badgers

Glad to see this is still proving useful !

The HEQ5 was a bit more of a pain to strip down, but AstroBabys guide was excellent for that.

I bought 3 in 1lithium grease in halfords in a little pot.

I didn't get slippage, but it might be an issue with a heavy load.

I'd agree its defintely worth keeping grease away from the areas where the clutches bind.

I'm currently using Blue Tac to hold my 2" Light Pollution filter in my imaging setup...

Love the lo-tech solutions : )

Anton

That's my kind of electronics repair!

Nice work Mark, glad you've fixed it.

Those are absolutely cracking shots for your first guided runs!

How long were the exposures ?

Jesus it's big....

The wife is going to crucify me!

Hmmm, that came out Easter themed without me even intending it.

Oh and its a sad day today : (

My EQ3-2 with all its mods is being packed up to be sent to its new happy owner.

And I took your advice and did the camera last night too QM.

Hoping for some clear skies for first light of the HEQ and modded Canon

Great Work QM, that's a really useful video.

Or a "Sleep in the car" mount : )

I also thought my modding days were over with my new 'quality' mount on the way......

5 mins of google has already convinced me to take it apart as soon as it arrives to regrease it..... oh and then there's the belt-drive options.....

GOD HELP ME!

LOL!

When she discovers it, I'll initially deny that it is different, then admit that it cost £50 which she will double before giving me grief for spending £100.

Besides I know that she secretly buys shoes, which she hides

My next question is to work out how many shoes she'd have to buy before I can justify a Mesu friction mount.....

I've gone an done it... I've finally become a traitor to the EQ3-2 and EQ5 guiding threads : (

I ordered a HEQ5 Pro, about 20 minutes after the wife left for the airport.....

Going to beef up the guidescope to a startravel ST80, but I'm keeping the quick cam pro guide camera for now, as it works relatively well, and QHY5s don't play nicely on a macintosh.

Doubt it will improve my imaging and life will be harder as a eunuch when the wife finds out : )

Anyway, I learned loads on these threads so thanks again QM and stan.

Using a standard 2x barlow for this one. And heres my M101

That's lovely QM.

I didn't know you could do imaging like that with a Barlow, doesn't that dramatically push up how long the exposures should be ?

Hi badgers, have you tried the Xbox live cam, I don't know how it would compare to a QC4000, but at only £5 on amazon it would be worth a go. There is some info on here for modding them and I think Gina has tried it for guiding.

Thanks for the tip, and yes I definitely thought about it.

Actually the quick cam pro 4000 has a pretty good sensor, and considering I found it lying in a drawer its not half bad.

The dark frames and turning on 2x2 averaging or 3x3 median noise reduction in PHD looks very promising already on some tests tonight.

Just need some stars to point it at now!

I drove home via the countryside from work today, I've sussed out a couple of dark rural spots for some imaging nights when the weather improves.

Not sure how likely I am to be arrested/stabbed/shot though. You guys done any imaging in the countryside ?

hi badger. I think the webcam is ok on nice clear night but ultimatly a better camera would give better star detection like the QHY5. Weather is horrible as well I found the webcam could pick up fainter stars if you keep at it and taken darks with phd helps a bit. As I am new to guiding like yourself its going to take time to learn it all but at least we have now got what we need to make a start. Just need some nice weather to try it all out in.

If the weathers not that great have a go at mars and saturn with the webcam and a 2xbarlow that is great fun.

Ahh, I didn't know you could take darks in PHD that's definitely worth a go.

My guided imaging is on hold at the moment. The weather is appalling and I can't find a good target that's within my field of view.

I had a crack at M31 even though I can only get an hour or so on it before it drops behind trees.

I can only get 2-3 very faint guide stars on my 9x50 quick cam pro 4000 finder/guider for M31, is this normal ?

The signal to noise on them is so poor that I'm better off going unguided it seems.

I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to improve the sensitivity of the webcam.

I've played with just about every setting on the webcam options for PHD.

Probably darker skies and an unrestricted field of view would help, but I've not yet found a good site near Cambridge.

I'm checking with one of the professional modders right now on prices for getting my 40D properly done.

I'm also on the lookout for a 450D that I can mod myself.

I'll need to think about this some more.

On a positive side, BBC is predicting the possibility of some clear skies for a few hours tonight. Going to have a crack at the Rosette I think.

QM's a braver man than I.

I'm tempted to ship off my 40D and have it professionally done.

Replacing a 40D 2nd hand would cost over £500 for one in good nick like mine : (

But if the wife finds out I've modified my pride and joy she'll hurt me.

Tempted by the clip filter that should restore it back to 'almost' normality for regular photography, that and a dose of never mentioning it's been modified to the all seeing, all knowing one.

Well its less optimal then Stan's EQ3-2 setup weight-wise, but to be fair I'm very happy with my results so far.

I have everything controlled from the laptop, so I stay well away from the scope. Wind is the only issue, but nothing that can't be dealt with by simply taking more shots and throwing bad ones away.

Filling the tripod legs with sand probably made the largest difference, as did the mount strip-down and regrease/tighten.

I've only managed one test imaging session with the current weather on M45 which I think is a tricky object to get right.

Next clear night I'm going on a proper imaging session, probably on the rosette nebula or M31 with as many lights/darks/flats as I can.

You should have an easier time with the 130 for sure, its still f5 but will be less prone to balancing and wind problems.

I'm in no hurry now, I've got the kit, it seems to work and I've not spent a fortune.

Biggest upgrade for me would be dark skies : (

I think a cheshire is the most useful thing to get first as it does both primary and secondary.

I bought a laser collimator and found that taking it out and retrying it again gave me different collimation results each time, so I got disillusioned with it.

Now I do barlowed laser collimation which is much better but I still double check it with the cheshire after.

The quattro 4 makes me want to drool....

I love the disclaimer on FLO about it:

NB: Fast Newtonians are best suited to experienced astronomers. They require precise collimation and a Coma Corrector to reach their full potential. If you are unsure whether one will suit your requirements please email or phone to discuss before placing an order .

I'm happy pimping out my 150P at the moment. I flocked it tonight and will add a little primary fan soon. But I'm also on the lookout for a 2nd hand HEQ5 Pro.

For now I'll just be happy if I can beef up my processing skills and get more imaging time under my belt.

If I can get anything half as good as the pictures QM and Stan have been getting I'll be very happy.

I only spotted some minor differences from the old black EQ3-2.

Some slightly different washers, including on the worm gear spindle, but everything else seemed exactly the same.

I'm glad I was taking photos as I disassembled, as I lost track of where a few things had come from and had to refer to my own guide to put it back together.

So just make sure to document where things came from, which order and the orientation and you'll be fine.

Getting good results on PixInsight now with some photoshop afterwards.

Just need clear skies for Attempt No 2 : )

I've a sneaking suspicion I was operating my camera with incorrect white balance and with long exposure noise reduction turned on for those M45 shots. Going to spend an evening sorting out the camera modes tonight and try again when its clear.

Can I shoot flats and darks on evenings like this ? I guess the main difference would be temperature, but that should be fairly static for the next few weeks ?

I guess I could record the ambient temperature on the filenames of the subs. I just don't know the tolerances, would darks/flats shot at 15 celsius be usable for lights shot at 17 celsius....