Auto Guide and Dither with The Sky X while Imaging with BYE

[TexasTubbs]

Good morning everyone!
Since acquiring my Paramount in late November of last year I've only had two opportunities to take it out.  I've not actually done any imaging with it yet, but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to do so soon.  

Back in my CGEM days, I used PHD2 with BYE to image, guide and dither.  I was hoping that with The Sky X, I would be able to guide, image and dither in one software package - but I've noticed that a few of my test subs are downloaded in FITS format, and are black and white.  I'm using a canon T3i OSC (non-modified) DSLR and at public star parties I frequently image colorful objects to show people the difference between what the human eye can see, and what a photo can reveal.

Because TSX saves the sub exposures in FITS format with the color data not part of the raw data (I need to add the bayer matrix data in post) I was thinking that I may go back to using BYE for imaging but would like to keep using TSX for guiding and dithering.

Has anyone tried to dither with TSX while imaging with BYE?  Does anyone know if TSX can send the dithering commands into BYE?

 

I've also asked this question on the Software Bisque forum in case anyone with the same mount as me already figured this out.  I thought I could try here too, in the event one of you may know the answer because you've done something similar with a guiding package that is not PHD based.

Thanks in advance everyone!

-Mitchell 

[admin]

Yes to all your questions; provided you have the premium version of BYE and you DO NOT GUIDE; you just want to dither.

 

You do not need to guide these premium mounts once your point model is completed and accurate.

 

You need need to connect your ASCOM telescope to BYE and in Settings dialog you need to select ASCOM dithering.  BYE will compute a random dither and issue a small move command between images.

 

I have a 10Micron GM2000 mount and this is the procedure I use.

 

Hope this helps.

[TexasTubbs]

*Internet High Five*

I am still needing to guide for the time being as I'm not permanently installed, and I've been refining my polar alignment process.  At some point in the future I hope to have sub-arc minute  alignment accuracy in about 30 minutes and guiding won't be necessary but dithering does help out a lot.

That being said, I'll double my efforts to become a polar alignment expert so I can achieve the accuracy I need in as little time possible.  Then unguided imaging will be possible and I can dither like I want.

Thanks Guylain!

[admin]

Oh, and the reason you MUST NOT guide with this approach is because when BYE issues the random dither command to ASCOM your guide program (TheSkyX in your case) will see this as a small movement (just like if you had bumped into the mount) and will race to put the guide star right back where it was... in essence canceling the dither command.

 

This is only true if you use ASCOM dithering in BYE and it does not apply if you use MeteGuide or PHD.  This is because these 2 free software are actually exposing a dither command in their interface and BYE uses it to send the dither command and since these programs are actually doing the guiding and dithering they can stop guiding, perform dithering, and resume guiding all at once.

 

Hope this helps,

[TexasTubbs]

"...when BYE issues the random dither command to ASCOM your guide program (TheSkyX in your case) will see this as a small movement (just like if you had bumped into the mount) and will race to put the guide star right back where it was... in essence canceling the dither command."

...

 

As soon as you said NOT TO GUIDE this was exactly what I assumed would happen within TSX.  Thanks for confirming that and I'll be sure to simply remove my guide scope from the setup when I get experienced enough to begin dithered deep sky AP.

 

Thanks again