Paramount GEM User Guide
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Train PEC Button
After connecting to the mount and finding home, click the Train PEC button to start the periodic error correction
training process.
Train PEC Procedure
1. Choose your camera. For the best experience, use the imaging camera instead of the autoguiding camera.
Be sure to configure the camera’s advanced settings to enable the autoguiding-related capabilities as this
is normally not required when taking photos. You will also need to connect to the camera before
proceeding.
2. Carefully read and follow the instructions on the Train PEC Requirements window (Figure 62). There are
a number of important items that must be addressed before the mount’s periodic error correction can be
trained, including:
• The mount must be polar aligned well enough so that the star does not drift significantly over
multiple revolutions of the worm.
• The optical system must be at focus and produce sharp, round stars.
• The camera must be calibrated. Failure to calibrate will result in the error message shown in
Figure 61.
• The Bin Mode must be set to 1 x 1. Enter the image scale of the optical system at 1 x 1 binning
into the Image Scale text box located on the Periodic Error Correction tab of the Bisque TCS
window. The image scale that is displayed on the bottom of the Train PEC Settings window is for
reference purposes and cannot be modified.
• Using an appropriate exposure length so that the reference star has sufficient brightness, but not
so long that it becomes saturated.
• Selecting a suitable reference star that is near 0 degrees declination. See “Choosing a Good
Autoguider Calibration Star” in TheSky User Guide for details how.
• Selecting an appropriately sized subframe that bounds the reference star. Failure to perform this
step will result in the error message shown in Figure 61.
If the subframe is too small, or the polar alignment is poor, the star may drift outside the subframe
while collecting the tracking log data and render the data useless. If this happens, improve the polar
alignment to limit drift, or use a larger subframe, or use ProTrack to improve the unguided tracking
and start the process over.
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