martin_h

I use these.

https://www.gloverhowe.co.uk/astronomy-insurance/

Well that's different!

Atik filterwheel 3.........just need adaptors now!

If at first you don't succeed, a bigger hammer's what you need!

It's not the suppliers fault at any stage, it's the manufacturer that has been the problem all the way.

It was worth a shot, nothing ventured etc.

Ordered a new mount in March, it arrived...not brilliant had to wait for pier adaptor so decided to colimate the scope so ordered a Howie glatter, the concentric circle attachment was wonky so sent for a replacement....that got lost in the post and has never arrived, so sent for a replacement for the replacement.....still waiting ,rare as hens teeth apparently! Filter wheel busted, ordered a new one....weeks later still waiting.. why me? What did I do in a past life?

I haven't used the scope since the first week in march and the way my memory is going I'll have forgotten how soon.

I removed all the electronics from mine and just use the motor,gearbox and track/chain.

Did you see the above post from me?

No shimming required, both my mounts (EQ6 and 😎 have always solved directly after a flip.

2 hours ago, skybadger said:

As an owner of an eq8, I finally got around to enabling the auto meridian flip under eq pro last night and got good Dec registration but about 20' difference in RA. How well does yours do and have you shimmed it ?

Cheers 

Mike

See above post

On 12/05/2019 at 10:16, Nigella Bryant said:

How are you getting on with the eq8. I am thinking of getting one.

To be honest I have not used it enough to form an opinion as yet, my filter wheel packed up on the mounts first light and I am waiting for a replacement.

43 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Every reason to be a happy bunny!

Martin, does that cord attached to the top left of your flap cause it to open and close?

Olly

Close, it opens on its own as the roof draws back

New filter wheel ordered - problem sorted

So......... who wants to buy a slightly secondhand filter wheel? ?

42 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

This is a really good explanation of what we are seeing here! ? Does this filter wheel only rotate in one direction or two (i.e. 'shortest route')?

One direction only.

Many thanks, unfortunately it is a Brightstar 7x2" which is no longer made.

individual sub..............

I have a problem, I thought my flats were miss aligned with my light frames and leaving artifacts, so I devised a test last night, I shot 6 flats, rotated the filter wheel  1 full revolution and came back to the same filter(lum) and shot 6 more flats.

The first set of images I treated as true flats and made a master which I then used to calibrate the other six images, the theory being that if all was well and true alignment then I should end up with a perfect smooth final image.

Well this is the mess I'm left with( and the reason for the test in the first place)..

It seems that there is alignment because the small scale dist bunnies all disapear (good!) but what I'm left with is this large scale mess.................Master flat on the left, finished article is on the right.

Ideas please, because every time I image I end up with this.

2 minutes ago, BillyBoy said:

Hi,

any tips, I have the instructions for it, but tips from someone who has done it successfully are always better..

I just followed the instructions to the letter, make sure you rotate it under power for at least two full turns in both directions to check for binding.

I have a brand new EQ8 that suffered a shed load of DEC backlash, it was a fairly painless exercise to tune it out.

RC8 on an EQ8 with a very expensive counter weight on the front of the RC!

First light last night!

After what seems a catalog of disasters and false starts I at last managed to get first light on this mount last night. I spent a couple of nights in the past week getting it drift aligned and the guiding as good as I could, then seeing as it was a clear night all be it with a huge moon I decided to give it a bash.

Due to the moon I picked a random target in the North, set Sequence Generator Pro to start it all off at 11 pm then went to bed! It was with some trepidation this morning that I nipped down to the obs and took a peek inside, 80 3 mins subs had been collected, he guiding graph was as flat as you like.

So for a first light it did what it said on the tin..... it held my scope, pointed it in the right direction and kept it there all night.(including a meridian flip 30 mins after I started!)

2 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

So what was wrong with it?

Way to much backlash on the DEC axis, so much so that PHD thought it wasn't connected for South corrections.

Sorted methinks!