PHD Calibration

I set my imaging rig up each time I capture data, so I need to re-calibrate PHD2 each time I set up. I like to calibrate as suggested in PHD2 best practices on a star near Dec 0 and within an hour of the meridian. I’d really like to be able to set SGP to slew to that location at the start of the sequence. Is there a way to do that?

Since you already use PHD2, you can use its “Drift Alignment” tool. Its very first step is a slewing telescope to where you want :slight_smile:

Thank you Jinyoung, but I’m not looking for polar alignment help. I used PHD2 drift alignment tool for a few years with great success, but now I use a Polemaster and get excellent PA in about 5 minutes.

What I am looking for is help finding a target for PHD2 calibration which is best done at the location I described.

Oh I didn’t mean that using the feature for polar alignment. Just for slewing to the area - near Dec 0 and within an hour of the meridian, without involving any other program. But anyway, I re-read your post then realized you want the slewing to be automated, right?

If the “guide” tab had an option for it, it would have been useful… I just thought about a dummy target but it won’t be elegant. :man_shrugging:

I manually do this by slewing with the planetarium and hitting calibrate in PHD2. I have never thought about doing it automatically but wonder if this might work:

Clear out PHD2 calibration and check keep calibration. Set up initial calibration target in sequence with short dummy exposure. Follow on targets are the imaging ones.

I’m wondering if the absence of a calibration in PHD2 will trigger one.

Thank you both. The dummy target seems workable. I may have to make a new feature request. I have very little experience with coding, but it seems like SGP already has a slewing function so it might not be a big deal to make this happen.

If you don’t change your guiding setup, you don’t have to recalibrate. If you do, maybe consider how to keep that part assembled and identical from night to night?

Most of my system is set up with marriage marks so everything is repeatable with regard to orientation. Unfortunately that’s not possible with the guide scope. The guide scope is mounted to the focuser tube which rotates. There are too many variables to make the orientation repeatable enough to allow re-using a calibration.