Starflyer

How old are your scopes? I know the focuser you mention and my first two VX10s had these, cracking focusers. More recently, a year or two ago, they started using a clone of the Skywatcher duel speed low profile focuser and this is nowhere as good as the one they were using.

For DSO imaging I wouldn't go bigger than a VX10 on an EQ6, for visual a VX12. I moved from a VX10 to a CT10 and with tube rings, the better mirror cell etc the CT10 was heavier than the aluminium tube. It was too much for my AZ EQ6 and I had to upgrade the mount. The only reason for me moving to the CT10 was for the reduction in needing to refocus as the temp drops. With the VX10 I was refocusing every 1.5°C drop, with the CT10 I don't see any shift in focus position until 5 or 6°C drop.

My thoughts exactly, great piece of kit but there's no way I'd lock myself into using only their gear. There's a recent thread on CN where someone has gained root on the Asair and is experimenting with loading drivers for other kit. To be frank, I'd rather run a Win10 mini PC, it's been over two years since Windows update broke anything on my setup and it's been absolutely stable for me.

Any news on Baader filter stock, I hear there was a distributor problem?

I had an AZ EQ6 for a few years and they're great mounts, at the time the best mount available under £2.5k. It handled 16KG of 10" newt / camera / filterwheel / OAG etc with round stars at 600s exposures. First thing; disable the encoders, they're such low resolution that they're only useful for visual use and will adversely affect your guiding. The option in EQMOD didn't used to exist, it was added specifically to solve the encoder / guiding problems on AZ EQ6 and EQ8 mounts when they first launched. Second; don't overtighten the clutches, that will also mess with your guiding on

This is great information, thank you, I have the same setup on backorder and expect that it's still a few weeks away. I don't have you challenges and only need 55mm BF but want to get the filters as close to the sensor as possible. Like you I have a Lodestar X2, for a while I've been contemplating changing it for something with smaller pixels. I think the ZWO ASI 174MM Mini would fit the bill and also give you another 4mm. Not a cheap solution, but a solution nevertheless.

As the title really, I see the window is described as AR, I guess this isn't UV/IR blocking? The camera will be used under dark skies, Bortle 3, so no other filters in the mix.

How are you reporting your problems and requesting support from SGP? Their forum is the best place to ask IMO.

Found, please close the advert.

Difficult to judge, the focus looks to be quite far off on the Optolong filter test.

I moved to Lindy Cromo cables and a Startech industrial hub a couple of years ago and it's been fine since then.

They could be so much bigger / better, perhaps they don't want to be and are happy with their lot. My brother suggested I speak to them about working for them or consulting for them to help get them there but I never did. I'm not an optician but my background is in manufacturing process and quality control and more recently in e-commerce, which is another area where they could improve.

I've owned three, all bought secondhand, two VX10s, 1/6 wave and then 1/10 wave, and more recently a CT10 1/10 wave. All have produced great images and I see close doubles split in my images which appear as a blob in most other scopes. I've never looked through any of them so can't comment on the visual performance. The build quality of the CT10 is very good and being a carbon tube means I only need to refocus every 5°C, compared to every 1.5°C with the aluminium tube VX10s. They're a bargain secondhand when they come up, but you rarely see them, I paid around 1/3 of new price

Back onto the original post, I'd bet your problems are down to USB issues, either a hub or cable problem. I've had similar problems with SGP dropping connection to my mount and filterwheel and then giving the symptoms you describe. SGP seems very sensitive to USB problems. I'm a long term user of SGP, I've had plenty of problems but now everything works smoothly. I'm on V3 and don't intend to move to V4 and the subscription model. For now it does what I need reliably, but it's in my mind to switch to NINA or Voyager in the future.

As Sony have only provided a relative QE graph for the sensor used in this camera QHY have performed measurements against a known camera and published an absolute QE chart. If accurate it looks like a superb camera.