Astrotravelk

Oh that's a nifty device. I may look at that in future but going to try and get a few nights in before I spend any more money. Just bought a new Badaa cable and extension as the HEQ5 Pro only comes with the car power supply lead and the one I bought from Amazon seemed a bit janky ... Thanks for the insight @Albir phil It does look like you need good visitiblity of the stars to align @AstroMuni but would that not always be the case, I guess unless you are using more advanced techniques not in my world yet.. like plate solving, which I will try when I am more comfortable with everything ...

Thanks for all the detail @woldsman That's really useful. I think the last piece of the puzzle is polar aligment and think I might try the electronic method using NINA first and see how I get on. I have the NINA plug in and everything else, there's a few options here like syncing Stellarium and NINA as you say. Figers crossed there are some clear skies soon. Maybe even this weekend,

I think I've had a coulpe of interactions with some of the HAG members. Maybe our paths will cross...

Thanks @Astromuni I have downloaded NINA and had a look. I'm familair with BackyardEOS so trying to keep with at least some familiarity for imaging. I'll look at the polr alignment aspects though for sure. You're in Hampshire near me, do you know the Solent Amateur Astronomy group? I'm just waiting for the clouds to dissappear down here to make a start ....

Thank you both @Cornelius Varley and @malc-c that is really good to know. So, it doesn’t matter how it is polar aligned as long as it IS by the time to find an object and start imaging - and Stellarium will track once I’ve selected until I decide to stop. Great, roll on the clear skies!

Hey, First post, so hope this is the right place for this. After some DSLR manual tracking I decided to get some proper gear to get me started. So, after a bit of time and effort I have set myself up with the HEQ5, SW150PDS and I have connected straight into my laptop using a lynx cable to bypass the synscan (for now)> The aim being to use Stellarium & (ASCOM/EQMod) to control the telescope and do the finding etc.. That seems to be connected ok, however I have 2 questions that maybe someone can help me with. 1) When I have done all the connecting etc. and selected a DSO in Stellarium and unparked my mount in EQMod window and done all the focusing and centering. If I have selected say, a galaxy for instance, and clicked it in Stellarium, slewed to the object... is that it, is it now tracking my object for me to happily plug away with my dslr imaging? I guess I just was expecting to see a 'track' button etc... 2) Polar alignment ....should I polar align usign synscan on my mount if I am then going to bypass with a cable straight into stellarium for imaging? Does how I polar align matter in this case...? Any advice on these 2 things would be much appreciated. Also, if anyone can remove the clouds so I can finally use my gear that'd also be great ha! Thanks< K