Starflyer

Not too much, not too little. Slacken the bolts and then push the motor so it takes up the slack in the belt and then push it a tiny bit more, nip the bolts up again.

+1 for a second hand HEQ5, pretty much bomb proof, higher load capacity and better tracking than an EQ5. AVXs come up frequently second hand too, but I see many more stories of frustration with these mounts and I'd stay away from them.

A can of air duster just hasn't got the oomph to blow concrete dust / debris out of a deep vertical hole. You need the hole clear of dust and to do that use one of these, it's designed for the job. Wear safety glasses, the dust gets ejected straight up at some speed. Half fill the hole with the epoxy and don't just push the bolt in, screw it in, this gets you maximum contact between the resin and the bolt. That's a big lump of concrete and will be damp in the middle for several weeks. I left mine to fully cure for a month before drilling the holes. You might get away with a week or two, but is it worth the rush, especially at this time of year?

Thanks for the fast reply Steve, can you please email before shipping to make sure I'll be here? I'm away a few times from the end of the month and through August, from a couple of days at a time to a couple of weeks. Cheers, Ian

Hi FLO, When's the next delivery due, or do you have stock available now for the CEM60? I pulled the trigger on one a couple of days ago 😀 Thanks, Ian

I believe the Yahoo EQ6 group has some info / images on what blows, what needs replacing following a reverse polarity pop. From memory, but it's your responsibility to check, it's a tiny surface mount inductor (named L1 on the board) this can either be replaced, or bridged with a thin stand of wire.

I'd have it apart and inspect the washer and other surfaces if it were me. These shouldn't wear out, maybe some grease contamination or something else odd. Are you able to fully tighten it? The wheel to adjust the clutch tightness can be stopped short by the handle. Are you aware you can unscrew the handle and move it to the next screw hole along if you're running out of room to tighten it?

Could be the clutch. Can you move the scope in RA by hand easily with the clutch tightened up?

Sheds are generally made from wood that's still fairly wet from the pressure treating process. The conditions inside one can be quite damp for the first 3 - 6 months, let it dry out before storing your astro great in there.

If you don't want to make new screw holes then take off the mounting for the old finder and use one of the screw holes for the telrad. Also, cleaning the area you plan to mount the sticky tape on with IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) wipes from a pahrmacy will make it stuck much better. How you get it fixed!

Can you repost it with the side bar expanded please?

Some info here; https://m.facebook.com/groups/872838536154502?view=permalink&id=1966374236800921

I'm sure people will chime in saying it's impossible, you'll need a bigger mount etc. I'd say try it. Wind will have a big effect, even a slight breeze, so don't expect much when it's windy. Polar alignment and balance will need to be decent to get good results. Try it and see how you get on, you'll get something I'm sure, but it's a slippery slope and an addictive hobby 😁

Can you post a screenshot of EQMOD with the scope parked please?

Thanks for this, following as this will probably be my next mount.

Theoretically not. I image at 0.79"/px most of the time. I know my RA guiding is not as tight as my DEC guiding and because of this I get noticeable, (to me anyway) oval stars with a guide RMS of 0.4 or more.

I really like my AZ EQ6, it does reasonably well at 1200mm FL, but I want more and I'm one of the people contemplating a CEM60 as a replacement. This is about the best it does, at lower altitudes it's up at 0.7" ish. This is with it pier mounted and I'm pretty certain the CEM60 would take that to 0.4" or better at lower altitudes.

MURE denoise only works on a linear image that is an integration of your subs, a mono image from one channel. From how I understand it, If you do anything to that image, crop it, DBE it etc, then MURE denoise won't work correctly. It needs to be the first process you perform after image integration.

Awesome build thread, really enjoying it. After spending so much time and money on your build you deserve to splash out a couple of hundred more on a decent Ascom stepper focus controller. What's manual focusing? ?

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

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

Thank you Grant.

Hi @Grant, I didn't book food when I originally booked our pitch, how do I book some meals now? Cheers, Ian

Thanks for this Grant.

@Grantany idea when we'll be able to see a pitch allocation map? Cheers, Ian