Telescope Reviews: Guiding with the SBIG

I am using a Meade Lx200-R (10") and an SBIG ST2000xm camera (built in guide chip). I can connect to The Sky 6 Pro just fine & I use it to guide the scope and it's a great planetarium program.

The docs say when you're guiding in CCDsoft, that TheSky 6 will automatically input the DEC measurement of the object in the field required under AutoGuiding. But that never has worked for me and I wonder why?

If I manually input a number it stays, & the software remembers that number next time I use the program. But never is there a number put in automatically by The Sky.

My issue is that frequently I get 'INVALID MOTION IN X-AXIS' when doing a guide calibration. More often than not it's in Y not X, but the same message. I mess with calibration settings, and sometimes set the time to as long as 10 seconds to get the msg to go away. Then it autoguides fine.

But with the next target, if in a different area of the night sky, I have to mess with the settings all over again for this to work. The non-descript messages saying things like 'invalid motion in x-axis' drive me nuts! Sometimes if the timing is too short, it will say that the star did not move enough, and to increase the time used. That's fine because it tells me what to do. But the more common error, as mentioned above, does not provide a fix.

Thanks - suggestions greatly appreciated. (This is also posted on the SBIG forums)

--------------------
Meade 10" Lx200-R with Mitty Evolution Wedge
Moonlight SCT Focuser
Stellarvue Raptor 90 Triplet
SBIG ST2000 XM Imager
SBIG ST402ME CCD Guider
Canon Digital Rebel DSLR
Meade DSI-c CCD Guide Cam

Please visit my gallery!
http://www.pbase.com/sandiegopaul/

Post Extras