primordial atom

found the answer to this at last, yes turn off face recognition, nice one !

I put one of those chemical hand warmers on the back of the secondary holder with a lazzy band for security. Lasts for a full session no probs 

thanks both, yes lovely dark skies on the shores (or should I say bonny banks ?) of Loch Lomond, unfortunately I was eaten by midgies ?

I'd like to say I lived somewhere nice and dark but I live in Manchester 

Cygnus from shores of Loch Lomond .

Canon 600D with nifty fifty at f2.5 if I remember correctly, 25 15 " subs on a static tripod.

cygnus from Loch Lomond by David Phillipson, on Flickr

Great idea and will be doing it when next purchasing a scope from FLO, probably an Esprit 120. Is the scope available for collection after the check? I wouldn't really want my checked scope put at the mercy of the postal system and forever wondering if it was dropped from a great height in transportation. I always collect scopes where I can. 

Another M13 I'm afraid, was chuffed at the time

m13123455.TIF

home made 6" f12 refactor based on an Istar achromat lens cell.

Extensive build details can be found here http://www.astronomyshed.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=24194

this is amazing

the only time I experience the star flying off the screen is when I've done a meridian flip and not redone the auto cal routine, when it's recalibrated again i'm off and guiding again.   If skywatcher had just done something a bit different with the instructions or operating routine I think more people would have been happy with them.

Opinions on the Synguider are very divided, it's a true love it or hate it thing and I don't know why. It takes a bit of patience and I would have loved to have had it demonstrated to me , as lots of aspects of Astro, would save a lot of heartache . PA is another source of frustration for beginners, I might set up a demonstration work shop for such things .

Hi guys,

HEQ5 me too

If you've locked a star I can't really understand that, how long does it take to drift off the screen? you describe it as flying off.

However you could try making  sure you're not guiding to a hot pixel in the chip, I fell for that and nearly gave up on it, I now have it guiding really well for 10 mins and longer.

Is it doing the auto cal routine correctly?

When it says guiding the bottom 2 lines of info on the screen should be showing the occasional +/- 1 or 2 at the maximum, and the mount should be making some happy chirping sounds as it is guided.

Have a look at this by Dion on the Astronomy Shed and go thro it thoroughly  http://www.astronomyshed.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3949&hilit=synguider and try again and post your findings.

Don't give up on the synguider as others have done , they DO work well, we'll sort it