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Pretty much sums up what I've been led to believe. I went to my local motor factors yesterday and looked at some silicon grease. Ruled that out, as it appeared to separate at room temperature. I'll consider all the above suggestions. As regards disassembly, I only removed the RA and Dec gearing, not the entire mount. I'm a tinkerer, so only a matter of time before I do - if I find guiding not as good as I'd like it to be. To be honest, it's good enough now for my current setup. Kev

Cheers, Dave! Graham looks busy with that awesome project of his. Be interesting to know what he uses.

Nice one. Never thought about using push bike lube.

Hi I have just stripped down, cleaned the gears and eliminated the RA and Dec backlash in my AVX. I've also fine-tuned the anti-backlash values in the hand controller. As a temporary measure, I've sparingly applied some general use lithium grease I found in my garage to the gears, but I'm now looking for a more permanent solution. I've read everything from lithium, PTFE, silicon, Teflon and who knows what else all being the right choice, but can anyone definitively point me in the right direction (preferably with a link where I can purchase at a reasonable price in the UK) as to what I really should be using? Cheers, Kev

1) Nope, if it ain't broke... 2) Personally, a right-angle viewer has been one of the most useful accessories for my SA, my advice is get one with 2x zoom. 3) Together with the right-angle viewer, a DSLR red dot finder on my hotshoe has been the best purchase I have made. Makes locating things 1000% easier, especially when you start using long telephotos and small scopes. Get a small one, as you don't want to be putting too much weight on the hotshoe, though. 4) Tried that to begin with, then quickly gave up. I found it nigh on impossible to get the mount evenly balanced. Might be good enough for wide shots, where the margin of error is greater, though. Kev

You've got a bit of just about everything in that frame. Well done!

I've similarly repositioned my guidescope from a side by side position next to my camera, to the opposite counterweight end. Difference being, I've done away with the counterweight bar and replaced it with an aluminium plate bolted to the L-bracket one end and guidescope on a custom made bracket the other. As the guidescope is now at the other end, it doesn't now count towards the mount's payload (it's now the counterweight). As a result, my guided subs length has increased 67%. If you can make it work, it's the best place to put a full sized finderguider on the Star Adventurer, given it's modest payload

No APOD (only 30 minutes total integration time), but a curtailed first light with my 1000mm MTO gave me a nice first peek of NGC891.

That price range wont get you much worthwhile new. An ST80 may be an option, but the CA will be horrible. If it's purely for imaging purposes, depending on whatever focal length you're after and you don't mind used, you're probably better off with an old prime lens like a Takumar or the like. One of my favourite images so far with this mount was with a 250mm vintage lens I picked up for a whopping £15. There are still bargains to be had. Regards

Wow. How are you managing to get 5 minute subs guided with such a large scope? Are you using a Polemaster too? On a similar note, anyone with this mount played with PHD2's new polar alignment routines? I'd love to know how practical the Polar Drift and Static Polar alignment procedures are.

That's impressive. What are your skies like on the Bortle scale?

Hmm, interesting. Good to see someone addressing the flimsiest link of the SWSA chain. I'd be surprised if it's in the same price bracket as the Sky-Watcher offering, but who knows.

I did the very same mod a good while ago and it does make a difference. Now its just the sloppy backlash of the altitude adjustment that needs looking at. Kev

I'd lower your expectations. I have the same kit, and the only way to achieve that and longer subs is to guide. It was designed primarily for wide camera lenses. Balance is also critical with this tiny mount.

If cash is tight, a vintage prime lens would make a reasonable compromise for the Samyang.

You'll need a much longer total integration time to get any hint of the Heart and Soul.

Yeah thanks. With better seeing and preparation, I'm sure there's room for improvement. At this moment in time, I'm still figuring out the ins and outs of Firecapture.

M27 with my QHY5L-II colour, unguided. 22 minutes total integration time, under last night's bright moon. Didn't think that was too bad, considering the conditions and focal length. Kev

When you say "50mm guidescope" do you mean the standard 50mm SW finder? If so, you may struggle, if used in conjunction with a Synguider to get a guide star. Synguider is better suited to a ST80, or the like. To answer your question, you can always make a bracket like this.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F162856656458 You will need to fabricate or purchase your own hotshoe mounting bracket, though.

Well I've only opened Pandora's Box and jumped into guiding... Can someone please explain to me what the numbers below mean, as I have ham-fisted my way through it and really don't know what I'm doing. Cheers, Kev

Ah right, mine is a Sigma which came with one. You may get lucky with a generic aftermarket one, but I wouldn't throw too much money at it. Mirror lenses aren't really best suited for astro use and the only reason my pictures look OK-ish is because of heavy PP (thank you, Startools!). Certainly usable images, if you're prepared to put in the PP time and effort, though.

Thanks, Louise. 152x 60s lights (down from my previous 120, thanks to a timewasting Polemaster PA attempt) 51 Darks 60 Flats 120 Bias As for balance, my lens has a collar, and I chose to make an extension for it to clear my mount, when my dslr is rotated away from landscape orientation.

Another 600mm mirror lens image - M33 Triangulum Galaxy, this time.

I'll be brutally honest and say the star shapes aren't great out of the box. Luckily, Startools does a great job of processing abberations out. They are relatively light and inexpensive, though, so that counts for them. @Thalestris24 - Yes mine is a pig to focus (and keep focused) too. Best advice from me is to let them sit outside and acclimatize for a good while before you start imaging, that way focus creep seems to be a little less apparent during your imaging session. YMMV.