martin_h

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!)

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

Sorted methinks!

Ours https://sites.google.com/site/cleeastro/

Ok, so, Dec backlash tinkered with, all I need now is a few stars to test it out.

Many thanks First Light Optics ?

I have got it to calibrate by winding off the backlash by nudging the mount North before calibration, am now running the guiding assistant to get some data.

Yes it is

Why is it with Skywatcher equipment you pays your money and you takes your chance? There is so much Dec backlash on this brand new mount PHD won't calibrate!!!

My effort using Dradient XTerminator plug-in for Photoshop.

Live on sky news at 8.30 ish...if it happens!

I have foxes camping under my obs, one end is 2 feet above ground level, no problems so far but the do get the blood pumping at 3 am when the decide to have a fight!

My garage door opener is 24 volt, but I have a 12 volt car battery as standby and it closes it ok ( a tad slower but that's better than open!)

Mine was a roll off roof that used casters, but I have since motorised it and replaced the rollers with metal track and matching rollers, all driven by a garage door opener... http://www.easygates.co.uk/chamberlain-power-drive-gpd60.asp

I don't align my scope, just slap it in the saddle and fire away, as long as my object of interest in in the centre of fov I'm not to bothered about the frame edges, I have to crop them to get rid of the dither lines.

This is turning into a very interesting/ complex post, lots of input. Well done everybody

I get the same result regardless of scope mounted, 350 mm focal length or 1.6 mtrs so I don't think it's the tube shifting.

I suppose I could buy a £1000 rotator to correct the 1.5 deg, on the other hand............... Four fingers and a thumb!

Yep that sums it up, I only align my camera by slewing in RA during an exposure, and have never adjusted for cone error(life is to short). Close enough for jazz is my philosophy!

OK just did the flip, the plate solve and sync pre flip gave an angle of 87.44 post flip plate solve 268.64 to give a move of 181.2 deg

I was out last night, did the flip and post flip images are rotated as before.. am out again tonight, flip coming up soon, I'll measure the rotation.

It doesn't bother me. Photoshop crop tool soon sorts the problem.

Yes I do

Here is my overlap...its wedge shaped so would indicate a rotation after the flip, my ccd is 1.5 degrees out of square....according to my last plate solve