Merlin66

The slit is arranged along the Dec axis. There is no or minimal movement in either axis during the guiding. As you say you can achieve say 0.75 arcsec which is half the average FWHM with good seeing of 1.5 arcsec. I was answering the post on the use of the C11 on a NEQ6.

I thought ALL Herschel wedges came pre-fitted with a ND3 filter. They are NOT safe to use without one.

I’ve been successfully using a C11 plus spectroscope, four cameras, electronic finder etc mounted on a NEQ6 for the past ten years. No problem guiding on a 20 micron slit gap indefinitely. Works for me.

I’ve been very happy using AstroArt for the past ten years. It works very well with my ATiK cameras as well as the others - DSLR, Lodestar etc. Just use the latest ASCOM drivers. No issue, no drama.

The 12” Meade LX200 OTA weighs 17.1Kg. With the usual accessories this made it tooooo heavy for my NEQ6.

I use the foam gym mat type.....

I use the rubber interlocked tiles in the observatory here in Oz. They can get pretty warm in summer and they do expand!!! Mine are not glued and I have a 10-15mm gap at the walls.

An 8" SCT sits and plays nicely with the HEQ5Pro. I used the wider Losmandy dovetail to mount mine. My write up on the deforking of an LX200 attached. No issues, no drama. Lx200_defork.doc

Yes, 15v is a good solution. I power both my HEQ5 and the NEQ6 with car convertor 12v to 15v, 120 watt. no issues, no drama.

Mikey, I think we all probably know that....but the original question was what were the scales, and what where were used for......

Hmmm, Don’t know what to say..... The usual reticule shows the surrounding constellations etc.

Probably easier..... Check out Astro Baby's site: http://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/polar-aligning-the-skywatcher-heq5orion-sirius-mount/

This circle allows you to re-orientate the internal graticule to get alignment with the polar stars... Covered in the SW manual, under "Procedure for Precise Polar alignment", p13 in my copy.

Frank, the free version V2.9 allows PA alignment as well.

+1 for the boot polish. Prevention is better than the cure......

Blob of BlueTac on the wire???

PM sent.

James, To save space, I went for a sliding door ........

To be honest the easiest way is a small strip of Gaffa tape over the bubble tube - and ignore it. Don’t worry too much it’s not critical......

Hmmmm Not the same mount, but I use the NEQ6Pro.. For the past ten years I've successfully powered it from a couple of Gel Cell batteries and a car voltage converter 12v to 15v at 120watt. No issue no drama it just works 100% I would NOT recommend increasing the voltage beyond the Skywatchers recommended 15v.

The Canon 1300D appears to have 4.3 micron pixels http://www.everyothershot.com/pixel-pitch-canon-dslrs/

I notice that Synscan V4 has the option of camera control (See Sect 11.4 of the manual). If your mount ( a newer AltAz or EQ8 version) has the SNAP port the camera cable can be routed from the SNAP port and controlled by the hand controller. Using an older mount (HEQ5 or NEQ6 etc) the camera can be wired to the hand controller and used that way...... Has anyone used this feature?? If so which actual cable and connections were used.

Anthony, the black blocks which have the front clips at the mirror surface, usually also gently touch the side of the mirror to prevent it sliding within the cell. I don’t know your particular telescope, but I hope another user can comment.

Sounds like the radial (edge) supports are not restraining the mirror. Are there any adjustable stops around the edge of the mirror cell??

Anthony, No. The clips are there to stop an unfortunate accident happening. They prevent the mirror from falling out. The mirror should be resting on the rear supports and gently held by the edge supports - only. (Don't turn the telescope up side down!)