knobby

Looks like spacing as the elongation is equally pointing away from the centre (imho) not far off though.

If you're Hotech says it's collimated then just try defocusing slightly with a high power eyepiece you'll be able to see from the rings if it's near ok. Just to double check ... Turn the Hotech 180 degrees in the focuser to check if it's still looking collimated, sometimes the laser isn't actually collimated 😁

Did you accept the guide assistant recommended settings ? Might be a guide rate or aggression setting maybe ? Also check your pixel size and focal length in brain settings.

APT only needs to see the imaging camera. It's PHD2 that needs to see the guide camera.

I use APT with 2 ZWO cameras, as Steve suggested I use the Native driver for the 1600 and the Ascom for the 290. I also use the hub built into the 1600 with no problems.

Stack the RGB separately in DSS but on the first colour ( any one ) choose the best frame and right click it then select use as reference. Probably something similar in Siril. Easiest way I've found to combine the images afterwards is to open all 3 in Photoshop then in channels choose combine and select the correct colour for each channel. Our own @carastro has a link on her website that shows this nicely. https://youtu.be/Qz3JVSZb90Q

Really nice image 👍🏻 Was this 60 seconds RGB? Any luminance ?

Really nice capture (and video)

Cheers Michael, I use DSS / Photoshop CS6 but must admit I'd looked at Siril too as it looks to have some features similar to Pixinsight. And yes ... it's very quiet on the Essex pages 🙂

Excellent thread 👍🏻 Just to add another variable ... Would you bin with camera software or after capture ? I know for CCD definitely camera software but not too clear with CMOS.

Not sure about adaptors but the moon appears very bright so you'll probably want something like 1/250 sec.

It's a fine balancing act ! But yes, long edge to long edge as you need to get the guide cam as far into the image circle as possible. Flats will hopefully remedy a slight shadow from the stalk 🤞🏻 You can try binning the guide camera as it should improve sensitivity and possibly improve star shape to guide on.

https://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-we1.htm

You should be able to loosen the large grub screws on top then slowly and carefully adjust the small grub screws on the sides ... Search for Astro baby HEQ5 service on Google - she explains it really well with pictures.

They seem to be all different ... But mine performs better with it sprung ( so far anyway )

Hi Lee, early days but it seems way better with the sprung set up (to be fair, that's how SW designed it ) It's only a tweak of the locking nut needed to make sure it has free travel so easy to change back. I used https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucas-Oil-10533-3676/dp/B004X70LZA/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2XLA51IVXF6N5&dchild=1&keywords=white+lithium+grease&qid=1617799700&sprefix=white+lithium%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-5 The stiffness on mine was the collar on the RA bearings screwed down too tight. Don't sweat too much though as even with this loose it still isn't free enough to balance the mount 😞 but with careful adjustment it gets a lot smoother.

A C8 on an HEQ5 is going to be very near it's limits (still struggling with this myself - using the 0.7 reducer) It's doable but difficult - a heavy breeze is enough to give 2 or 3 arc sec spike in guiding. You are looking at 0.65 " / pixel or about 0.9 with the reducer. Just realized you have a CCD so you could bin 2x2 to give 1.31 which should be ok for the UK.

Still can't believe he was allowed to do that to the sky 🤐

Over the weekend, I stripped and cleaned mine ( I had been using it with the fixed worm - HEQ5 style as in adjusted as best as possible) adjusted the spring movement to be free but not loose. Scrubbed all the grease and debris from the gears and lightly lub'd with lithium grease. More than happy on the 90 minute test on Sunday night ! Had spells of sub 1arc second for 3 or 4 minutes - overall for the 90 mins was 1.67. Going to try upping the guide rate to 0.9 (defaults to 0.75 in synscan app) to give Dec a chance to react next time.

Personally if it's guiding that well I'd leave it as is 👍🏻

Intriguing 😄

Same here, just tighten the middle bolt then tighten the one over the simple... Don't over tighten though as the worm gear runs on the other side of it !

Hi Ray, not sure of you image scale but if you're lucky and get a good one, the Az-gti on a decent camera tripod is very portable and with the eq firmware guides to around 2 arc seconds .

As you probably know the worm on these mounts is sprung ... However it seems to stick hence most users tinker and adjust in the same way as an HEQ5. What are your opinions / results ? - ideally post average guiding results and sprung or fixed.

Well done , guiding is indeed a major step in imaging success , glad you have it sorted.