I have just started to guide using Ekos. I have read the instructions on indilib.com so I started by capturing a dark,
then pushed the Guide-button and guiding just started! Fantastic!
But, after about 30 minutes there was a (bigger) RA-error, went from <1" to 4-5" for 6-7 messurements.
The guider after that seemed to want to calibrate again, taking a dark etc.

Why is that? Since I control my equipment at distance, this forces me to go out just to put the cap on and off the guide-scope for the dark.

What are the conditions for calibrating/taking darks during guiding? Can I control this somehow?
Do I need the darks anyway?

Apart from this, the guiding went well.
I am using a Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED and ASI 120MC (colour).

Make sure that, before starting guiding, Dark is disabled. You only need one Dark image and that's it. Be sure to retake the Dark every few months though.



To take a new Dark, enable the Dark tick box and click the Capture button. Then disable the Dark tick box again and you can continue guiding without taking Dark frames.


HTH, Wouter

IMO you don't need darks for guiding unless your guider happens to guide on hot pixels. As long as that doesn't happen, I don't see any benefit.