Mesu 200, SGP, PHD2 and Pointing Models

Sequence Generator Equipment Compatibility
1

Hi,

I am trying to get my recently acquired Mesu 200 mount up and running with SGP. My question is whether people using a Mesu 200 use a pointing model at all? Everything works, the mount is controlled properly and I have the encoders set to ‘ignore’ so that plate solve centring works very well (I was struggling with the encoders set to ‘Polite’ as I thought they should be, but found the ‘Ignore’ fix on here). I have been told that I can expect a guiding accuracy of around 0.2”, but that is from people using Maxim with a pointing model. Last night I created a pointing model, but that seemed to create more issues and I found that guiding was most stable with no model at all. I was achieving an error of around 0.5” - not bad, but not the holy grail of 0.2”…

Please can Mesu users share their experiences and how they have their systems setup for optimum operation.

Many thanks,

Gav.

2

Mesu user for years and I know several others … we “never” use a pointing model, just guide. We use SGP and PHD … I used to have a very small pointing model to make sure initial slews are not to far of … but even then I never saw a real issue …
Don’t get to hang up on error’s, lots of that is also seeing dependent …
/Yves

3

Hello Yves, thank you for your reply.

That is very interesting and you are absolutely right, my main issue has been my sky quality so far. I haven’t had a chance to try the mount out under a ‘clear’ sky yet! So, I think I am panicking totally unnecessarily.

I had a bit of a play last night, without a pointing model, and I notice that the initial slew is not spot on, but platesolve centring takes me to within a couple of pixels, if not 0 pixels (!) of the target - impressive. I am going to try a small pointing model (as a kind of 3 star alignment) to improve on the initial slew.

All in all the mount is working extremely well and I just need this weather to pass through to be able to use it properly.

Thanks,

Gav.

4

Yup no pointing model. Just stock settings and let SGP do the rest of the work

5

Thanks HomerPepsi.
I had the chance to play last night and it was working beautifully. The sky was only reasonable, but between the clouds, tracking and guiding was superb, at times hitting the 0.2x” zone. I’m one very happy imager!
I suppose the only advantage of a pointing model would be to increase accuracy on the initial slew to a target. I am finding that it is around 1400px off target initially, but with one or two iterations it is bang on target.
Bring on some clear dark skies now please!
Gav.