Spikey

As Freddie says Bahtinovs tend to work better with a 'bright point' source of light such as a star.

I've tried using a Bahtinov to focus on Jupiter and Saturn with no success at all.

You've already hit upon the best solution of using a star with the mask which should get you an excellent focus.

Personally I prefer to locate, centre and sync the planet and get it in visual focus then it's off to a nearby bright star, pop the mask on, refine the focus, take the mask off and slew back to planet.

They both have free demo's - try them both and see which you prefer

I personally prefer & use APT.

That camera is totaly stripped, its got a heater on the AA filter in front of the sensor and it doesn't frost over even in open air at -4degC. I'll take a shot of it next time i open the box.

Thanks, that would be really useful

I'm also interetsed to see how you've fitted that DSLR in the cooling box as it's something I might do with the 1000D I've got.

If you move your viewing/imaging location about regularly and don't have access to any other sort of GPS device then you may have use for one.

If you mainly stay in one place I wouldn't bother, smartphones, navigation devices and online utilities can all provide the same information.

Image 2 looks OK to me as well, apart from the vignetting.

You took a dark with the lens cap off, then that would be a light no?

Can you take and post a dark with the lens cap on and then you would see if your actually getting a light leak from elsewhere.

Nice one QM, all coming together nicely. Graph looks pretty good. I'm back in the UK before weekend and one of my first jobs will be to mod the Canon. I'll let you know how it go's.

Of course silly me !

Thanks to Chris for coming to the rescue, now I can see where I have given you some incorrect advice. Next time I'll just mention something I have actually tried and got to work !

Carole - I've never tried to do this but I think you need to put the handset as the first part of the chain, then the EQDIR module connects from the handset to the mount.

The handset 'I think' has to be in PC direct mode. I use CdC so I'm afraid I'm not sure about Stellarium.

Good to know your in business !

Prolific (which is the chipset in the device) have updated versions (1.3) of the drivers of their site here

I've read that some people suffer comms issues with the EQDIR USB interface, may be the latest drivers might help ?

What exactly is the device you are plugging in? Looks like you haven't installed drivers.

If you are using as usb > serial adapter then check in your computers device manager for the comm port it has picked up. Right click my computer and go to manage, device manager will appear in the choices.

If you have the usb > serial installed correctly with the correct drivers it will have picked up a comm port and this will show up in the devices list, That is the number you will need to use.