Software for guiding on a slit

[Mr Jack Martin]

I use TheSkyX – PHD1/2 guiding – MaximDL – Windows XP/7.

What is the most accurate / suitable guiding software for this Spectroscopy setup ?

Regards,

Jack

Essex UK

[Kevin Gurney]

I use Hyperion Prism for framing, focus and guiding. This is an Anglicised relauch of ‘Prism’  which was developed  by the French imaging and spectroscopy community. It has slit guiding which I try and use. I used to use PhD2 and I’m sure its fine ( I seem to recall a slit guiding option there too?). Slit guiding needs careful choice of parameters to work properly (it can cause oscillations as it hunts the sidelobes) but when setup properly it seems to work well.

Kevin

[Robin Leadbeater]

Hi Jack,

I use PHD2 but I find  it can oscillate as Kevin describes. (It has some features useful for slit guiding like a virtual slit graticule and guiding on a specific location but does not have a specific algorithm to deal with a split star image)

I know Astroart has a specific slit guiding algorithm, though I have not tried it.

I think Prism is quite popular among the French spectroscopists. For example Olivier Thizy uses it with scripts to automate his observing

 https://observatoire-belle-etoile.blogspot.com/2018/08/otzauto-finally-some-automatic.html

Cheers

Robin

[David Boyd]

I use Astroart 5 which has a slit guiding facility. You place a cross over the image of the slit in the guide camera window and the software will then keep the star centred on that point. It seems to understand that the image of a star in the slit has two lobes above and below the slit and manages to keep it reasonably stable within the slit, subject of course to the vagaries of seeing. I have used it for years and am very happy with it.

David

[Mr Jack Martin]

Thank you everyone for your comments, very helpful.

Regards,

Jack

Essex UK

[John Coffin]

I’ve used PHD2. I don’t guide on the target star but on a different one. I then adjust the lock position to move the target star onto the slit. Seems to work well.

There is a step by step guide on how to do this here.   https://github.com/OpenPHDGuiding/phd2/wiki/PHD2-Guiding-for-Spectroscopy

[Mr Jack Martin]

John,

Thanks for the link, tried it early this morning and works ok.

Regards,

Jack

Essex UK

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