Starflyer

This is what you're after; https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p2722_TS-Optics-Off-Axis-Guider-for-Canon-EOS-cameras---replaces-the-T-ring.html I'm not sure of the guide camera connection, drop them a message explaining what you want to do, they're very helpful.

Be careful of tightening them too much, the bearings quickly wear through the anodising on the drawtube leaving you with very rough movement. Not that I've done this of course 🤥

The solar image looks much better than the first one you posted, that was sharp bottom left and soft top right if you look closely.

As mentioned, a smaller step size should sort this out. Your V should have more of a rounded bottom than a sharp point.

4-5s guide exposures will be enough to hide the SDE problem. It will still be there, the mount hasn't bedded in and won't show in the image on short focal length scopes. If you do a run at 0.5s and analyse the error then the SDE spike will still be there. So long as you don't ever plan to try imaging at a longer focal length you'll be fine. It's not enough to give you oval stars at the moment, but SDE will smear stars at medium to long scopes.

I have two Lakeside focusers, both are fitted to the coarse focus knob side and both have worked very well with SGP for the last few years. Backlash is very important, you don't need to get it exactly right, a higher value than your backlash won't hurt, better to have more than too little. What scope and camera are you using? Did you take any screenshots of your V curves, a pic can be very revealing?

Did you rotate the DEC axis by 90 degrees to line the hole up in the DEC axis? The polarscope is unlikely to be in focus when the mount arrived, on my mounts the eyepieces have all needed unscrewing a few turns to get them focussed. You can do this in the day by tilting your mount so it points at a distant object, but take care it doesn't tip over. Polar alignment can be done electronically, often faster and much more accurately, but not for free. If you're going to guide then PA can be done with a finder guider and SharpCap Pro, which is a cheap option.

Expanding anchors can split concrete quite easily. Chemical anchors are the way to go; drill your hole, be sure to remove most of the debris from the hole, inject two part epoxy and wind your anchor bolt into the epoxy.

I agree with David, the encoders are worthless for imaging and I'm sure they were interfering with my guiding. They're for visual use where you unlock the clutches and manually move the mount around. Have you got plate solving working in SGP? This will get you bang on where you want to be night after night. To use this you must disable the mount model in EQMOD by setting it to Dialogue Based and clearing out any existing alignment points.

I can't find the receipt email, but from memory it was armoured twin with 10mm cores. The run is only around 6m and there's no noticeable voltage drop, there must be some but it shows the same on the pier display as the battery display. I have it connected up to a 110Ah leisure battery and that's kept topped up by two solar panels (I have no mains power in the shed). Even in the depths of the UK winter, imaging for six to eight hours a few nights a week it hasnt dropped below 12v

Here's mine, I went a step further and ran a 12v supply from the shed, it makes setting up a breeze. 

My first thought would be to put a pier in your garden, attach your mount to it and get polar alignment dialed in. Leave the mount out and just throw a decent cover over it when not in use. This will cut down on your set up time considerably and allow you to get going quickly.

This is mine, designed in SketchUp, I had a local steel fabricators make it up for me. They hot dip galvanised and powder coated it for the grand sum of £120, zero signs of corrosion after four years. 150 X 6mm steel pipe with 10mm plate and M16 stainless nuts and bolts.

The Rowan mod uses a 47 : 12 ratio to maintain the same gearing as a vanilla mount. It's possible to use 48 : 12 but if you do this you need to set the custom ratio in EQMOD.

I thought you'd recently ordered an arm and a leg's worth of ONTC scope? Good luck with a Quattro if that's what you're after now 😜

If your polar alignment isn't great then a target could drift partially or all the way out of the fov during a period of cloud cover. If you feed your PHD2 log into the log viewer app (separate download) then it'll give you an estimate of your PA error. If your PA is good then the tracking should easily keep your target roughly centered throughout a brief period of cloud cover.

I built a dob base, a good few years back but the thread should still be in the DIY section. I was told at the time to go for shopfitting ply as it's superior to marine ply, glued under higher pressure and it'd last forever. Edit; and here's the thread

What a great place SGL is, that's very generous of you, I owe you a beer if we ever meet up at SGL / Kielder / Galloway etc. I'll drop you a pm with my address details. Cheers, Ian

Thanks Andy, very cute dog btw

Hello knowledgable DIY folks, I have an external iOptron iPolar that I use with my CEM60 and NEQ6, I also have a Skywatcher Star Adventurer and I'd like to be able to use it on that too. There's no official adapter made for the Star Adventurer however I found one on Thingiverse that someone has created. I know next to nothing about 3D printing, can someone please recommend a company to print this for me, the material to be used and anything else I should mention when requesting it? https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4114231 Cheers, Ian

When you lubricated the brass worm wheel with lithium grease did you also put it onto the undercut / recess that the clutch tightens against? This area should be completely free of grease / oil, as should the face of the brass button on the clutch. The clutch relies on a brass to brass contact without lubrication, any grease will make the clutch less effective, even to the point where it slips easily. You should never have to tighten clutches really tight, in fact doing so can give you worse guiding as it's easy to distort things. The lightest clutch pressure needed to lock the axis against accidental slight knocks is all that's required. If you have to overtighten a clutch then it's not working properly.

Having owned two VX10s and now a CT10 I've not had a problem with tube flex around the focuser, maybe I'm not fussy enough about my collimation. IMO I've produced reasonable images from all of them, with over ten being published over the years. The aluminium tubes are plenty stiff enough unless you're hanging a very heavy imaging setup off them. Most of the 'close up' images on my Flickr page were taken with a VX10, and more recently the CT10. The only reason for the move to the carbon tube was to reduce the amount of refocusing I was doing in a night. I've gone from focusing every 1.5 degrees temperature change to 5 degrees and get more imaging time per night now. https://www.flickr.com/photos/57929372@N06/

Sequence Generator Pro can automate this for for. It has a mosaic planning tool, you set up your mosaic and it creates a set of targets for you. It slews to the first target, takes a shot, plate solves it and adjusts the mount until dead on where it should be. It then takes any number of exposures you want then moves onto the next target, plate solves etc etc.

See if you can bolt your guidescope directly on top of your tube rings, it'll be much more stable there and may move the weight forward enough to solve your balance problem.

Agreed and something I wouldn't want to attempt. I don't have the patience to tweak and take test images over and over.