Calibrate Guider in Voyager questions

Voyager Equipment Setup & Compatibility
1

I usually calibrate my OAG in PHD2 and only recalibrate when I rotate my camera.

Now that I’m getting used to letting Voyager to do all the work, I’m now looking at having Voyager do the calibration. That way I don’t have to worry about calibration whenever I rotate the camera. I can just run my Dragscript.

If I check the calibrate guide box in the sequence:
Does Voyager recalibrate after a meridian flip?
Should I uncheck “Auto Restore Calibration” in PHD2?

I’m asking because last session I checked the “Calibrate Guide” box. Everything seemed to work fine until the meridian flip. After that guiding was terrible and I had to stop the script and do my calibration in PHD2 (at the meridian). In PHD2 I have “Auto Restore Calibration” checked.

2

Hi Jamie. If you flag calibrate in guide tab of sequence Voyager will calibrate guide for you at begin of sequence and at meridian flip . Also will retry calibration on case of reiterate worst guiding. So configure phd2 to not ruin calibration done during sequence.

All the best
Leonardo

3

Thanks Leonardo!

I got it working. For reference I have a Celestron CGEMII and use an OAG and use ASCOM pulse guiding.

Last night I ran a sequence and checked the “calibrate guide” box in Voyager and set my exposure and binning for that in the sequence guide/dithering tab. I left the PHD2 settings as they were: use multiple stars, auto restore calibration -the settings that worked before integrating calibration with Voyager.

All worked fine. This time I sat and watched the process. I picked an item close to the meridian to check the guiding behavior before and after, and yes once it flipped, Voyager had PHD2 recalibrate. Guiding worked fine.

I looked at the Voyager log from the previous night that gave me trouble. I saw that I was loosing the guide star before it flipped, so the issue was probably poor seeing or high clouds. Just a coincidence that it happened on my first try of having Voyager initiate the calibration.

Hope this helps other users!

4

Hi Jamie,

if you ask to calibrate guide in Voyager and if this fails , Voyager will retry for 3 times. After this if all retries produce an error the Sequence will be aborted.

For your info.

All the best
Leonardo