souls33k3r

Had a look at the thread and there are wordings which have long since changed. Any way, my current settings are as follows: I did notice 2 nights ago was that on SGP the time to flip was showing 5 minutes but the mount flipped and then yesterday i wasn't really paying attention to this in SGP but during my 5 minutes exposure sequence, the mount flipped but then exposure kept on going. My issue is not that the mount is able to do merdian flip but it does not (what it used to do) go through the process of centering the target after it does that. I used to get this screen for SGP to platesolve, resolve and center the target with my old NEQ6 mount but now not any more. (not my image but just pulled something from google search to show what i mean)

Cheers matey, I'll have a read through now. Of course I can't test this but if there are any changes to be made, I'll do them now

Hi All, For the love of everything that lives under the sun I can't remember how I set it up with my old mount (NEQ6). Back then I was using EQMOD. Ive changed to a new mount and am using iOptron commander but I can't remember where I'm SGP (if that) was the setting to center target after meridian flip because I just couldn't find it or remember how it has previously set up. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Neat little trick. I did find that the strap kept on slipping when holding it by hand. Thanks for the share.

Really need to find something that will work with the thinner spacers/adapters. I feel as if the rubber straps are going to be wide enough for the thinner spacers to slip through it. I'm now wondering if the camera lens removal or the Jar openers are a better choice instead?

I've literally just had another go at this. I heated the spacers using heat gun for 10 seconds and then left the spacers to slightly cool after which I put on rubber gloves and pushed both spacers between my hands and then unscrewed them. Came right off.. Result!!!

I was going to buy strap wrenches today but a mate of mine had a strap wrench and some rubber gloves that he kindly let me have them to try this first. Well the strap wrench is 1.9cm thick so getting a 5mm spacer in right was tricky. The stupid thing kept on moving inside the rubber but then also I was using a pair of rubber gloves. In the past, I have tried using rubber boots and managed to get 2 spacers lossen but that was about it. I'm not sure if you think these rubber wrenches are going to work on thinner spacers which are between 5 & 10mm? These rubber strap wrenches do come in a pack of two... One being 1.2cm and the other 1.9cm.

Hehehe good man, cheers mate. I'll take a look. Cheers mate

Boot polish is most definitely now applied and the spacers that I did manage to loosen were indeed done with placing them in between the rubber slippers I just didn't like the force I had to apply so wanted to find an alternative and better solution Been looking at ebay and couldn't find anything with 4pcs hehehe I guess I'll have to make it work with the 2 then 😛 tbh I only need two wrenches for this job but like I said, I need something that is capable of holding on to two thin spacers stuck together.

I agree, that's why I asked if there was a way to make the available area through the TOAG larger somehow? I don't know what or how but I'm sure people are out there using the 174 with smaller prism sizes.

Wowzer, I thought they only come in a single or a pack of two. Where did you buy yours?

Cheers mate yes the object was in the foreground as well as to the sides of the Focused object. I hope I'm not imagining things now. Unfortunately I do not have the budget to spend on anything anytime soon so have to make do with what I've got.

I do apologise for not being able to word it properly in the first instance. I will amend the first thread

Will the rubber strap work with the two thinner spacers as well? Because most of my stuck spacers are 10mm or less

Don't get me wrong, both cameras are in focus but the two issues that I have are that when both imaging and guidecam are in focus, in the guidecam I'm seeing something which closer to object I've got near perfect focus which shows blurred like out of focus. Tbh I don't think it really is an issue but I just wanted to be sure I wasn't seeing things The second issue is the loss of real estate.

I've now chosen ZWO camera (I believe this is native driver support) which gives you a drop down to select the appropriate camera from. Worked so far, only time will tell

Hi, ***Mods please move this thread if you feel this is not the correct category*** I have decided to venture in to the OAG world and bought myself an ASI174MM mini guidecam which will be used with the Orion Thin Off Axis Guider. I've had this off axis guider for a while but have only just started to take this more seriously. Now I know the chip size is huge but I'm wondering (and would sincerely appreciate) if someone can assist with what I've got and make it work rather than suggesting I go and spend more on something new. While I was setting up the OAG I noticed a few things 1) I couldn't reach focus on the OAG because the prism was slightly far away from the ASI174 chip so I had to loosen the screws to bring up the prism closer to the guidecam chip. When I did that I started to notice that (maybe this is just the way how things are with an OAG) that the object (let's say a window on a brick wall 100m away) i had my main camera focused on the window was now showing focused on my guidecam too but then on the same brick wall there is a second window which seems to fall slightly to the edge of the prism object that show out of focus. I'm sure this is normal but just wanted to double check 2) The (not sure how to word this properly) bit on the OAG where the guidecam picks the light bounced off the prism is rectangular shaped hole (see image below) which obstructs the view so I'm seeing about good 30% of the viewing screen on either side showing up as total black while only around 30% in the middle is showing me the image. Like I said earlier, I had to lift the prism up a bit so that I can get the guidecam to focus but that's the most I can pick up the prism because otherwise the prism in the imaging train light path will not get there. Also my guidecam can't go any lower than what I have otherwise I feel that the little bump of the rectangular part (again see the image below) might hit the guidecam window and I don't want to risk scratching that. Please advise. Thanks in advance.

Dang, well even though you and I both were having somewhat similar issues, mine was totally related to PHD2 for some reason choosing and using the ASI1600 as my guide camera. I have now learned my lesson and will keep an eye on it before I begin the session.

I have come to a point where I'm finding spacers are now sort of feel like they're welded together rather than tightened and they are absolutely hard to unscrew them. I've tried everything and have managed to loosen up a few of them but there are still quite a few that I can not seem to do much about. Now these spacers range from 2mm and all the way up to 15-20mm so am looking for something that will work on both small and big spacers. I know there are these these camera lens filter removal tools (I'm sure these will grip fine on thin spacers as well as thicker ones but not sure if they will grip tight enough?) And then you have these rubber strap wrenches (The rubber straps have thicker profile so not sure if I will be able to grip the thinner spacers? Say I have a 5mm and a 7mm stuck spacer stuck together, will this be better?) Not sure which one is best for the job keeping in mind I will be working with thin and thick spacers. Which one will works best and would you recommend and have used? Thanks in advance.

An absolute belter John. Love this. Can't wait to see the final image.

Right so finally took some time and looked at this. It was indeed that the camera settings automatically started to use ASI1600 rather than the ASI174. Now the reason why I didn't think of this before is because when I first created this profile, I didn't select the guidecam but then this (ASI174) was the only connected camera at that time. Any way, looked in to the settings of the camera profile and changed it from ASI1600 to ASI174. Just for fun, I looked at the ZWO native drivers option as well and that gives me the drop down to select the camera but that defaults to ASI1600 for some reason. Any way, something else to remember checking from now on. Thanks for all your help peeps. Much appreciated.

Mate, this is seriously impressive for your first try. Welcome to the dark side

Interesting. I guess I'll go and check first what camera in the camera setup of PHD2 gets the priority. Hopefully it'll be a simple fix to what was the least to say a frustrating night battling this issue.

I have been using the native in SGP and ascom in PHD2.

I was using SharpCap only so that i can get a live view of both the main imaging camera and guidecam. I have been using QHY5L-II with great success but only switched to ASI174 for larger chip size and fov for OAG. I do reckon that the drivers are conflicting so that would be my first protocol of trying to troubleshoot this issue. Cheers mate, good shout. I will most definitely give this one a go when I come back home later I'm the afternoon and see how things behave. I was going to go and check and select the correct camera if PHD2 had been using my main imaging camera instead of guidecam but will give the native ZWO drivers a go.