Welcome to the Autoguide Assistant software page.

What is the Autoguide Assistant, and why was it created?

The Autoguide Assistant captures guide correction information supplied by CCDSoft while an autoguider is connected to CCDSoft and actively taking guide images. Autoguide Assistant plots the guide error data on two different kinds of graphs. Information about the maximum and RMS error for each exposure is also displayed. The Autoguide Assistant can sound an alarm if a single guide error is exceeds your preset limit or if the RMS error for the exposure exceeds your preset limit. The main purpose of the Autoguide Assistant is to display information about how the mount is tracking perhaps providing you with information that you can use to improve the mount performance.

Another use for the Autoguide Assistant is polar alignment assistance. If you turn off mount corrections in CCDSoft and activate the autoguider, you can easily see which way the mount is drifting over time. By looking at the error graph, you can accurately see the direction of drift much more quickly than you could looking through an eyepiece.

Getting Started with the Autoguide Assistant.

The Autoguide Assistant works with CCDSoft to graphically display data related to your guiding performance. You must have CCDSoft installed on your computer and run CCDSoft as your camera control program, otherwise the Autoguide Assistant will not work for you.

Because the Autoguider Assistant is an executable file and not a plug-in, you can start or stop the program at any time, even if you are already imaging. If CCDSoft is already running, when you start the Autoguide Assistant it will automatically connect to CCDSoft and will start receiving the autoguider data when ever the autoguider is active. If CCDSoft is not running, starting the Autoguide Assistant will cause the CCDSoft to start up. Again as soon as the autoguider becomes active, the Autoguide Assistant will receive autoguider data. That is all there is to it.

CCDSoft must already be installed on the computer before installing the Autoguide Assistant. The Autoguide Assistant has been tested on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Before you install on Vista, you must disable the User Account Control (UAC) under Control Panel -> User Accounts. The Autoguide Assistant also requires the .NET runtime redistributable package to be installed on your machine. It is probably already installed but if it is not, then you can download it from the Microsoft web site. Search for ".NET redistributable package" and download the latest.

A Note Regarding SBIG AO Units

CCDSoft does not fire off guider events while autoguiding with the SBIG AO units (AO-7, AO-8, AO-L, etc). This means there is no guider data communicated between CCDSoft and the Autoguide Assistant. The Autoguide Assistant will not be able to display the guide error data when running with the AO units.

Download the Help File

If you would like to view the program help file documentation before installing the application, click on the following link.

Download Help File.

You can review the help file to understand how the Autoguide Assistant works and to see if you want to download and install the application. This help file is also included in the AutoguideAssistant setup file below. Once you have downloaded and unziped the help file, you can click on the AutoguideAssistant.chm file from the file explorer to view the help information. If you have trouble viewing the help file, try right-clicking on the AutoguideAssistant.chm file, select properties and then Unblock.

Download the Autoguide Assistant

Click on the following link for the Autoguide Assistant setup program.

Download Autoguide Assistant Setup.

Once you have downloaded and unziped the AutoguideAssistantSetup.exe file, double click on it to install the Autoguide Assistant.

If you find the Autoguide Assistant useful and plan to use it regularly, please donate a few dollars ($20?) to help pay for development costs. Thank you!