kirkster501

Your HOO M27 is one of the best ones I have ever seen, a truly superb effort. To get the outer shell a method I have heard is to grab plenty of 3x3 and even 4x4 binned subs to get plenty of signal on the outer nebula and blend that into the "main" 1x1 data.

Hi Steve, I connect all the gear in SGP. I unpark scope and point it anywhere where there is a clear patch of stars. I do a blind sync first so scope knows where it is pointing. After the successful blind sync I then I right click my object in sequencer and centre on it to make sure it all works ok; scope slews perfectly and places the object bang in middle of FoV after two iterations within a pixel - it does its plate solve thing and all perfect. Then I manually start PHD2 and select the star myself and start guiding. I then start the sequence and can leave the imaging rig and use my Dob. True, it repeats some of the above steps. But I like to do the above steps manually first to make sure all is well. Meridian flips all worked perfectly. The only change has been the mount has moved and twisted slightly on the pier - a degree or two max - slightly and the balance was not quite right. I corrected the balancve and need to do another PA. Steve

The TEC140. I have Astrodon 3nm Ha and OIII connected to that now so will use this (when I get my guiding issue sorted that is 🙄) I always use the TEC140 scope for smaller objects. FSQ85 (no reducer any more - too much faffing around) for a wider field, and Samyang 135mm lens for a true wider field.

Looks absolutely superb! Well done. This is my next project now that I have a OIII filter.

Indeed Dave (and Vlaiv). Don't let my issue here put you off. My MESU has been operating flawlessly since I bought it in 2016 and guides and slews beautifully and has never missed a beat. I am 100% confident this matter is not the mount, it is IT or balance related. Some clear patches about at tea time here in Nottingham. If they hold for tonight I will be able to Polar Align and do some more testing and fiddling.

I did have it balanced pretty well before my issues. I then added a new Moonilte Crayford focuser and electronics to my ACF SCT scope which is a total of about 3kg in total to the mirror end of the SCT- the focuser is a very substantial piece of kit. This upset the balance a bit. I did tinker with it but the balance was not right when I had the issues the other night and I knew this. I have since rebalanced it so I need to try again. And pertinently, the problem I corrected in balance was in the DEC axis, exactly what PHD was complaining about..... This cannot be a coincidence. So I would say that the balance does need to be pretty good. I will know more when I can do more testing because, other than update the Sitech drivers (and redoing Polar Alignment) I have done very little other than rebalance. I was hoping it was going to be clear last night to do this testing but, alas, it wasn't. I am in the UK so could be a week or more before a clear sky. Unless there is another way to test this. The MESU is the bedrock of my system and I have high confidence in it. It is a superb piece of engineering and I am 100% convinced this is user error or IT gremlins (or balance). I would not hesitate to get another one or recommend it to you unreservedly.

.... indeed Vlaiv, or the DEC balance correction that I have now carried out. I need a clear night to try out some things now I understand better what is going on. Many thanks.

Not sure what you mean Olly? No attachment at all, that is the drawtube of the focuser. It is an electronic focuser because touching the scope at high magnifications with a Powermate at F30/F40 whilst trying to very fine focus on a planet is a no-no. Jupiter dances around like a dice in a shaker otherwise. The SCT is not a Deep sky imaging scope Olly , it is visual and for Lunar and Planet photography. I may try that on [the very few] pristine nights but I did not buy it for deep sky AP.

My list of people who I owe beers to and bottles of gin (like Gnomus) is growing......

Ahhh, I read Vlaiv's post properly....... "PHD2 will do clear backlash until it sees guide star move on guide command. It is clearing backlash in DEC before doing DEC calibration (RA calibration went ok).So it tries to clear backlash and does that great number of times, then gives up and and tries going North - and then it complains not enough movement in DEC axis" Ah, OK, so the backlash is being cleared from DEC and not RA as I thought. OK, but I have that box unticked anyway.... ? Think I need to try a few things then.

Thanks Steve, You can only do that for the DEC axis Steve. I am getting this on the RA axis after it finishes coming back "EAST". The appears no option to turn it off on the RA axis where it appears I am having this problem.

Thanks chaps. Will give these steps a try, I have not a had a clear night since my troubles on Wednesday with this issue. I did uninstall PHD2 and reinstall and I was running at the default settings so it should have worked with that. I do know I need to do a Polar Align, I forgot about that at the time. It could be several degrees out. Even then, backlash should clear I'd imagine........

Hi folks, All slews work perfectly in all directions. My workflow. Scope could be pointing anywhere and then I do a blind solve first in SGP. Then I slew to my desired object, it platesolves and puts object perfectly in the middle of frame. This would constitute the offset init right? How do I see the alignment points in Sitech SW? I then start PHD and try to calibrate and it should pick up the position right? It then does West then East then gets stuck clearing backlash..... This is a new issue, the above workflow always worked perfectly. How do you turn off backlash anyway please? MESU has no backlash so where do you do that? There is no option to turn it off in PHD for RA that I can see. I am wanting to recheck polar alignment because I think it may be way off after the mount got slightly moved on it's pier that I did in summer. Not used this rig since then. I have upgraded sitech software to latest 94N - I was on 91A. Firmware is ay 9.5 but latest is 9.7. 9.7 does not seem to address any critical issues in this area so would rather leave alone than risk flashing the controller without very good reason. Thanks.

David, yes that is what I meant. Ny apologies for not being clearer.

The scope ring is to support the [quite heavy] lens and prevent potential sag which could happen if its weight was solely supported on the camera adapter. I am still tinkering with how much pressure the three scope ring screws should exert against the lens. Too much and it causes as much distortion as much as too little. It just needs to nip the lens to prevent the sag.

With the free APT program, you can do. Leave it running and come back indoors.

Here is my rig with Samyang 135mm lens (Canon fit) and Moravian G2-8300 CCD camera. It has 31mm Astrodon 31mm LRGBHa filters. I also used a Skywatcher Focus motor and a Hitec Astro DC autofocus unit. All controlled via SGP and it works great and Platesolves superbly. Guided by a Skywatcher Evoguide 50mm guider and an ASI120MM-mini guidecam. All mounted on a 10" Losmandy saddle plate and I use my NEQ6 - although could use a much lighter mount such as a Star Adventurer. The whole thing works brilliantly. I really love this widefield AP. I can easily remove the lens so I can use it with my Fuji XT2 with an adapter for daytime photography if I want to. I am working on a second rig using my modded 1100D and my Samyang 14mm lens.

Looks great. I made some progress this afternoon and I think I have the balance sorted out at last. Here is my [permanent mounted] rig: Forgive the mess at the moment I am having a reorganisation in there.

Hello folks, Anyone who has built a 100A power box or thereabouts, could you please recommend me a 12v leisure battery and a box for it please? I have some ideas but some ideas of a working combination from the community would be great! Any thoughts about the types of 12v plug connectors to use? I don't want to use cigar sockets. Thanks, Steve

Agreed guys, these are £5800 scopes brand new and thats without the Crayford and motor focus. I had the money and I went for it knowing the timing was not quite right but £2200 was a steal for a scope of this quality. However, I have been struggling a bit with properly mounting it since, as Olly and Gorann will know, these ACF 14" scope are VERY heavy and have to be permanently mounted. Still working at it on the permanent side-by-side arrangement with my TEC140 and associated gubbins and I have to try and make this work. I'm almost there but not quite. Otherwise I'd have to dedicate the MESU to the ACF alone and then I'd struggle what to mount my TEC on. I don't have the room in my obs for two mounts. I think they are such a niche scope, that are so hard to man handle, that the second hand market is limited, hence the used price not as high as you'd think. That said, £2200 was a steal so I went for it. Sorry for my ramblings...!

Welcome on board. What a beautiful place Switzerland is. I have stayed there on holidays and worked there many times.

A nice find. First wait for a spell of a week or two cloudy weather so you can let the paint dry in the final step and you are not tempted to hurry. I'd just cover the rest of the scope in a polythene dust sheet and tape it up thoroughly using masking tape. Then I'd sand down the back and get it smooth - this is the most important step for a good result. Then I'd prime it, then spray matt black auto paint. With a little care and time you could get this looking superb for $20 or less. It is no big deal to take these scopes completely to bits. People get really scared to tinker but scopes are really very simple devices. Just protect the optics when you do this and make sure they go back in the correct orientation.

That is a superb result Gorann, well done.

Just clarifying Olly..... You mean that when you calibrate your lights you use the master bias as the dark to calibrate the lights with? And you also use exactly the same master bias file as the, well, bias? So you use the same master bias frame on both steps?????? You also do some odd trick with flats as well I seem to recall? I have Atik 460 and the darks are very clean. Conversely, the 8300 chip in my Moravian has filthy darks. I feel as long as I keep my dark library up to date then I see no issues in continuing to use real darks and bias frames

By way of comparison, I bought mine (Meade LX200 ACF 14" F10) off a member from here for £2200 earlier this year. I have spent another £600 on it for a Moonlite Crayford and a motorfocus unit. Both superb. They transform the scope.