michael8554

I vaguely remember hearing that now we've left the Common Market (that's what we joined, but like a virulent virus it mutated into the EU), some weights and fluid measures can revert to Imperial ? Michael

Hi Brad Calibration looked good. The steps were slightly bunched up into pairs, indicating some stiction, but this didn't appear to affect guiding. PA was good, 1.1arcmins. You guided for 50 minutes, THEN ran Guide Assistant. A shame, because then you mostly only made runs too short to see the trends with the suggested settings. Best to Cal, then GA, then guide. Your 9 minute session had good figures, RA = 0.58 arcsecs, Dec = 0.66, these should yield round stars. With your final 7 minute run you slowed exposure from 2.5 to 3 seconds, and enabled Multistar. MultiStar tries to compensate for Seeing, so exposures can be increased to as fast as 1 second, not decreased to 3 seconds. At the end of your final run, RA and Dec shot off on their own and the guide star was lost. If that wasn't you "shutting down", then there was probably a cable snag. Michael

I have a torch and it doesn't flash, so why do they call it a flashlight ? Michael

You could start again with the Torx screws tightened all the way in, which pushes the sensor fully forwards towards where infinity focus will now be. Now see if you have infinity focus somewhere on the sensor. If other corners then come into focus with the lens slightly back from the infinity setting then you're in luck, you can back off the relevant corner screws say an eighth of a turn at a time. I'm surprised the mod instructions didn't mention that infinity focus would be off, and offer ways to overcome that ? Michael

From your first image: Declination = 90.0 degrees. Guiding pointing at the north pole in Dec ain't going to work very well. From your second image: RA Guide Speed = 0.10x, Dec Guide Speed = 0.10x These are far too low, they need to be between 0.50x and 0.90x. You probably have the EQMOD ASCOM PulseGuide Settings too low. I suggest you spend some rainy evenings reading how to use PHD2 and EQMOD. Guides are available via the PHD2 Help menu, here's some to start with: https://github.com/OpenPHDGuiding/phd2/wiki/EQASCOM-Settings https://openphdguiding.org/phd2-best-practices/ Michael

You can attach everything from a lightweight zoom for news reporting, to the monsters used for sport. Here's what I've seen quoted: Camera: $3,500 Lens: $212,000 Tripod & Fluid head: $20,000 Remote handles: $9,000

Same here. The zoom lenses for TV sporting events have a huge range, often Canon. Conditions in Dubai looks good. Michael

To see if that is correctly installed, go to Windows Device Manager Look for a instance of a COM port, and note the COM Port number for EQMOD and PHD2. If the COM port has a yellow error icon, the installation isn't complete. Which Guidecam do you have ? If it's another ZWO brand camera, then it's all too easy to connect to the ASI2600MM-Pro cooled camera by mistake. Try during the day, a 1 second daylight exposure should flood the screen in PHD2, then with your hand over the scope aperture the screen should go black. Can I assume from your expert's setup that this isn't your first rodeo, you are familiar with PHD2 ? Michael

An interesting link Starflyer, I will digest that TAE theory. So Brad, a MinMo of 0.50 pixels will be equivalent to this many arcsecs: Your guide image scale in arcsecs/pixel x 0.50 pixels. Michael

Quite possibly. But you need to look at a GuideLog with the Log Viewer, to see how many arcsecs the 0.50 setting actually equates to. Michael

The "Leap before you Look " school eh ? Might be something helpful in these: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/135260-127-mak-motor-drive-focuser/ http://www.tanstaafl.co.uk/2012/02/skywatcher-127-mak-focuser-motor-drive-conversion/ With the OTA pointing skyward you might be able to fish for the focus rod. Be careful handling the OTA now that the mirror is free to slide at speed. Michael

If that works, who cares if it's different to your other mount ? Michael

1) When trying to connect The T-Adapter with the ZWO filter drawer it does not lock in position You'll have to be more specific. The T adapter has a T2 female thread into which the T2 male of the filter drawer screws. When you've screwed those together tightly they're locked. 2) you have 44mm DSLR + 2mm T2 Adapter + 21mm T2 Filter Drawer = 67mm So you need 105mm - 67mm = 38mm of spacers. I'd try 40mm which is 2mm too much, and check the star shapes in the corners of images. With a "normal" 11mm T2 adapter for the DSLR you'd need 29mm, so a 30mm spacer would only be 1mm out. Michael

Looking at the screengrab, RA = 9.80 arcsecs, Dec = 29 arcsecs. Such hugely different figures indicate very poor guiding, resulting in Dec elongation of stars Dec is wobbling at least 8 arcsecs, it looks like it's going to end up way beyond the limit of the vertical scale. And the guiding software is struggling to bring Dec back, taking 8 x exposure secs to correct. Your Dec has a lot of Stiction, so when that pent-up energy is finally released, the mount is catapulted to the other end of the backlash. And all this probably repeats. RA is 300% better, but still poor. So many things could be wrong, with little info on settings to work with. Guide stars look out of focus, HFD = 6.06 is too high. Michael

A quick search came up with a mains adapter that Explore sell for your mount, 12volt 5Amp. And the scope spec says 12V 2Amp. I'd be conservative and go for at least 3Amps. Michael

You could try the Camera Gain "Reset" button in the Camera window, my ASI120MM defaults to 48. Whatever the exposure setting in seconds, when you hit the autoselect button, PHD2 will select a suitably exposed guide star for guiding. Don't manually select a guidestar, leave it to PHD2. Michael

I've always been of the opinion that the #LPF-1 adequately blocks IR, but thinking about it, I was probably just passing on unsupported anecdotal information. Michael

PHD2 isn't an imaging prog, so the display was designed just good enough to display stars. I would use something like SharpCap to give a true indication of the guidescope quality. Your exposure is only 0.5 seconds, up it to 1.5 or 2 seconds and the stars may be good enough for PHD2 to select one when you hit the Loop button. Michael

Dew in the brightness control can dissolve the resistive track, making it open circuit.

Many would recommend to roughly hand-focus the mirror, lock it down to prevent "flop", and use a motorised Crawford-style focuser to fine focus. Michael.

Hi Andy Is there room in your image train for a motorised zero-shift focuser ? Moving the mirror 190mm changes the focal length. Michael

Hi Andy I refocus every night with my permanent pier-mounted system, I don't see any way of avoiding that, it takes very little time. Once you have worked out what spacers are required for each camera, to make them close to parfocal at the same focuser position, all you do is swap and tweak focus. I appreciate your desire to "automate" your swaps, I'm afraid how to do that is more than my pay grade 😆 Michael

Not sure I have understood your descriptions of your focus problems. All your adjustments should be to place each camera sensor 146.05mm back from the rear of the OTA, that's Celestrons' recommended back focus for the C11 Edge HD. Which cameras are you trying to make "parfocal" ? How are you attaching these cameras with the FR, without the FR ? Some images of the setups would help. Camera A and Camera B might have different flange distances, so just swapping cameras without adjusting spacing won't work. If daytime tests won't work, try getting a feel of the focusing on a distant streetlight, or the moon, at night. Michael

After searching I think the OP means a "Celestron Skyprodigy" mount with a 90mm MCT. Move to "Mounts" ? Michael

Your SXVR H16 "rains hot pixels" 😆 Michael