Poor sub-exposure yields

Owned by Pieter Smith (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 01, 2020
1 min read

Problem

Guiding is working well, but a large percentage of sub-exposures have to be disposed due to unexpected artifacts.

Background

Sometimes guiding seems to work well, but half of the sub-exposures taken overnight have unexpected star trails. This becomes difficult to troubleshoot and fix if only detected after StarAid is switched off. This article provides a recommended way of working that simplifies getting support.

Solution

Recommended way of working:

  1. Take your your exposures overnight as you normally would.

  2. Before turning off the power, downloading a support log. Skip over describing the issue, and just click Submit.

  3. Save the support log with the sub-exposures taken overnight.

  4. If you have a good yield on the sub-exposures, the support log is no longer needed.
    If however a large number of sub-exposures have unexpected artifacts (e.g. straight or L-shaped star trails that can not be accounted for by weather), create a new technical support issue on the StarAid Support Centre:

    1. Attach the downloaded support log,

    2. Provide a summary,

    3. Explain the problem,

    4. Add your email address if you are not logged in, and

    5. Click Send.

  5. The StarAid support team will analyse the issue and get back to you as soon as possible.