Technical problem...

Some of you may not have read my previous post about my first pics but at the end it asks about a potential problem with my camera (ST7) / software (CCDsoft version 5). I can take fine unguided pics with the main CCD... but when I attempt to image with the guider chip in order to callibrate and autoguide the shutter does not appear to stay open. If I set the exposure to say 10 seconds the shutter dialogue box in CCDsoft shows the shutter opening for perhaps a tenth of a second then shows it closed for the rest of the exposure and the resulting image looks like a dark frame with hot pixels. Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? I do click/ select the guider chip before the exposure... but am I supposed to do something else? Thanks!

I'm not clear on what the problem is. Are you trying to imag with the guider chip, or are you trying to do a calibration run? If you could provide a list of steps that recreates the problem, it would be easier to diagnose. It's not something I've heard of before, so I want to make sure that you're following the right steps to accomplish whatever it is you are trying to do.

Ron Wodaski