Orion 52083 - Manual (Page 36)

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You are now ready to take a long-exposure image through the main telescope
and imaging camera. The SSDSMI-2 will continuously send small correction
factors to the mount’s motor drive to insure steady and accurate tracking
throughout the duration of the exposure, however long that may be.
Other Autoguiding Notes:
• If you are using a German equatorial mount you must calibrate with the tube
on the same side of the mount as it will be when actually imaging.
• The calibration settings need changing if you move the telescope in declina-
tion by more than about five degrees. Select another bright star, and Calibrate
again.
• If you experience bad guiding in declination and cannot resolve it through
adjusting the calibration or aggressiveness, you may have a stiction problem
with your declination drive. Watch which way the star drifts, and turn off the
Guider Enable checkbox (in the Settings window) that pushes the star in that
direction. That will prevent the stiction cycle from happening.
• Make sure that any backlash compensation in the mount is turned off.
• On most telescopes, the Right Ascension drive likes to have some load push-
ing against sidereal tracking. If the mount is balanced such that it is pulling the
mount forwards slightly, the gear teeth may bounce back and forth resulting in
terrible guiding that cannot be corrected by an autoguider. Be sure to always
balance the telescope such that it “lifting the weight” rather than “allowing it
to fall”; i.e. heavier on the East side. Note that this may require balancing the
telescope differently when it is pointed East versus West.
Using Two SSDSMI-2
One very nice feature of the MaxIm DL Essentials software is the ability to
control two SSDSMI-2 cameras simultaneously. This way, you only need one
computer and software program to image and autoguide at the same time.
This feature is also compatible with older SSDSI cameras.
Plug both cameras, one at a time, into the USB ports they will occupy on your
computer. Install the drivers for each camera as detailed prior in this instruc-
tion manual. Now, open the MaxIm DL Essentials software. In the Camera
Control Window that appears, you will notice the Cam 1 and Cam 2 selection
circles are now active in the Expose tab. Choose which camera you would like
to image with by clicking on the appropriate selection circle. You may want to
take a short test exposure with each camera just to make sure everything is
working OK.
Now, click on the Guide tab. You will again see the Cam 1 and Cam 2 selection
circles, and the camera not currently selected for imaging (in the Expose tab)
should now be automatically selected for autoguiding.