Dinglem

You are plugging everything into the same usb ports each time, I know it shouldn't matter as it's USB, but in this hobby it's better to always plug each item into the same port.

Thanks all, I'll just have to be more careful ?

I've had my mount about 18 months now and absolutely love it compared to my old mount, I only have one issue and I don't know if others have the same problem, the clutches on both axes never seem to fully lock the mount, I only have to put a bit of pressure on the mount and they move. Is there any way of adjusting them?

A well hit six can do a lot of damage to security lighting ?

Wait a minute, an obsy, a brewery making beer and cider and what looks like a bit of grass we can all pitch a tent on, when's the inaugaral @JamesF star-party ?

It maybe a bit better now as recently the street lights around here have been replaced with LED fittings

I believe he gets loaned these mounts to do a review of them, like a couple of members on here do. From what he was saying I think the CEM60 has gone back to the supplier.

I see Trevor from AstroBackyard has joined the club, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rPVOg_l3Dw

I use it as I can't see Polaris through my polar-scope over my roof, so have to have my scope 45 degs east or west, then swing it 90 degs, it works perfectly most times, I may have to tweak the settings a bit for it to recognise enough stars. As others have said it's great for PA and with all the additional features being added it's getting better all the time. Well worth £10 a year.

This maybe a very silly question, but when I'm running PHD to guide, should I have the mount tracking too or turn that off & let PHD do it all? Once you select your target using the handset the mount will track the object at the optimal speed, PHD will just make fine adjustments to the tracking to keep the object in the centre of your camera's sensor or eyepiece. So to answer your question (none are silly) no you don't turn the tracking off.

I use one of these as my powertank packed up and presently only use it outside on the patio. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/power-accessories/nevada-ps-08-6a-8a-regulated-linear-power-supply.html

Looks pretty good, I just need to get my PA sorted as I can't see polaris through the Polarscope.

I'd never looked through mine as I can't see polaris through the polar-scope from my back garden. Just had a look and mine is the same as the picture above. Octans is only visible from the Souther Hemisphere, so Skywatcher have either done away with etching Cassiopeia and the Plough on the Polar-Scope so we in the North just put Polaris in the correct position on the clock. Or they make two different Polar-scopes and we have the wrong ones, but I doubt it, they've just made them simpler.

If I tighten my clutches as tight as possible by hand my mount does not move if gently pushed in any direction, to get it any tighter I would have to use a tool and I'm not going to do that, if I'm not careful with tightening them the mount is easily moved when touched which I find annoying.

I do find that I have to put quite a bit of pressure on the clutches to lock them solid.

@Shelster1973 welcome to the club, you will have to let us know how you get on once mounted on the peir. Wish I had a permenant setup, as you said it's a bit of a beast to keep lugging outside, I can manage it at the moment with scope in place but it's a struggle, saves on gym membership

I bought one last year but haven't had much chance to use it and when I have my incompetence has made it quite frustrating. So on Sunday according to Clear Outside I would get about 2 hours of clear sky. So instead of rushing to get set up to try and capture a few bad pictures of distant objects, I decided to spend the time attempting to get a good PA and subsequently good guiding. Where I set up at home I can't see Polaris through the polar scope as my house is in the way, so I use Sharpcap PA utility. I also used Sharpcap Focus Assistant for the first time to focus my ZWO guidescope, it took me a while to get this sorted and the settings of my guide camera (ASI224MC) to see enough stars to be able to plate solve, once sorted it only took a few minutes to get excellent PA according to Sharpcap. I then launched PHD2 and ran a calibration, once completed I used the guiding assistant to obtain the optimum settings, then left it running for 10 minutes and the guiding graph was the best I'd ever achieved (sorry I should have taken some screen captures or noted down what I was getting) I could attach logs if anyone was interested. By now the clouds had started to roll in so decided to pack up. Overall I think it was two hours well spent, it is a lovely mount well made, a big improvement on the EQ5pro it replaced. Hopefully we will get some clear skys soon so I haven't forgotten everything I learnt on Sunday, thanks for looking at my ramblings.

It's that new they haven't got it on the website yet (or I'm not seeing it), will it be any good with an unmodded DSLR?

Been thinking of buying a RPi but couldn't think what I would actually use it for, apart from playing at learning to program it. This looks like a good idea and look forward to seeing the tutorial.