StevieDvd

I know this may be a long shot but may be worth looking at. Here is a trouble-shooting guide from ZWO for camera issues. Open Device Manager first then connect the ZWO 120 to see if there is any update in the devices. If it does then may be a firmware update/refresh will re-activate the camera, if your happy to try that. Have you contacted the seller where the cameras came from, they may suggest something they are told to do by ZWO before sending cameras back. Good Luck with getting this resolved soon. Steve

You need to be aligning with the NCP near Polaris. But if that's not visible there are software options in Asiair, NINA etc for handling this. Polemaster needs the NCP visible. Update Apologies I read that that as moved to UK!! I would expect the same options should be available for PA without sight of SCP too.

Glad I could shine a light on your problem. 🙂

I know it's been said that there is no grub screw on the coarse side, but I have seen this stated before and a second look using a bright torch found it. It might be a little offset but should still be accessible, and on some focusers there are 2 grub screws holding it in place. Perhaps FLO would know if they are the seller of these scopes.

If the grub screws near the focus knobs are just to fill the hole & keep out dust, and only removed when accessing the grub screws holding the knobs to the focuser spindle, you could use those. Or one of those and the 'removed' locking screw. See the post regarding a few of us fitting the EAF to WO Z61 scope Don't touch the larger allen headed bolts they are likely to be for keeping the focuser/rack adjusted.

They can be warmed up and splayed open to fit over the narrowest part of the leg as per here. Difficult to suggest that, as I'd have my fingers crossed that it did not break whilst fitting.

On an EQ mount with expectations to image then the best PA you can get is always a good idea, especially if you wannt long exposures and guiding. If you only intend to do a visual session then it's not so important. With good PA and a platesolved sync you will get the best out of your tracking (unguided) and may be able to take short exposures, but that is needed for a serious guided session.

There is a SW adapter that comes with the PE200 extender, I don't know if the adapter is available anywhere on its own. As a side note I have found the SW adapter is too big to fit in my Berlebach tripod head and my eq5 pier adapters. I've used my pier adapter that has both EQ6 & EQ5 side and as a short term measure fitted on the EQ6 side. Update I think my issue with the adapter is my Berlebach tripod was bought for an HEQ5 - and possibly the pier adapters too. There is a small difference between a HEQ5 and an EQ5 base, small but in this case crucial.

I think you are missing one step. When you plate-solve are you doing a sync? This tells the mount to adjust its internal co-ordinates to match the plate-solved settings. As you said you are relying on your guessed home position, until you have star aligned or synched each goto needs a plate-solved nudge. I don't use NINA but a quick scan of the online document shows the details for sync here

I put the red ZWO findershoe there, though not to use at present but as a safeguard. The existing screws that came out from the clamp are much shorter.

@david_taurus83 I just noticed your 'modified' finderscope. Is that the SVBony SV161 double helical focuser with an extra adapter (red), to make focusing easier? What camera is the guide camera that fits so flush? Bought this one from Amazon a week ago (it's reduced to £19.99) for that very purpose. Due to the weather I've only managed to check the focus roughly using a not too distant chimney.

You have the 2 screws in the side of the clamp which are shorter. I took the findershoe & long screws off the side of the AM5 and relocated it to the clamp and used the short screws to fill the vacant holes left on the AM5 body.

I'd say 1 & 3 together. The Celestron Starsense, even if you could find the Skywatcher version, will only help with alignments & goto (via an app as well as handset) But with a decent camera (option 3) the data for stacking will be better, and the guide camera (option 2) will help wth PA and guiding of course. Stacking is better if guided. You will also need to consider how you will view the EA images so will likely need a computer & software.

As well as checking the the locking post PA I would double check the date/time & location settings (including DST) as well. With a PA process without NCP/SCP in view it is less accurate and any error in date/time can be exaggerated.

I may be wrong but the telescope control only means you can use Stellarium & Cartes Du Ciel to show the mount position and invoke goto's. The Ekos sub-system is still needed and loaded with kstars but you don't need to use kstars for the goto part. If HNSky does not do the same then it's not really telescope control, but if it follows and instigates slewing to a position that seems to be the same to me. 🤨

With the Asiair Plus & Mini you can also use the USB C port which allows another computer to treat them like a USB drive.

Stellarium, HNSky & Cartes Du Ciel can be used with Indi for telescope control.

You bought from FLO, that's good news. They are very good at post sales support and one of the best astro dealers as other forum members can attest to. Steve

@Nebulosityireland is this a new mount or new to you (sceond-hand)? And who did the Rowan mod & when? It's possible that the belts are too loose or too tight. You could remove the cover and see - instructions for the upgrade are here should you wish to check them. I would also: Run the mount using the handset and rotate 360 degrees for both axis at a high speed rate to see if there are any slow/sticky points. Tighten the clutches and check for any play in both axis. Loosen the clutches and check for any binding, rotate by hand 360 both axis. Anything with the above may help getting at the cause of the problem.

No it's probably 'End User Interfacing Postal Engineer' now😃

FYI. The clutches & mount moving won't affect PA as long as your mount is fastened to the tripod/pier and adjustment bolts are not loose. Some mounts even allow for clutch free movement as they have secondary encoders (not the HEQ5 though). It can affect star alignment data in the mount though, if not handled by secondary encoders. The bit where you say "Slew to target (after a correction it gets there.) " could be the issue as I'm not 100% the Asiair will do a correction after a 'goto home' as it does in a normal goto. If you were to save the home position as a custom target (I'd need to look up how to do that) and do a goto that, it may work correctly, whereas a plain park fails. But the question is what is the AAP correcting and does it continue to adjust the correction for each subsequent goto. If it was an initial correction the guiding would likely be reasonable but, if it needs continous corrections for each goto, that would most likely upset the guiding process. Platesolving & auto-centering could be hiding the real issue. If the first goto needs a 'good bit' of adjustment then I'd re-check the basics; date/time, location, clutches tight, mount connection not loose, scope balanced etc.

First the HEQ5 has no home position sensor. From the comments your manual home position & where the mount after PA & Alignment disagree. Does it go to the the correct position if you do a goto home after both PA and other successful goto's? When I had the HEQ5 I would PA, then do a goto, release clutches and centre my target. Then I'd do a goto home position which was more accurate than my rough manual home position. Further goto's then were fine. The mount, when star alignments are made will adjust for inaccuracies, some of which may be due to poor PA, bad location or time information. If your start & end home position is out by the same amount I would double check your location, date/time and DST etc.

IOS/Android PC/Mac PC/Asiair Christmas/Humbug Be thankful we have choices and be nice it does not cost anything.😇

The indilib clients page shows both those and more. I have not used them or read into their setup so cannot attest how they work/manage telescope(mount) control. See here

Guess I must have had a 'lucky imaging' night without realising it. At the time I was pleased with the raw images being better than my past sessions but had no idea that the details you people could pull out were even present. The phrase 'I am literally blown away' by the above posters processing of my capture may be grammatically incorrect but it matches my feelings. Thanks all, am now learning how to process in earnest and consuming youtube videos on the various software. Siril does seem to be one I can understand the easiest so far, and the PS processing is within my grasp having done non-astro in it before. Regards Steve