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Hi Martin. I think we are on the same track trying to evaluate ccd inspector.. Trying to fine tune my new N-AG10 The spacing of my system was only shown on "real" images, not ccd inspector... maybe on the fwhm values as they are a value on how good focus you have. The focus itself is represented of the background color in the "curvature" in ccd inspector. Black is best, whit is worst. I measured my spacing with a skjutmått. (caliper?) The tilt is just as it sounds, the camera ship in relation to the image field. in my case, the focuser (the starlight feathertouch focuser base has tilt adjustment screws, so it makes it quite easy for me) the curvature is a effect of how good the corrector is doing it´s job, i don't think you could do anything about that other than to get secondary mirror centered correct, and the focuser tilt as good as you can. /Daniel

Thanks for all input guys I had a session in my obsy starting over from scratch. 1. measuring the spider vanes, got the secondary holder centered to 1-2/10th of a millimeter. 2. Insert cheshire and got the rotation of the secondary correct, however, i recognized that the focuser was not centered to the secondary (or so i thought) - it turned out that the secondary was not glued to the holder as precise it could be, it was off by a couple of millimeters. I hope that this not will cause any issues (70mm minor axis) 3. changed the cheshire to the hotech laser collimator and checked everything and indeed the error between the cheshire and laser was much lesser than before. 4. with the laser turned on, i corrected the tilt of the focuser so that the laser beam hit the center mark of my primary. 5. adjust primary to hit the center mark of the laser collimator. 6. repeat cheshire procedure, even more fine tuning of the secondary (because of my adjusted focuser) 7. insert laser collimator and yet again adjust tilt on the focuser tuning in the laser dot to the primary center mark. 8. adjust primary mirror again (we are now in the region of just tenths of millimeters... 9. Put back camera, adjust focus and got it down to 3" fwhm with alot of humid in the air and a primary mirror not even close to ambient temp (looks promising) 10. Clouds rolled in. 11. put a "snus" under my lip and wait out the clouds. 12. found a gap in the clouds, shot apr. 20 images and measured them with ccd... aprox. 2% tilt, just a couple on arc seconds collimation off. Conclusion - as a newbe on newtonians (have been photographing with APOs for almost ten years) i might have found a workflow that actually gets me somewhere. And this was done with a diy cheshire (drilled a hole in a 1,25" cap) I have now ordered a concenter eyepiece.

I have collimated both with the laser and cheshire several times, and each time, after checking with the cheshire, i get rotation error och the secondary (confirmed that it is rotation) I have now laser cut metal shims to be able to rotate the secondary. (it is the three-legged version from telescope service) The laser collimator is collimated.

Yes it is a 1,25" to 2" adapter, but both is using their rubber compression rings, so in theory, it should be dead center. I Will look into the howie glatter ones!

Hi, I would really like to hear your thoughts of the images I have attached. The scope is a 10" f4 native and with my reducer it is f3,4 which i think have nothing to do with this really. The laser collimator is a 2" Hotech with crosshair and it is collimated itself. The laser dots are well aligned but as you can see on the picture taken through my chesire, it seems that the secondary is not properly aligned. According to my own thoughts, it is a rotation issue - as the reflection from the primary is well aligned in X -axis (horizontal) but not in Y-axis (vertical) How much of an impact would this have on the final results through a 3" Corr/red to a atik 460ex with a 17mm diagonal chip? /BR

Thanks for your input, i will check collimation and focus.

Hi, i am trying to adjust the tilt and collimation of my f3,4 10" astrograph and have taken a lot of images and the result of the stacked images is shown below. Is 1% tilt "ok"? I haven't addressed the collimation yet and the focus was a bit off (have gotten down to 3-4" fwhm. How would you interpret this result? The scope is a N-AG10 with TSNTRED 0.85x 3" corrector/reducer and a atik460 with sx filter wheel

You can watch them without having Facebook It is an open page. well, I have the same filosophy, if it works - don’t change anything

If you want to check my images, you can visit my FB-page at www.facebook.com/exophotograph /Daniel

Ok. i am not logging, but at 550mm i have spot on stars, in the servo tune log i have under 0,3 Arc seconds tracking

Hmm, my guidning is spot on in 90-95% of all my subs. are you running both Autoslew and Seq in admin mode? i have used them quite a while now without hickups. i am running win 10

Are you running the mount with Autoslew and guidning with PHD? i have loves my DDM in three years time, i have not been guidning though, just MLPT.

Hi, I have som problems with Maxim DL v5 and my ATIK 460ex mono camera on a win10 pro machine. I can use the camera with artemis capture and it works fine, so it seems not to be a driver/hardware issue. The problem is that maxim gets stuck in "downloading" as seen in the attatched picture. I have tried different drivers, re-installed maxim and installed as admin etc. Here is the log from maxim; 04:38:09*2 ____________ 2019-06-04 ____________ 04:38:09*1 MaxIm DL Version 5.08 started on DESKTOP-4K6EKP2 04:38:11>6 View, Camera Control Window 04:38:42$3 Connected to camera 1 "ASCOM" (CCDPlugASCOM.dll) 04:38:42$3 Connected to filter wheel 1 "SX Wheel" (CCDPlugSXFW.dll) 04:39:09*4 Started 1.000s 1374x1099 exposure, binned 2x2, ROI (0, 0) 04:39:10*4 Completed 1.000s 1374x1099 exposure, binned 2x2, ROI (0, 0) 04:39:20-6 Command ID 33006: Image1 04:39:20>6 Command ID 33006 (OK) 04:39:20-6 Command ID 33006: Image1 04:39:20#6 Command ID 33006 cancelled 04:39:30-6 Command ID 33006: Image1 04:39:30#6 Command ID 33006 cancelled 04:40:53>6 View, Zoom Out: Image1 04:40:54>6 View, Zoom In: Image1 04:41:10$3 Disconnected from filter wheel 1 "SX Wheel" 04:41:11$3 Disconnected from camera 1 "ASCOM" 13:49:35*1 MaxIm DL Version 5.08 exited Anyone dare to guess what the problem is? /Daniel

I really second DaveS's comment on ASA mounts, it is a true dream to use when you get the hang of the software (which is getting better, and with the new wiki-homepage you should get a new mount going in an hour or so) I can image 8-10 hours several nights in a row without any problems at all, if the weather permits that is /Daniel

I am running a ASA DDM85 today, and when i manage to get a good PA and model, it runs flawless, it is a absolute dream to have a mount that you don't need to guide. Regarding the focuser, i would go with the new Baader diamond steeltrack if that will fit. I have heard from reliable sources that this one will outperform feathertouch (I have not tried this one myself though) /Daniel