kirkster501

Been imaging and visual with the setup for ages. All was fine. MESU mount and PHD2. Made some tweaks to my rig with a new focuser and the balance is OK but not perfect. As soon as I power up the mount the system is solid as a rock. The mount slews perfectly and up/down movements perfect just as always was. Platesolves work and puts object bang in the middle. All good so far. I decided to do a new PHD calibration since not done one since Spring. PHD2 goes West 12 steps. Cool. It then comes back East (in only four steps [why?]), but guide star comes back into the green square in the middle again. Then its says clearing backlash, one, twice, 110 times. Eventually gives up and does a North. Then complains not enough movement in DEC axis. What the heck.....???? Worked perfectly before.... Uninstalled PHD2 and reset the whole thing. Rebooted etc. Still same. Could it be because the balance is not bang on?????? I thought the friction of the drive would be enough? When "clearing backlash" does PHD2 tell the mount to "let go" and as a consequence of the imbalance it can never get the backlash cleared? Thanks guys for any thoughts.... My first thought is to get this slight balance thing sorted. If mount is no powered it is very, very slightly off balance in the DEC direction.

Good luck with this Gorann. I have a similar set up and only used for visual thus far. You collimate these with the screws on the secondary. Defocus a star and then get use the three screws to get the defocused star symmetrical. TINY movements, we are talking eighth turns. There are tons of online guides and videos on this. Might be worth removing the reducer for now as a temporary measure to see if you have this issue with red channel then....

This is at F2.8 with autofocus running. At this stage just pre-processing and a stretch, There is still a bit of coma I think or maybe my PA was slightly out. 16 x 2 mins Ha with 3nm Astrodon on G2-8300, guided. I grabbed this Ha data and LRGB as well. Need time to process it. Experimentation continues. I might drop it down one stop next time.

I now have autofocus going on this from a SW motor and a Hitec Astro DC focus unit. Works brilliantly. I grabbed a data set last night and will process it later.

Critical you have your finder and main scope aligned. Extremely frustrating if they are not.

A fantastic M16. You should be proud of this Ciaran. We sometimes have to acknowledge that some objects it is not meant to be in terms of getting enough data. @geoflewisvery sorry to hear of your loss. Hang in there.

Brilliant, serious dedication there! Chapeau to you sir. Now for the colour version ?😂

From your description could be anything. But it's normally an issue of the drivers etc. set up correctly with ASCOM. You have the correct ones? The correct 32 or 64 bit? What version of Windows? Do yo have AV software running? Can Windows "see" the camera as a drive otherwise?

This highlights what we say all the time; that a telescope's size increases hugely even with only an extra inch or two of aperture. My 12" Dob is a monstrosity in the corner but at least I can move it.

Yeah, it's pretty very bleak for the gas giants currently. Quite unusual for them both to be so poorly placed. My own calculations - for them to be above 45% in altitude from Nottingham skies - are 2022-2023 for Jupiter and as far out as 2028 for Saturn. It really is not good at all.

There are very scientific methods of taking the flat frames that work out exactly what the ADU should be for your precise set up. However, the net of these methods is that the ADU setting is between 30% and 45% of the maximum ADU. So assuming 65535 is the max ADU for a 16-bit camera, somewhere between about 20000 and 30000 is where you need to be. It does not matter too much exactly where. I tend to go for 28000 because it is easier to get that level with a longer exposure with a camera with a mechanical shutter. Your capture program will tell you the ADU for the frame. If not fits liberator will tell you. it is the average ADU figure you are looking for.

Mine has sat permanently in my obs and run perfectly for the last two years. It currently has the Meade 14" ACF and TEC 140 in a side-by-side arrangement. Very heavy approaching 100kg with counterweights. Seems fine for visual and imaging. Some day I hope to have two mounts in my obs so I can do two different things. Would I buy another Mesu 200? Yes.

I had one but sold it. It was excellent but, hand on my heart, I felt my venerable Mark 1 QHY5 was as good in my set up, hence me selling it.

Mine works fine on my Windows 10 laptop of considerable vintage - like 10 years old. Do you have all the correct USB drivers loaded onto the laptop? The correct ASCOM driver for PHD to see the camera?

....sent before I finished. I use Moon Phase Photo Maps. similar to Derek's website. You can match the view through the scope and have red light view to protect your eyes.

Useful info here, many thanks guys for sharing.

A good explanation and example Neil. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, there are all manner of issues with my posted image but it appears the 31mm filters work well. I just wanted to test out that I could get an image and get the lens mounted on the G2-8300 camera and it seems to have worked out. I need to get the guiding and autofocus working. Lots of drilling and tapping to do now to build the wide-field rig properly. I bought some ADM 125mm rings from a member and will adapt these to support the camera and lens so I don't get sag from the weight of the lens hanging off of the camera.

When I've got all this properly set up it should be good.

Superb. Love galaxy clusters, think of all the planets and civilisations you can see. Makes us feel very small...

Thanks Olly. I am starting to prefer these wide fields with camera lenses as opposed to doing wide fields with the FSQ85 and reducer.

It's a 31mm filter. Not done any flats so no idea what the vignetting is like. But optically, why shouldn't it work at F2?

Drove past you guys the other day past Marsh Barton. Next time I do so I'll stop for a cup of tea

Thanks guys. Yes, F2 is an extremely tough test of the lens.

A raw, uncalibrated light frame, no calibration, no cooling, just a stretched 120 second sub. Quite pleased for a very first effort. G2-8300 Moravian camera with 3nm HA Astrodon filter with Samyang 135mm at F2, unguided at this stage. All on a NEQ6 mount. I have lots to do on this rig to get it properly set up. Least of all getting EQmod to work with SGP for which I will fire up a new thread.