I really like the internal guider, especially the MultiStar guiding. However, I have had mixed experiences with the guiding quality. It works, but I cannot really control the guiding quality, because there are a lot of unknown variables:

- the guiding pulse duration
- the proportional gain

Both are very technical aspects of the guiding mechanics behind the scene. I cannot really describe the problem with all this - it just feels less natural from the thinking I'm doing. On the other hand it seems that my NEQ6 introduces some problems, at least with pulse guiding. Until now, I'm back to PHD2 using an ST4 cable. Not because the internal guider is not good enough, but I'm still new to KStars/Ekos and the best results I got with the ST4 cable and PHD2 - here I get a nearly flat graph, if I have a good polar alignment and the seeing conditions are not so bad. And I have some easy to understandable controls to control aggressiveness and hysteresis for both axes. These are things I just can bring into relation to what I want, the hysteresis for overcompensations and the aggressiveness for reactiveness. Thinking in pulse duration (when I not even know how long the pulse should go) and a proportion factor is much harder to express how I want to control the curve, it's a less mathematical and more technical perspective of nearly the same thing. What I'm missing from PHD2 guiding with Ekos is the visible feedback from the camera, it is really soothing to see the stars matched inside their boxes - so if I would be able to have better control over the internal guider I really would prefer using it (needless to say: not having the control over it is just a user feeling ). 

I would really appreciate if we could see some improvements in the UI and perhaps the logic of the internal guider in KStars 3.6 or so - understanding that it is not as easy as it might seem, but good things might take a while.        

Read More...