Starflyer

Have you got limits enabled in EQMOD? Perhaps it reached the limit and stopped.

Try the EQ6 Google Group for info (used to be a Yahoo group I think). They're very similar boards and I remember a good few posts on dead boards that were resurected through the help of the people there.

I'm being told that factories will take even longer than usual to return after CNY, factory workers often travel back to their villages for the holiday and this year many are staying, at least in the short term, as they deem it safer. When the factories do come back on stream ocean freight will become tight and rates will no doubt rise as everyone tries to book container space. I'm being told that air freight rates are predicted to be 3x to 4x usual peak rates.

Troll!

Mechanically the HEQ5 is superior to the AVX, it's an accurate workhorse of a mount that forgoes modern aesthetics for functionality. I'd rather have my astro stuff just work rather than look pretty.

They won't give you support of you have problems with the native driver and AFAIK from now on they won't implement any native driver updates.

All good advice. Further to this I'd advise against using TNT, they used to be amongst the best but since the takeover / merger with FedEx they cause me nothing but problems. I guess the same goes for FedEx themselves but I have no direct experience with them. Look for clauses in the insurance small print mentioning glass. It's fairly standard for couriers not to cover anything containing glass.

It looks very lightweight and the one review for it isn't great. I bought one of these for my SA, solid as a rock but heavier to carry if you're going off somewhere remote. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-star-adventurer/sky-watcher-38-stainless-steel-tripod.html

I found that I needed something in between the very short and long exposures. It's a few years back, I think I went for 8s, 30s and 720s at ISO 800, to get this;

@blinky tried one of these a few years back I think. I may be thinking of doing else though.

I didn't want to heat anything on my reflector so opted for a short camping mat dew shield. It only needs to be six to eight inches long and avoids the risk of introducing tube currents from heating your mirrors. I've never had a primary dew up, but I have my cooling fans set to blow up the tube so that probably helps.

SGP is the one thing that's changed imaging for me, perfect framing for multi night projects and perfect focus every frame. It's an absolute bargain at the price they charge for it. It isn't the simplest piece of software to get to grips with, but the manual is good, support is great and there's video tutorials around that help. That said I've tried APT a few times recently on my brother's setup and just couldn't master it.

It's a great image and you must be pleased with the result. It's hard to tell at that resolution but I think I can see a small left to right elongation, do you see the same thing? If you're happy with the results you're getting then great. At longer focal lengths, larger loads, the elongation due to SDE will show up even more. Essentially the PE of the mount is out of the manufactuer's quoted spec, SDE is a hardware defect, it will have been there from new and it won't go away through firmware updates. It's an expensive piece of kit that promises a PE of < 0.3 arcsec, you're getting nowhere near that and if it were me I'd be insisting that it was exchanged.

Any update on this @old_eyes?

If you buy new I think you'll struggle at your budget. It may seem daunting buying second hand gear that you don't have experience in, but you can get so much more for your money and astronomers tend to look after their kit. Join a local astronomy club if you can find one near by and get some advice there. Everyone will tell you the mount is everything in astrophotography, a decent mount will remove a major source of frustration, and believe me it can be a frustrating hobby. If it were me I'd have the following on my (second hand) shopping list; Mount - HEQ5 ~ £500 Scope - 150PDS / 200PDS ~ £150 / £190 Camera - Canon 1100D / 550D ~ £150 / £200 Cables, power supply, etc, maybe a cheap webcam for the balance of your budget. Add a guide camera later, or use your webcam, and you've got an awesome deep sky setup.