It wasn’t always that way, but after a 5 month hiatus, when I was trying to astroimage, the stars were no longer even approximately round, looking more like smeared rice in the PHD2 guidestar window. I’m also not seeing very many stars in the PHD guide star selection image, which had not been an issue previously while imaging The Cave Nebula. (OTA is an Esprit 100ED f5.5)
I had a new OAG-L that I had gotten when I thought a fastener failure might have damaged the screw threads when I was installing my ASG Photon Cage, but had not needed. I compared the two but saw no visible difference. I duplicated all my existing spacing measurements and installed the new OAG anyway.
Unfortunately, cloudy skies tonight and forecast be that way for another week, so unable to determine any change yet. Has anyone seen similar issues with their OAG-L?
I have considered that I might be seeing an issue with the guide camera regarding not seeing many stars in PHD2 (ASI 290MM-mini), and that might somehow affect star shape. The star shape is bad enough that it does sometimes affect PHD2’s ability to detect and hold a guidestar.
The prism stalk is adjusted to align on the long edge of the APS-C sensor in my ASI 2600MM. I’ve been running the OAG-L setup for about two years.
Thanks in advance.
