Shelster1973

All set up ready for some polar alignment action. Know that it does not get proper dark now but going to grab some data too as a test to see what it is like

Are you sure it is clutch slip? and not the mount actually turning? I will try and have a look at mine over the weekend and see what it is like. Do recall that when I put it to bed after mounting the other week, that it I managed to move it when putting the bungie straps on the cover and the clutches where tightened down then.

Weird thing...when I put the adapter on the pier, I leveled it off perfectly using my DeWalt torpedo level, yet the bubble on the mount shows it as slightly off....have not tweaked to get the bubble in as trust the other level more. @Miguel1983 that is one beast of a scope there....

Welcome to the club Miguel. You will love the mount My pier adapter has turned up and have now fitted it now just need a clear night and can get my pa sorted and possibly grab some imaging time. Will be using my D7100 for the while as want to feel the love again for imaging and there is just too much tweaking and fettling to get my ccd and filters all sorted

Agree.....they have pumped millions into this so why can we not see a clear landing? That is the big seller for them so let's make it the best

This arrived last Saturday hopefully the pier adapter will turn up tomorrow and can get it mounted and then dialled in

Cheers I ordered the adapter plate from altair earlier today, so hopefully that will be here before the weekend Was going to take a pic the other night of my setup but did not get around to it. Will take some after it is properly mounted. Did take a pic of it in the box though....

Well....this has to be a 1st in the world of astro. New mount turned up today and so did the clear skies. All was not good as did not get to mount on pier as adapter plates fitted to it are for my old AVX, so will need to look at getting a new one, but did put mount up on tripod and boy, what a beast she is. Looks and feels so much more sturdy than my AVX. Have managed to grab 10 x 600s Ha images of the Iris Nebula tonight. Mainly went for that target due to where it was in the sky and making it easier on the temporary setup. Had a small issue getting an image with PHD, but that was all down to focus issues. Have put a screen grab of PHD below and this was after one iteration of using Polemaster. Managed to swap the adapter from my AVX onto new mount and all works fine. Next is a single sub that has only had a very quick histogram stretch done to it. Is typical that out of the 10, I pick the one with a sat pass in it. This was taken without my filter wheel in place and had the Ha filter screwed directly to the front of the coma corrector. Despite checking on the focusing with shorter exposres, this looks a wee bit out of focus to me. May clear up after stacking, but not counting on that. Will need to work on getting my head around the autofocus routine in SGP next. All in all am very very happy with the new mount and can see it getting some good use in the years to come.

Have just joined the club. Ordered last night and am expecting to take delivery on Saturday. Need to clear it all fwmnnts of my celestron drivers and then get to grips with eqmod2and controlling this. Will be setup on my pier, so 1st order of the day is to get my pa spot on. Am contemplating getting pempro but will see how it performs out of the box before making that jump

Is always the way of the world that...have done that few times in getting up early to watch a GP. All up, set ready to go....and then it has finished. Was an amazing thing to see. 24 landings now is truly amazing. At this number it can almost be classed as being the norm and run of the mill / everyday, but it still amazes me and fills we with awe that they are able to do this. Can't wait until they are able to recover the second stage and make a fully reusable launch vehicle.

Will do It did not appear to wobble but am always one to tinker and fettle

Great news Do you have a link to where you got the pinion from? With all the awful weather at the moment I think I will strip mine down and change it. I do need to look at it again as after my last rebuild the worm is not as it should be as you can see a wobble when flexing the counter weight bar. Is just a case of finding the sweet spot of tightening Alan bolts and not binding the worm. Is a pain having to have the motor off to do it too.....

From what I can remember, yes they do have a lock-nut on them. You have to remove this to get the worm out. It is a snug fit in there and they do need a wee tap to get them out, but come out clean and easy. The one you can see in the pics was missing yes, but was replaced later on...... I think

Sounds like a plan. Let us know how you get on. I have a feeling that it will not work as can't see Celestron miss an opportunity to make some more money by either selling newer mounts or a 'special' adaptor/lead to make it work with other mounts.

Here is very 1st drop if what I have..... I have had to crop this one quite heavily as was having some issues that I cannot resolve as yet. This is also just a very quick stretch of the image after 2 passes of DBE and no work done yet on noise reduction or sharpening / cleaning the image up. Think it might turn out OK this one. Stats are 79 x 120s at ISO 800 light, 40 flats and no darks (it was late and I was up early the next day so decided to go to bed), Nikon D7100 unmodded with 50mm lens at F4. Was not in crop mode, so was using the full 6000x4000 imaging area available Have a few more images that I took that night of the region around Cassiopia that I have to throw through PI at some point too. These are 220s ISO 800, f4 on the same 50mm too. Single sub that has been stretched and converted to jpg is below. Is grey and has the check pattern as have not debayered it yet too

I went with this one as it has two outputs so can do mount and lens heater

Ah...flat batteries...that would do it also. I forgot about the batteries as I power mine with a USB power bank (that also runs my lens heater too). Orion is a great target. AM just processing my images of the same from the other night. Forgot how long it takes to process the RAW images from my D7100. Each image comes in at 277 MB and I have 80 of them. May be here a while

One very quick and dirty check could be to take a 60 second exposure and see if you have any trailing. If you do then the mount isn't on or your PA was pump. If it is all good, then happy days and may your sky be clear

Although I have just read on a bit more and it does mention in the handbook about a USB serial driver being installed and it then showing up as a COM port. Will have to do some more reading on that one....

My initial thought would be a no as you have to connect the computer to the mount via USB, but not sure what is inside the mount after that. It may be that there is a USB>Serial conversion going on inside the mount, but I reckon that does not happen and it just has a straight USB connection to the processor that does the controlling

Am sure the post Chris will put up will cover this, but to loosen the axis off you need to slacken off the grub screws that hold the tensioning rings on the end of each axis and then wind them slightly clockwise. This will reduce the pressure on the axis and so make it easier to rotate. I have a couple of threads (here and here) which shows the AVX in several pieces as had a few issues with both of my axis freezing. This has a fair few pictures of the steps that I took and shows these retaining rings. Is not a hugely difficult job, but you only need to loosen off very slightly other wise you will introduce a huge amount of play in the axis......which is bad......very very bad. also...the tension ring for the RA axis has three grub screws holding in place, where as the Dec one only has two. Don't miss the third one or you are in a whole world of not moving ring, hammer, screwdriver, messed up thread, anger. Have the t-shirt for that one.

LOLZ

Not sure how much junk is actually going to be there apart from the third stage and payload, which given its new orbit may not be intact after its 1st encounter with tge asteroid belt Boosters are recovered, centre stage took a swim and the failings fell back to be recovered. Far less random chod left floating from this test

Hey...he's just this guy....