Leveye

Thank you so very much for looking at it and giving me your take and advice on this. Much appreciated. I will try that eventually. Would you know why the tracking drifts off center so much after about an hour in solar and lunar in simulations? Sidereal seems fine. It stays centered on objects for hours.

Ok I've changed the locations setting to make things a bit tighter and more correct. This has slowed the err messages some but I still get them about every 15 minutes or so. Again the mount slews to proper position every time and tracking is smooth with no interruptions. The solar and lunar seems to drift after about 45 minutes or so. A real outdoor test as soon as the rains let up.

I have it set up in the living room and have been testing it daily it has been slewing and tracking perfectly for a week now since initial set up. Pointing right were it should every time. Nothing unusual except when tracking in lunar after about 1/2 an hour it's off a bit. In solar it takes a few hours and it's off. I'll post a picture of the CommErr messages today.

A question for the experts. My new Atlas Pro AZ/EQ-G mount seems to be slewing fine using EQMOD with both my laptop and desktop computers using an FTDI serial converter which shows signal flow both ways however I do see in the messages center window I'm getting constant CommErr messages. Should this concern me and will this cause any issues when I finally try auto guiding? Many thanks. Oh forgot to mention I'm connected through the V4 Synscan handset with the supplied cable and an FTDI usb serial adapter showing good signal flow in both directions in PC direct mode. So far zero issues and no interruptions. Just curious why i'm getting the messages at all.

Takumars are a real steal. 50mm-135mm-200mm-300mm That or spend a bit and get an early 80's Nikkor ED 180mm . Great astro lens! Here's one of comet Catalina using it on a standard tripod doing only 6 second shots at ISO 6k Great color still.

I can't help with the possible reflection there to the right but I did have the same offset diffraction spikes at one time while testing a three vane. That turned out to be a faulty secondary replacement mirror whose coating did not cover the entire surface on either side. Going back to the original mirror corrected the issue right away so in my case i know that was what was causing it. I'd inspect the secondary very carefully. Some of these Chinese imports are flawed and many companies are using them in their reflectors..

You may have to move the primary mirror forward to achieve primary focus. There are a few threads about this. Take a look.

Always, always,always balance and align to the very very best you possibly can.