Sony SXV-M5C user manual

Handbook for SXV-M5C Issue 1 August 2004

The autoguider control panel with a guide star selected

2)Press the ‘Start’ button and a series of 1 second e xposure guider images will begin to appear in the picture frame. If the images look too dim, use the ‘Stretch Image’ slider to increase its contrast and brightness until the noise begins to be visible.

3)If you haven’t focused the guider lens or ‘scope, m ove the mount until a bright star is visible on the guider image and then adjust the focus until it is as sharp as possible.

4)At this point, you may want to test the guiding control by pressing the manual ‘Move Telescope’ buttons at the bottom left corner of the control panel. You can watch the position of any stars in the guider image and confirm that they move in response to the buttons. The movement should be slow if the correct guiding rate is selected on your mount (typically 2x sidereal). Adjust this, if necessary.

5)Move the mount until the required object for imaging is properly framed in the main CCD image (leave the guider menu and use the main camera control panel, as necessary).

6)Re-open the guider control panel, start imaging and try to locate a clearly visible guide star. If necessary, make adjustments to the guide telescope or off- axis guider until one is found.

7)Press ‘Stop’ and then press ‘Select Guide Star’. Us e the mouse to left click on the selected star and a green cross will highlight it and the co-ordinates will appear in the text boxes above the image window.

8)The various guiding rate defaults, listed on the right-hand side of the control panel, are unlikely to be perfect for your particular telescope and mount. You have the option of manually selecting values, or asking the software to attempt to determine what they should be. This is done by pressing the ‘Train’ button and waiting for the software to complete a sequence of automatic moves and calculations. The training will also determine the angle at which the guide camera is oriented with respect to the RA and Dec axes. If you do not wish to train the system at this time, the default values of 6 pixels per second will serve as a starting point.

9)Now press ‘Go to main camera’ and the guider contro l panel will be replaced by the camera control panel. Set the required exposure time for the image (say

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