PeterCPC

Hello and welcome. Peter

Let us know how you get on Louise and, if possible, post some pics. Peter

Louise When I regreased the cog wheels on mine I used Lubriplate 105 as I saw that it was recommended on here in other posts and Paramount use it apparently. It's a bit sticky. Peter

That's because there are no instructions I expect Peter

Louise Thanks for that. I am not brave enough to strip it down but I would love to know how you get on if you do. I am getting good guiding generally, even with the stiction, so am I loath to interfere too much. Some dodgy guiding I had was down to dithering so be aware of that. There is more on the BYE forum. Peter

I get a lot of stiction as well - I don't think you can do much about that. I found that the original grease had migrated away from the cog wheels so they were quite dry in the teeth. I managed to put some new grease in but I found that one of the motor covers could not be removed without removing the panel where you plug everything in so I just did what I could through a small gap as I did not want to remove the housing without some instructions. It would be nice to find an exploded view of the mount at least. Peter

I too would be interested. I managed a bit of regreasing but I could not find any info either. Peter

Thanks for the comments Des. This was just a try out and not intended as a serious image capture and I would not be happy with that standard of image normally. I shall be persuing this in due course but aiming to get hundreds of images at short exposures but it may not happen for a while now. Peter

I had another play with this last night. I tried 20 secs subs but I found it too noisey. I also reduced the ROI - not a good idea. If anyone wants to try this I suggest: Keep your subs below 15 secs and keep your ROI as large as you can. Number of exposures - I would go for at least 200 and preferably much more. Last nights effort from 100 20 secs subs. Peter

Thanksd Michael and Wim Yes I am going to keep experimenting with this. Peter

We had some clear periods last night so I conducted a little experiment with the ASI224MC which I normally use for planetary imaging. I set up my ED80 with the ASI224 to take 60 images (not guided) of 15secs each. This was the result. It was a bit noisey but I did not use any filters and it's clearly not very good but it does show that the 224 is capable of DSO imaging. Next time I would take many more images at 10 secs maybe. I think that the focus was not spot on either as I used the Moon for focus and I should have used a star. Any suggestions about how to improve using this technique would be welcome. Peter

I like this thread as well as I have a foot in both camps. I started imaging using a CPC800 and loved the fact that I could have it set up in about 10 mins and ready to start imaging. I had some modest success with it such as this M82. However, I wanted to progress my imaging and, after getting advice from Olly and others on here, I aquired an AVX EQ mount. It is nowhere near as convenient to set up but I can still be ready to start imaging in less than 30 mins which is not bad in my view. My images are now streets ahead of what I could have achieved with the CPC800 but, I agree that you can still get some reasonaable images using an Alt/Az as long as you realise that you are never going to get the sort of images such as can be achieved with more complex arrangements. Keep taking those images - It's a great challenge. Peter

Thanks to all but I gave up on Photoshop as every time I tried to use it I got a message "Photoshop has stopped working" and it shut down. I use Paintshop Pro X8 and it does everthing I need as well as taking plug ins and there's no subscription. Peter

Hello Paul and welcome. Peter

To be fair to Celestron, I have had an answer to another issue within 24 hours from Team Celestron - pretty impressive. Peter

So Celestron are keeping to their normal level of service then! Peter