drumsolo

The short exposures were not guided, i was taking short test shots to make sure I had the target in view. There was more than 1 image that had trailing and I was stood away from the scope. I also had it with some of the 3 minute exposures. Could they all be because of cables hanging down? Does the fact I had a mix of good and bad point to a tracking issue or make it less likely? Thanks

Can anyone shed some light on what might be causing the trailing stars even at short exposures of 20 seconds? Here's 2 images from the beehive cluster, 1 showing trails at 30 secs and another which looks ok at 3 mins. Seems to be intermittent. Grateful for some help Thanks

2 hours ago, drumsolo said: Hoping someone can help me work out what is going on with my HEQ5 Pro mount. Set up last night and I keep getting the same problem, trailing stars even without guiding and taking a 20 sec exposure! Never had problems like this, my Polar alignment was within 3 degrees. It seemed worse when I was pointed south towards the beehive cluster for example but weirdly I did manage to get some good exposures of the same target when guiding for 3 minutes! Seems a bit random. Here's the images, a 20 sec exposure showing the trails and a longer one with no real issues. could this simply be the cables trailing and causing some drag as I didn't loop them up? I also moved the mount with out the weights on a couple months back and had a horrible crunching sound. Could it be Gear problems? Thanks Stuart

That scope is packaged with the heq5, has worked fine for last 10 years. No breeze.

Hoping someone can help me work out what is going on with my HEQ5 Pro mount. Set up last night and I keep getting the same problem, trailing stars even without guiding and taking a 20 sec exposure! Never had problems like this, my Polar alignment was within 3 degrees. It seemed worse when I was pointed south towards the beehive cluster for example but weirdly I did manage to get some good exposures of the same target when guiding for 3 minutes! Seems a bit random. Here's the images, a 20 sec exposure showing the trails and a longer one with no real issues. could this simply be the cables trailing and causing some drag as I didn't loop them up? I also moved the mount with out the weights on a couple months back and had a horrible crunching sound. Gear problems? Need help! Any ideas please?? Thanks Stuart

Anyone had issues installing PHD2? My install just hangs on extracting files message. Have tried earlier versions but same problem. Never seen this with any software. Thanks Stuart

Hi does anyone use sharpcap with orion starshoot autoguider? I have tried installing latest driver and ascom driver from Orion website but sharcap doesn't detect it. Any ideas? Thanks Stuart

Sorry I don't know what you mean, can you explain? Thanks

Could the star trails be coma? I am using a skywatcher coma corrector with LP filter on the top.

Why not? I have just come back after 5 years so am not up to speed with latest software! What's the big difference? PHD1 always worked well in the past for me.

I use PHD 1, is that info still available?

Here is the full image. I ae PHD guiding didn't see any errors. Never had a problem before guding, Im not sure what you mean about RA oscillation or where i would find it?

Hi all, I took pics of m51 the other night and was guiding. Took 2 and 4 min exposures but all are showing star tails. Does this point to polar alignment or something else? Many thanks Stuart

Thank ill take a look. I dont know where to start as this is a new area for me. Would you say your images have improved significantly to justify the extra price?) Would i need an adapter for a skywatcher 200p?

Hi looking for recommendations to replace my unmodded canon 1100d with a OSC. Looking to spend around £1000k, can I expect significant improvement over the canon for DSOs? I use a skywatcher 200p, my skies are fairly dark but having some LP over to the north east. Grateful for advice and any experience of users of OSC after moving from a DSLR. Thanks guys Stuart