PaulE54

Yes, very curious. Although the current manual only describes two position calibration, the software still supports (and seems from my limited experience to work much better with) 3 position calibration. Ah well - looks like it is going to be well into next week before I get a chance to do any more imaging. Astrophotography in NW England is not for the impatient! Paul

May help other iPolar owners. OK there may be progress - further analysis needed. If I'm on the right track, the manual needs an update! V2.04 page 6 shows the mount rotated in RA during calibration, and states that 2 positions are needed. It also says "The start and end positions can be arbitrary." I'm starting to think this may not be true. On all the previous failed attempts, I started with counterweight bar horizontal, weight west / scope east for "position 1". Then I moved to weight down / home position for "position 2". The manual v2.04 only shows "position 1 and 2" being needed for calibration, and the software stated calibration successful on all the previous failed attempts. Last night for a change I started with counterweight bar horizontal, weight east / scope west. Software took that as position 1, asked for position 2. Moved to weight down / home position. Software took that as position 2. THEN asked me for position 3. Never done that before - and NOT in manual. Moved to bar horizontal weight west. Software accepted that as position 3, and quoted me an optical centre that looked vaguely sane - unlike previous attempts. Polar aligned using latest calibration and started imaging. At the end of night, PHD2 log analysis shows 0.9 arcmins PA error. And the cross was not EXACTLY over the dot. in the iPolar app. I want to do some another calibration run, to check the answer is the same, and obviously some more polar aligns and guiding, to make sure this is repeatable. But I may be getting somewhere. Paul

MIchael, thanks for reply - sadly, I think that is exactly what I am doing. Repeatedly. And it doesn't work for me. I'm using the latest software and latest manual and it only gives you the option to enter 2 positions not 3. It's page 6 of manual I start by moving the mount from home to scope east / counterweight west, Ipolar confirm position 1. Then I put the mount back in home position, ipolar confirm position 2. Actually I've had a thought. When you move mount to position 1 from home, then back to position 2 (home) - do you slew using buttons on iOptron commander / handset, or do you unlock RA axis and move the mount by hand? Can't see why it would make a difference, rotating mount around RA axis in both cases. Thanks Paul

Has anyone ever had a problem where the iPolar software appears to calibrate successfully, but actually sets the red cross somewhere randomly (and quite significantly) different from where the optical centre actually is? After 3 failed attempts I've given up and entered the default X and Y values manually, which is marginally better than anything the software did, but still not what the kit is clearly capable of. This is driving me nuts! It may well be user error but I've read the manuals loads of times and can't figure out what (if anything) I'm doing wrong. Thanks Paul

Update - prompt response from iOptron support who say they are going to implement additional checks at factory. Hopefully an isolated incident.

Just bought a CEM40 which came with the new iOptron LiteRoc tripod. Noticed that the leg adjustment lock on one leg was not tight enough - even with the lock fully engaged, one leg would slip, risking the tripod, mount and scope falling over. For anyone else who has one, worth checking. If it needs adjusting, remove the black plastic lock lever (held by a crosspoint screw) and reposition it to allow you to tighten more. On mine, the gap in the locking plate with the locks fully engaged was 0.75mm. Paul E

Fabulous job, looks even better in hi-res.

As almcl, I astroEQ'd my EQ5, and I also still use it. There are suppliers who will 3d print the brackets. Motors, pulleys and belts all still available along with lots of online resource. I also had problems with RJ11 cables but touch wood OK now. I found setting the motor current drive limits correctly with a multimeter is pretty key, but easy to do. And really don't unplug the RJ11 cables with the AstroEQ powered up, you will destroy the motor drive boards. I wonder how I know that? If you do fry a board, get the proper Polulu replacements, they are readily available and cheap. Just plug in. Have fun. Paul

Hi, been looking at images here for a while, this is the first shot I've actually posted. This is 5 hours data over 2 nights, taken from home - which is a Bortle 6 site. Gear is RC6 with 0.67 reducer and ASI294Pro, mount EQ5 belt modded and tuned, guiding by ZWO guidecam and ASI120MM. No LP filters as yet. Post processing in DSS and StarTools, with final tweaks in Adobe Lightroom. C&C welcomed. Paul

Just been trying out Astrotortilla for solving deep sky images from a Pentax K5 DSLR and a Pentax DA300 telephoto prime. I'm going to use this for tracked deep sky astro imaging work, on a motorised EQ5 driven from CdC and AstroEQ. This camera and lens combo has quite a wide field of view (4.5 x 3.0 degrees) and having read the tutorial, read this thread, and tried almost every setting under the sun with the 4200 series astrometry files, nothing was working. Then I spotted the note on the Astrotortilla install about using the Tycho2 (4100 series) Astrometry files for FOV > 3 degrees, so thought I would give these a try. Works perfectly now, and I have tried it with 9 sample files which I had previously solved using Astrobin, the field centre RA and DEC coordinates agree perfectly with what AT is now saying. Most images solve in less than 1 minute. Just thought I'd post this in case it is of use to any others. Paul