Grierson

I don’t know any thing about Moonlight stepper motor focusers but going off at a tangent, and as you have ZWO gear, have you considered ASIAIR? ZWO have just introduced an focus motor (EAF) and you can control everything, including a beta version of polar alignment, from an iOS or Android device by dedicated Wi-Fi. - John

Have a look at the posting by JANTJE 'Skywatcher HEQ5 connecting Kstar - MacBook pro' on the INDI website (indilib.org) forum. This may give you some pointers. - John

😁

Thanks Alan I’ve ordered a little selection for £4 from KayFasteners so hopefully one of the will be the answer. Billy, when my lad was young and in to model flying it was PVA glue that held things together but then again we only flew fixed wing models!!

Ah BA nuts and bolts. All my amateur radio gear was held together with 4 and 6 BA nut and bolts. Those were the days. 😉

Many thanks James, but unfortunately I changed the focuser on my 80ED to a Feather Touch a while ago which has added to the problem of getting the correct bits! Having said that Alan indicates that UNC screws are American as well so I might be heading towards the answer and giving me a whole new area of knowledge around this simple question in the process. 😄

Again many thanks for taking the trouble to respond. Unfortunately we have no (old fashioned) hardware stores here but we do have Screwfix although according to their website they only have metric screws. I see a number of forum members recommend ModelFixings and their website has massive listings so I’ll give them a call in the morning, as they appear to have UNC/UNF screws, and see what they say. - John

Thanks for the responses. I've done a bit more investigation by counting the threads. As far as my old eyes can determine the M4 screw has aprox. 33 threads per inch whereas the screw that came out has aprox. 28 per inch. I wonder if that makes any sense to the any engineers out there. I should also have said that the focuser is American made not Chinese.

A naive question! I’m looking to attach a ZWO EAF to my focuser. The only mounting hole available is the one currently occupied but the focus lock screw which has a 4mm diameter thread size. I assumed wrongly that an M4 screw would fit. The M4 screw looks and measures the same as the focus locking screw which came out but it will only screw in to the hole a couple of turns. Clearly the threads are different. Can anyone suggest an alternative. Thanks - John

If you intend to use ASIAIR then I would be inclined NOT to dig too deeply into EQMOD. There is a bit to learn as I know to my cost and there is no doubt that having got it set up it is a great way to control the ‘scope. However if you have the appropriate cable and drivers in place using the EQMOD version on ASIAIR is a piece of cake. As said above this takes away the need for the handset but you do need to rely on ZWO’s list of targets rather than CdC etc.

For info. For those members who use or are contemplating using ASIAIR and may have missed it I see that ZWO have included polar alignment in the latest firmware beta release for the unit.

The unit can be used in a number of ways and yes it can be used with an Android tablet/SkySafari combo and iOS tablets although I believe that currently two iOS devices are required if you wish to use SkySafari. The mount handset stays connected but you can slew the mount from the tablet. I don’t use SkySafari and rely on the units comprehensive inbuilt list of targets. I do away with the handset as it is possible to run the setup in EQmod mode with the appropriate interface cable. I understand that the next version of the firmware for the unit will include polar alignment and it is suggested that this will be similar to the Sharpcap approach. This update is due any time now. In the meantime you do need to polar align as you presumably do at the moment. There is a good forum on the ASIAIR and a guy named Tom Connolly has produced a video on the use of the unit. (Google is your friend) - John

^^^^^ ditto ^^^^^

Thanks for the pointer. A bit of a shame he ran out of time!

Thanks Dave, that is the measurement I am using. In the back of my mind I remember reading that the measurement should be from lens to sensor and the sensor in this flattened sits c. 10mm in from the face. Clearly I’m trying to add an nonexistent problem. Thanks for taking the trouble to provide an image. John

Having recently acquired an OSC and been disappointed with the focus of the resulting images (probably down to my own incompetence) I got to thinking about back focus. I have a SW flattener/reducer fitted to my SW ED80. FLO gives the back focus requirement of the flattener as 55mm. As there is nothing on the flattener to indicate where the 55mm should be measured from, i.e. where the lens is in the flattener I have always measured from the rear end of the of the body. I wonder if someone could confirm, or otherwise, that this is correct as there seems no easy way of measuring from the lens. Many thanks - John

Not a pain James but when each of them produces different results the underlying question is still ‘which one is correct?’ Then at least one element can be discounted when a poor result appears on the screen! - John

I wonder if anyone has to hand the Matrix for an ASI294 camera required by Pixinsight. I’ve tried RGGB with some odd results. Thanks - John

Do you have a cooled camera? If so, and in my admittedly limited experience, you can do Darks at any time providing the camera is cooled to the temperatur, exposure and gain used for the imaging session. I have made a library of Darks at various gains and exposures. Saves a lot of time! As far as Bias is concerned there seems to be a debate around whether they are actually needed with a dedicated Astro camera. Depending which side you come down on again your Bias can be made at any time without cooling the camera.

Ah, I see. Many thanks!

I suppose the answer will be obvious when somebody knowledgeable posts but what is EEVA? It does not seem to be in the Glosary.

Yes, both work on my elderly Nexus 7 no problem. As has been said above you will need both your iOS powered devices if that is the route you take. Personally I find the Nexus a bit on the small side for my old eyes. (How people manage on their 'phones I don't know ) I finally opted for using the adapter and CdC on the laptop running the W10 platform. After a bit of a false start it now runs well. John

Pleased you have it up and running. - John

I wonder what comes up when you click on Connect in PHD2. On my W10 laptop it comes up as ASCOM Toupcam Driver which is second (in my case) on the dropdown camera list. Did you install ASCOM before or after the ST4 and Camera Drivers? (From the CD) I ask because for my ZWO camera their website makes a point of installing the ASCOM platform first. It may be the same for any camera but I am no expert. If I were to face the issue I would be inclined to delete ASCOM and re-install it and then install the ST4 and camera drivers from the disc. As far as ASCOM is concerned it might also be sensible to install the latest version from their website rather than from the disc that came with the Toupcam which I guess may be well out of date. John Edit - Just in passing I found that the Toupcam website was poor, with no updated drivers available!!

Can’t speak for the EQ6 but one of the contributory factors, on my HEQ5 at least, is the over tight bearing that required bruit force using the ‘Armstrong Method’ to get it to 52 degrees when I first set it up. It would never have been achieved with the bolts loaded or not.