Cindyly

Siril is my primary processing program, but I've not experienced what you did. I hope you can resolve your issue (or have already) because I think you'll find Siril to be a very useful, easy, powerful program. I simply pile my RAW images into their respective folders inside the image file, and Siril converts them , stacks them, and just like magic, a final image pops out ready for processing (still within Siril). I've amended and added a few scripts in order to process files that, for example, lack flats, or similar situations. Overall, it's quite easy to use, very fast, does a bang-up job creating great images, and it's free to boot. If a final product needs any tweaking, I'll just bring it over to Gimp. But most of the time, I am quite happy with the results. Good luck!

Hi Steve, thank you for that info about the locking options at East and West, I had no idea! Since I don't have the iPolar, I don't know right now what I might use the E and W locks for, but I'm glad to know about it. I'm not sure why the mount allows me to lock it in a degree or two cockeyed from zero. It's possible the teeny off-center locking position is inherent in the mount, perhaps for the express purpose of getting a leveled reticle locked in. If so, something like this should be in the manual, it's pure dumb luck that I discovered it. I hope you get some clear skies soon! As the days continue to lengthen, soon it won't get dark here until after my bedtime. A night owl, I am NOT, ha! Daylight savings time is not my friend for this very reason. I could set up my equipment to work while I sleep, but I tend to stay awake wondering if my focus went wonky, etc.; typically I check on everything once an hour and make adjustments if needed. But I'll find excuses to get out there and do short sessions, such as try to capture the ISS or do some moonscapes and time-lapses. Even just to practice on improving Goto procedures is worthwhile. It's all fun!

Some observations about my mount from last night: 1. My reticle seems to be slightly off when set at the zero position, maybe ~2°. So yesterday afternoon I placed the mount at one end of my hallway, leveled it, and released the gear lock. I found the "sweet spot" where the reticle was level by overlaying the 9 and 3 o'clock positions with where the wall meets the ceiling at the other end of my hallway, which I know is level (I checked). Strangely enough, I was able to lock the gear switch in that position. I then took a white artist's pencil and marked that exact spot on the unit for future reference, then unlocked it and set the mount to its zero position. 2. Last night I went out to do more practice with the mount, despite it being quite windy (8-12mph). I was able to lock the gear switch exactly where my two white lines met, aligned with Polaris at that setting, then set it to zero position. Now to see if it really was aligned correctly. 3. After a 1-star alignment, I slewed to Bodes galaxy. I took a 30 second test shot and was a little too far west. I then quickly realized I had forgotten to sync to my alignment star. I'm not sure how critical that missed step is. Moving forward, I did a quick plate solving to figure out where I was pointing. In my low-tech method, I use a dongle that accepts an SD card that is readable by my ipad. I took the card from my camera and then ran the image through Astrometry.net. It showed me where I was in relation to other close known objects. After comparing it to my Stellarium app, I saw how far off I was from my target. It was just a matter of slewing closer to where I needed to be. Another 30-second test shot showed my object was now in the frame. 4. The tricky part for me was figuring out where the directional buttons would take me, since everything was 43° askew because of my latitude. So I chose a slow slew rate and took my time learning what buttons went where. I eventually figured it out, but it's not at all natural for me, so this will be something I have to relearn every time. But it's doable. 5. My alignment, doing it the way I did, seemed spot on. I was able to get 2 minute exposures with no throwaways, which surprised me because of the very windy evening. That says a lot about the Literoc tripod, a sturdy beast. I didn't attempt 3 minute exposures because of the winds, in hindsight I wish I'd tried. So far, I'm very pleased with this mount and how it performs. In my research I had read less-than-stellar reviews about it, but decided to chance it anyway After all, it seemed all mounts had their detractors, including the HEQ5 that I had also considered. In the end I went with the lighter GEM28 and I think I chose well. It's easier to manage than heavier mounts, holds the payload I need, AND I felt it would be easier to learn to operate, since I have its little brother the Skyguider, also a great little mount. Now to get some clear, calm skies! 😃 Cindy

Thank you very much for your replies Ratlet and Elp, that helps a lot! The manual is not particularly clear or concise on certain things, the part about unlocking the mount seems to refer to putting it back in its case. I do recall reading somewhere about keeping the mount locked when moving it on its tripod, but danged if I can find or remember where I saw this. 🤔 That makes complete sense about not being able to manually point to a target and locking the position in place. I had suspected that the locks are specific to zero position, but thought I'd ask. My problem is, I have a pretty hard time figuring out which button will move the mount in the direction I need it to go while trying to get a star in my FOV during alignment. Up is not "up", left is not "left", etc.. I always seem to go off in pretty weird directions, haha! It's like I need to tilt my head 42° to get oriented correctly, and I'm not even sure that would work. It's my first major learning curve! I do understand the basics, I just need lots of practice doing it, learning to translate what I'm used to (an alt/az mount where 'up is up' and 'right is right') into what needs to happen on an equatorial mount. It'll come with practice, or maybe I'll figure out a trick that makes sense in my brain. Hey, it's all part of the fun, right? Ya can't take all the sport out of it, lol!!

Tonight promises to be clear so I plan to give my new GEM28 a second whorl. It'll be windy (March is known for its brisk winds here in New England), but for 'testing out' purposes, that's no big deal. A couple newbie questions for you seasoned folks. When transporting the mount from the house to the yard (just the mount head and the CW bar on the tripod, no counterweight or scope), is it best to keep the clutches locked so the mount doesn't swing around? Or should the mount be removed every time? Seems like extra steps, so I'm curious what others do. It seems that unlike the Skyguider, once everything is balanced, the GEM28 is not designed to manually point the scope on a target by unlocking the clutches. The clutches are strictly for locking the mount in its zero position, is this correct? I haven't tried locking the mount in any other position besides zero for fear of damaging something. Thank you for any feedback, I do appreciate it. This puppy still intimidates me a wee little bit, ha! Cindy

I totally agree with you, Elp. I normally wouldn't have tried such a ridiculous focal length, but since I don't know any better, I gave it a whorl. I like testing limits, and this experiment let me know the outer boundaries of what this mount can do. Inexperience (or ignorance? 🤣) can sometimes work in my favor in this hobby, ha. I know nothing about auto guiding, or connecting to computers to control my gear, nor do I own any technical peripherals. This suits me just fine because I wouldn't know what to do with any of it anyway. I'm a pretty simple gal.

FINALLY, after many days of clouds and showers, I was able to take my new GEM28 out last night. I was very impressed. First, my operator error. There was one hour on Tuesday when the sky was partly clear (that didn't last, of course), so I did a very quick test run with it just to see how similar it was to its little brother Skyguider Pro. After polar aligning, I selected a star to slew to. The scope pointed below the horizon. When I checked the listed stars, very few were in my night sky. What the heck??? Something was very off. The clouds came in, and so did I. In my living room, I checked all my settings (time, location, etc.) because I suspected something was very off. Sure enough, my UTC time was set to +300 minutes instead of -300 minutes. The mount was pointing to stars in the Russian sky! I'm laughing at myself. Last night went very well, much better than I'd anticipated. The mount is a breeze to manually polar align, however I should add that I've had lots of practice aligning using the Skyguider Pro. One thing I noticed is that the reticle shown on the handset is a few degrees off from what the Ioptron app shows on my ipad. Since I know the app is very accurate from past experience, I used that to align in lieu of what the handset showed. I then slewed to Sirius. It got me in the ballpark. The red dot finder on my 6se OTA was off, so I had to fiddle around trying to get Sirius in my FOV. For some reason the handset said "No bright stars to see" or something to that effect. I'm presuming this reflects how off I was from my target. So I slewed to Jupiter, nice and bright. After a few attempts to get it in my FOV, I synced to it, then adjusted my red dot finder while testing to see how well the mount held Jupiter in place. It seemed to stay dead on. So I tried the goto, slewed to M82. By gum, the mount put it almost dead center. So now to test the tracking. I attached my DSLR to the 6se, set to DX, for a focal length of 2250mm. Nothing like diving in head first, ha. I figured if I could get 1 minute exposures without trailing, I'd be happy. Stars sharp after one minute. Tried 90 seconds. Stars still not bad, the larger ones not perfectly round. Went to 2 minutes, started to see a wee bit of trailing on the outer edges. Even my test shot of 3 minutes showed fairly decent stars near the galaxy. I think these results aren't too bad considering the focal length and no guiding. Needless to say, I was overall pleased. That said, when I then slewed to another target for another test, I must have somehow turned off tracking. I think that while trying to change the slewing speed, I must have hit 0 at some point, which I believe turns the tracking off and on. By then my fingers were getting cold (27F) so I decided to call it good and considered the evening a success. For now, I'm blaming any glitches on operator error. I'll be out there on the next clear night, hopefully on Tuesday if the forecast holds. I've read all sorts of issues that people have reported with this mount so I remain a bit cautious, but so far, I'm quite happy with it. 🤞🏼 Cindy Here's a 90 second jpeg of M82 straight out of the camera.

Thank you, Steve. The more I read about the wifi feature, the more I'm thinking it's just not worth the bother for me. I actually don't even "need" it, in fact I'd likely never use it, preferring to operate everything manually. I simply wanted to try it out "because it was there". 😆 I have this thread bookmarked and will check in often. Also, I appreciate the invite to chime in with my own experiences with the GEM28, and you can bet I will do exactly that. I very much look forward to getting out there and trying this baby out!

Steve and friends, This is such a wonderful thread! I just purchased a GEM28 and am learning how to use it. I own its little brother, Ioptron's Skyguider Pro, which I love but of course, it has weight limits. Seemed natural to go with something I was somewhat familiar with, thus the GEM28. I've had it just a couple days, it's been raining here so I've been unable to give it a test run yet. Which is fine, I've been trying to get the integrated wifi to "talk" to my ipad through the recommended apps, but no luck yet. It's a work in progress, no doubt. Anyway, I signed up to this forum just to say THANK YOU for the wonderful thread! I will reread it for the wealth of information it holds! Cindy in Maine, USA