prusling

Hi, new HEM27 owner here. From reading around it appears that 3rd axis balancing is important for this and other iOptron mounts. There is an M8 thread on the side of the saddle for a balancer accessory to be attached (amongst other uses), so after raiding my 'bits 'n' bobs' containers and digging out a short fully-threaded M8 bolt, nylon washer, 2 x M8 connectors, a load of penny/halfpenny metal washers, and a wing nut, I came up with this solution which works a treat. The connectors help it to clear the mount body and the wing nut allows easy addition/subtraction of washers until balance is achieved. There's no need to re-balance in Dec after each adjustment as the balancer is fitted at the balance point. Hope this is useful.

I found that my flats panel created 'strobing' effects regardless of exposure time unless it was on the brightest setting. I then needed to use a number of Neutral Density sheets to reduce the exposure time to a couple of seconds.

I'm interested, thanks

Hi, Welcome to the local group. There are a couple of clubs in East Dorset / Wilts / West Hants - Fordingbridge Astronomers and Wessex AS - who hold observing / imaging sessions at local dark sites in the area (Hyde Common, Turf Hill, Badbury Rings, and at Durlston Country Park observatory). I appreciate these are not particularly local to Blandford but the Cranborne Chase AONB (an International Dark Sky Reserve) also hold events throughout the area which may be more convenient. You can find out more at http://www.chasingstars.org.uk/explore/top-10-stargazing-locations.html Whilst those in this SGL group are up for getting together (Covid willing) if you pm me I can put you in touch with the clubs where many of us members arrange informal meets. Look forward to meeting you. Peter

Aah, somehow my sync had become set to other than Dialogue Based (though there were no stored alignment points)... Looking forward to the next clear night to test it! Many thanks Starflyer

Yes mine's an HEQ5 on a pier in an obsy (shed). I have to park with the scope horizontally to get the roof on. It's not been a problem for 2-3 years until recently. I've may have accidentally changed a setting or loaded a new version.

My other issue, which may have started around the same time a few months ago, is when the mount parks (I use approx Alt 0 and Az 0) it stops then moves a little more. I'm then always some distance away when I first slew to a target next time.

I have a similar issue with the Centre function after Slew. The first positional adjustment gets the scope fairly close but subsequent fine tuning moves do not change the position - just keep reporting the same error until it fails. It certainly used to get closer.

Hi Steven, welcome from just up the road in Canford Heath. There are a couple of great astro clubs locally and lots of people who can offer any help needed. Would be good to meet up sometime.

Hi sammak127, I would be very interested in one of these if you consider producing more of them. I have both a redundant HEQ5 polarscope (as I use SharpCap) and an iOptron polarscope from a SkyTracker. I prefer the polar scope bracket attaching to the mount itself as I use a different type of 'wedge' (a Manfrotto 410 geared head adapted to 2 axes). How does your bracket attach to the mount - does it slide on and grip? Keen to hear how you get on with it.

I recently bought the TS 60mm equivalent and a major factor was the 1.5kg weight as one use will be with a DSLR on a 3.5kg rated lightweight tracker (iOptron SkyTracker). I already had a TS 0.79x reducer which screws on in place of the 2" clamp and gives around 290mm FL - wide enough for the whole Veil or the Heart&Soul (just). So far, after initial back focus tuning, test shots show acceptably round stars in the corners and no trailing at 30 secs. Depending on your use case, from my limited experience to date I'd recommend it.

Many thanks for all the info, answers, and order updates. 100% happy face feedback from me! Enjoy your retirement.

Thanks for the heads up. I've volunteered as a tester.

I can't comment on the 450M but I have a 314L+. It's been my staple narrowband camera for the past couple of years and is very sensitive and low noise at a usual -10 degrees, and very easy to use to the extent that I apply a standard -10 degree master bias frame in place of darks, and hardly ever use flats. This combined with small image files makes processing very fast and predictable (I use APP and StarTools). The only slight negative is the field of view is quite narrow so I've bought a larger sensor CMOS camera as well. I'm sure whichever you choose you will be very pleased with it.

Hi, I've attended many of the talks and found them very enjoyable and informative. I also attend two astro clubs regularly and the SGZ format complements them well - i.e. a focused single talk with q&a. It was great to have vendors come on and talk about their products, and to have overseas speakers from time to time. Also good to put faces to names! Of late, I have already seen a few of the talks by regular circuit speakers and this may be a cause of reduced numbers. I'd like to see the talks continue regularly but perhaps inevitably less frequently. I have missed a couple of talks by not seeing the announcement but now realise I can follow the SGZ forum and be notified of new announcements. Sunday evening has the advantage that it doesn't clash with club meetings. Huge thanks to FLO, Grant, Darren and all the speakers. You have really helped us to maintain our passion for astronomy during these challenging times. What a great community this is!

I bought an OVL OAG secondhand and the seller was up-front about a chip off the prism and priced it accordingly. I haven't found it to cause a problem in practice, with guiding or optical artefacts. As Vlad says, return it if new, otherwise give it a try and I hope your experience is the same as mine. By the way this design doesn't have a clamping screw to hold the pillar tight but aluminium foil does the trick to stop any tilt/wobble.

Take a look at the Sirilic front end to Siril - it simplifies preprocessing whilst supporting multiple sessions.

I plate solved an image from mine and it was 176mm which works fine in PHD.

Excellent tutorials - highly recommended!

The Fitswork function 'Processing, Background Flatten, Lines to Equal Values' does a great job at removing banding on my 550d.

Best to look for someone who has upgraded and has the stock item surplus to requirements - like me! PM me if interested.

+1 for the PPBA. I also now have an eXternal Motor Controller (XMC) to go with mine driving an existing Lakeside stepper. The result is superbly compact and elegant (but pricey)! I too have the Nevada PS-08 6-8A power supply which currently happily powers the PPBA and via that two dewstraps, the XMC and a cooled camera. My HEQ5 is currently powered separately but at some stage I may add both it and a Pi 4 to the PPBA, and may need to look at the adequacy of the supply at that time.

I have a similar dessicant dehumidifier, originally bought for a mobile home and now deployed in my shed obsy. However, I rarely use it as it kicks out a fair bit of heat itself leading to worries that it could cause condensation when switched off. Also as the obsy is by no means airtight it tries to dry out the local neighbourhood... Touch wood, I've avoided damp to date by ensuring a constant flow of air past the kit - just by using a computer fan high in one wall with a vent low in the opposite wall.

Managed to get out under clear skies last evening and had 4 or 5 perfect autofocus runs with the XMC and Lakeside stepper, so using the unipolar wiring with full steps at 200Hz max, and backlash compensation only in the driver, works well. Many thanks for all your help. Peter

Many thanks, Alan, that's very interesting as I wired it myself using a modular RJ45/8P8C to DB9 connector with a generic pinout I found on the web. I had a challenge soldering the two wires for pin 5 but succeeded in the end, only to discover a pinout in the user manual itself which excludes those two wires completely, which may be preferred for this unit. They are still connected at present (as I assumed they were redundant) but maybe I should disconnect them. You say bipolar are more efficient, are there any performance/reliability benefits?