Webcam Guiding Software

[Tenacious Del]

I am thinking of giving autoguiding with a webcam a go. Anyone want to suggest some good (hopefully free) guiding software out there and care to comment on the ins and outs of webcam autoguiding?

Thanks in advance.

Del :pipethinker:

[AstroTasmania]

Check out this link for some excellent free & low cost software. http://www.stark-labs.com/

[Radar]

Also, try guidedog software mate. Pretty simple to use.

http://www.barkosoftware.com/

[CanisMajorTom]

There is another one out there called Guidemaster that I have seen used. It looked quite professional.

[Tenacious Del]

Thanks guys. Now I am embarrassed to ask this next question. How do I attached the webcam to the eyepeice holder? :hmm:

[beren]

You'll need a adapter try here http://webcaddy.com.au/astro/adapter.asp

[CanisMajorTom]

I think K3CDD Tools can autoguide with webcams to Del. You might wanna check it out. http://www.pk3.org/Astro/

[AstroTasmania]

To Anyone

There is never an embarrassing question, asking questions is how we all learn. No-one and I mean no-one, was ever born an expert. Very often there are just so many people waiting to ask the same question!!

Ask away...life is one long learning curve...

[seeker372011]

One thing to keep in mind though is that with a non modded webcam it may be hard to find a guidestar sometimes..people do it so its not impossible but ..

if you can do 2/3 sec exposures with your webcam it can eliminate a lot of frustration !

[CanisMajorTom]

if you can do 2/3 sec exposures with your webcam it can eliminate a lot of frustration !

Hey Seeker, wouldn't a 2/3 second exposure reduce the guiding accuracy because if the star drifts the autoguider wouldn't know for a few seconds? I always thought the shorter exposure the better.

[seeker372011]

Hey Seeker, wouldn't a 2/3 second exposure reduce the guiding accuracy because if the star drifts the autoguider wouldn't know for a few seconds? I always thought the shorter exposure the better.

Not really. There is an optimum guide interval that depends on your mount and seeing conditions..you really dont want to be "chasing the seeing"-ie overcorrecting -and getting into an endless feedback loop oscillating on imaginary star movements caused by seeing

It also depends on the focal length of your guidescope wrt to your imaging scope. There is a whole lot of theory written on this topic on the internet:

I found this article useful

http://www.aajonahfish.com/autoguiding.htm

In practice I find 2 seconds usually good, 3 secs tolerable if my polar alignment is good enough. From home I find I cant get a good guide star very often if I go less than 1 second, so I virtually never guide without the long exposure mode turned on

[Radar]

Yeah, a 2-3 second exposure would be good because like Seeker says you wouldn't be chasing bad seeing.

Also, I find the fainter the star you can guide on, the more accurate the guiding. Bright stars seem to spill over into other pixels which confuses the autoguider. The 2-3 second exposure would allow you to guide on a fainter star thus giving you more accuracy.

[Tenacious Del]

That makes good sense. Thanks for the info guys.