Dec Duration.

Remember, every mount is unique.  It’s up to you to determine the best settings for your mount(s).  You can try starting with different values that you see online, at least that gives you a starting point, but you’ll want to go through this process as methodically as possible.  As noted in the East Wind article, it’s best to start with the Guiding Speed.  This will affect all of the other variables, so you should find the best performing Guiding Speed first.  I show this in the video.

Once you’ve found the best Guiding Speed, adjust the Max RA / Dec Duration and RA / Dec Aggression.   These will affect the red and blue lines on the graph.  Your goal is to smooth out the lines and keep them along the 0* line as much as possible.  Whenever you update a variable, sit back and watch the graph for at least 20 seconds to see what impact it has.  Be sure to turn on the “Corrections” as well, if you haven’t done so already.

All of these tests should be performed while the telescope and mount are aimed up to the Celestial Equator in the southern sky, near the Meridian.  You don’t want to try to improve your guiding performance when you’re aimed up near the North Celestial Pole, as the stars aren’t moving as much in that region of the sky.  The initial guiding calibration should be done along the Celestial Equator each night for the best results.