Starflyer

Do let me know if you go further with this, I'm sure we could get enough people together to get a small batch made up somewhere.

I have this problem too, EFW2 and OAG, the bolt definitely gets in the way. I have a smallish sensor (Atik 460) and rotate the camera so the filter wheel and OAG are horizontal when parked. I was looking at it the other day and even considered cutting the top of the bolt off and welding a standard bolt head on top. The thread is too course anyway, what would be good is an engineered solution. A new stainless bolt and the threaded block bit at the bottom, with a finer thread, 50mm shorter with a flush head to take an Allen key. Cheers Ian

Hi Bob, It was indeed, what a great memory you must have. Cheers, Ian

I gave up trying to use USB 3 with my Atik 460, EFW2 and Lodestar. I was plagued with intermittent problems, image downloads locking up SGP, filter wheel and guide camera dropping. I moved everything to a powered USB 2 hub connected to a USB 2 port on my laptop and haven't had a single issue for about four months. Before it was very rare to get through a night without lockups, equipment drop outs etc.

I've found the opposite with my 460 and EFW2, I connect the power for a second or two to let the kit initialise and then plug in the USB cables. This is an odd hobby

I'm confused by this, I'm using SGP with my Atik 460EX and I don't see any gradient. I'm using the Atik Ascom driver, maybe this is the difference. I'd be disappointed by Atik's response if it were me. SGP is used by thousands of people now and of there is a problem then Atik should be working with the SGP devs to get it fixed, they're quick to get problems fixed. I wouldn't move away from SGP, and if he'd said that to me I'd take it as him saying "If you want to remotely image then buy a different camera brand"!

I really wish I could make it to this event, I've loved this site when I've stayed on it in the past. I'll be looking forward to reports and photos. Have a cracking time guys, clear skies! Ian

Anderson PowerPole all the way, you can't reverse the polarity, they're rated to 30 amps, they come with strain relief boots and they're just reliable.

I used a similar kit to this one; https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F182235490751 Be sure to blow out as much of the dust from the hole as you can though, you can buy a cheap manual pump with a long tube to do this and it's worth getting one.

I've seen this in the past in various canon cameras, IMO it's temperature related, try checking the internal camera temp in the EXIF data for subs where it's better and where it's worse. The more you stretch the data the more the banding shows, so for the shorter exposures it may look worse because you're having to stretch it harder. I ended up cooling my 450D and at EXIF temps below 9 or 10C the banding completely disappeared. Cheers Ian

Maybe PHD2 has a different profile for the new ascom connection and your SGP sequence is pointed at the old PHD profile. Try opening SGP, open your sequence, open control panel, Auto Guide and settings and then select the correct PHD2 profile. Save the sequence and test again, if it works then save the sequence as an equipment profile so your future sequences use this setting. You can update any old sequences by opening them and choosing File, Apply Profile to Sequence. HTH Ian

The little screws don't tighten the eyepiece, don't tighten these or you'll crack the glass recticle. Mine arrived like this and was useless as a polarscope, it rocked about half a degree on the threads. I fixed it by fully unscrewing the eyepiece, I wrapped a few turns off plumbers PTFE tape around the threads and screwed it back on. This fixes the rocking but now you need to re-align the polarscope - Google for a guide to help you here. Cheers Ian

Personally I'd only ever use power connectors where there's no chance of reversing the polarity and killing an expensive camera or mount. My brain and fingers both get numb in the the cold and I know it would be a matter of when not if! These are Anderson PowerPole connectors btw, you'll find them available in lots of places, they're a very robust solution.

Thanks a lot for your reply, great info, I'll try it out when clouds allow.

Thanks for the answer, I hadn't even thought about using the main camera. I guess I could set a large search area and use subframe download to speed it up on that profile, I'd have thought bin x4 would lead to inaccuracies due to the huge pixels, but what do I know