CCDSoft autoguiding question

Hi-- I frequently have been using the color series tab of CCDSoft when doing autoguided LRGB imaging with my ST8. Everything is usually fine for the LR and G series, but when the blue filter is in place, I frequently get the "Guide star has lost brightness" message.I understand why this occurs, but at this point, the guide star is still bright enough to guide with, yet the software seems to take a long time to display the message and corrections dont seem to be made and the guiding error starts to jump way up. My solution has been to abort the series and restart just the blue using the same guide star,same guiding exposure, etc. This always works, the message stops and the guiding errors stay within the same values as they did for the L,R and G series. Is there any way around this ? I have poked through the documentation, but didnt come up with anything. Does the software just not recognize the dimmer star as the guide star ?

Thanks,
Dan

Make sure you have the very latest release from Bisque. You can download it from their site. I sort of recall this happening with the release version of the software. Also, the guide star really needs to be of the right brightness level...make sure that the count is at least 500 when imaged through the blue filter, and put in a delay between the colors to give it time to refind the star and start smoothly guiding again.

jeff

What version of CCDSoft are you using? This may have been changed in the most recent versions. Current released version is 1.0.70; current beta version is 1.0.72 (includes scripting support).

Your workaround is the right approach, however.

Ron Wodaski
author of "The New CCD Astronomy"
http://www.newastro.com