Equipment suitability

I found a link to this software because of a query posted elsewhere. I have an RCX400 scope (equivalent to LX200GPS with focusing) and a Starlight Xpress M25C (one-shot-colour) camera with Starlight Xpress active optics unit. I hope to master PHD2 for autoguiding. I haven’t seen any reference to this equipment in the help file (so far). Can anyone advise on likely compatibility? I have previously used Maxim DL for everything but not happy with its autoguiding.
TIA
Lawrence Harris

No reason it should not work if it works with MaxIm DL. I do not have a Meade but suspect some here do.

As far as the guiding, I never had any significant guiding issues with MaxIm. I do like PhD better but mainly because it’s guide visualization features are much better which lets one tweak settings and diagnose guiding issues more easily. It’s support is also about 10X better than MaxIm DL - in fact better than most software, period.

Having said that, and don’t take this the wrong way, but the people I have known that have used an LX200 for imaging have all had guide problems. It is not exactly a precise mount for imaging and although it can work, it can be frustrating compared to better mounts. If there is an advantage to using PhD (instead of MaxIm DL) for the LX200 it is in the ability I mentioned above to more easily see what is not working right and maybe that can help to deal with whatever issues the mount presents.

1 Like

Hi Lawrence, welcome to SGP! You can use SGP for a trial period of 45 days, so the best thing would be to download the latest release version (2.3) (or you could try the beta 2.4) and try the software out with your equipment:
http://mainsequencesoftware.com/Releases

SGP should be able to handle it all without a problem, AFAIK. If there are ascom drivers for everything you’re good to go.

Hi there CCDMan; Maxim is often OK but I have really had to fight its guiding problems so I am now concentrating on PHD2. Actually the RCX400 is fine in most respects as a telescope. When properly set up (PE correction etc) it does guide very well. My previous LX200s were also fine once adjusted for PEC etc. I look forward to setting it up with SGP.

Thanks!

Lawrence

Thanks for the kind words, CCDMan. On the subject of visualization features, we did put a lot of effort into that area. On a related note, I just released the initial version of a tool for looking at your phd2 guide logs postmortem – PHD2 Log Viewer.

Andy

Wow, and it just got ever better. Looks great. I will install it immediately!

Thanks Andy,
This looks really helpful.

Mark