adyj1

Well, you've only got to build what you need, and if you have the advantage of not getting it past domestic build control then you're on to a winner! I particularly like the idea of 'if I get a shift on I'll be imaging from it tonight' - can't wait to see your unique take on it 🙂

lol - I did just mean whatever the rollers are and what they are running on, rather than anything fancy. If it works, it works 🙂

You couldn't chuck in a photo of the rolling mechanism and rails at a convenient time, could you? 😉

@smudgeball's post piqued my interest, so I popped over to view his build thread. Very nice job 👍

I feel like you might be proved wrong, so just make sure you've got pics 🙂 Good luck!

Just for completeness, the explanation of this is that the framing wizard sent the co-ordinates of *your adjustment* as the target of your sequence, not the original co-ordinates. When the meridian flip occurs NINA only knows to re-centre on the the co-ordinates of the framing you chose, not the original framing. Which is exactly what you want 🙂

I'll pm you Ady

I'd like to get an idea of the length of exposures I should reasonably be able to get from an unguided AZ-GTi - should it be at least a minute? What are other owners experience, and what have you achieved (and at what focal length)? Thanks

What software did you use to create the design?

If you get the EQ-5 without goto unfortunately it won't have tracking.

Looks just the ticket. 👍 Would you mind sharing the 3d-print files, or a pointer to them if they've been uploaded somewhere? Ady

Just as an FYI, you can normally delete everything after (and including) the first question mark - so for your link to the humidity traps, the following link works: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283765025309

Now that you've replaced the tardis, I hope you don't find the lack of internal space an issue 😂

What I would say is there's general agreement that if you want to do 'serious' AP then the HEQ5 is the most appropriate mount for the money. (You'll also need to learn what pixels-per-arcsecond means 😉) . If a beginner suggests they want to 'have a go at AP', then the HEQ5 really needs to be qualified as the sort of option you'd take if you were looking to spend (say) in the region of a couple of thousand on a full starter rig - buy the HEQ5 now and some lesser other kit, then when you upgrade to the quality ota/camera/etc you won't need to upgrade the mount - which is good, as although you'll be looking to spend £1000+ for that next upgrade anyway. With the HEQ5 you'll have had a better beginners experience than if you chose a poor mount because you'll (hopefully) had more consistently good results/experiences with the HEQ5. Of course, if your budget is in the thousands as a beginner, good luck to you there's no reason not to mate the HEQ5 with decent kit to start with. Again, the recommendation to get an HEQ5 needs to have considered the beginners budget, and explained that there are cheaper options that give acceptable results for beginners (well, not just beginners, tbh, but that is the topic of this thread.).

I very much agree wholeheartedly with your points Olly, and about recommendations being appropriate to thecontext. The HEQ5 is a great mount and a wholly appropriate as a recommendation in the right context. My only comment would be that the context of this thread is 'beginners being recommended HEQ5s when it isn't necessarily appropriate' , so for the sake of logic I'd have swapped your points around so that that comes first.

I think you missed the point about beginners and budget. I'm talking about a beginner reading a post and thinking he's being told he has to buy a HEQ5 or he's not serious about AP. I don't understand how you extrapolated that I meant all HEQ5 owners are elitists.

amen to that! 😉

I think your point is that spending let's say £1,000-£2,000 (on a setup based on the HEQ5) allows you to find out whether you really do like 'serious' AP and is more cost-effective than buying lesser/cheaper kit because it will not perform as well and may put you off AP. You are offsetting the high outlay by saying that you'll get your money back if you don't want to continue the hobby. My point is that when recommended to a beginner, you are setting a very high level of achievement for the beginner to 'try AP' and with it what I would consider an expensive 'entry point' - which is outside the reach of many beginners and will put them off AP. What I've described above could be described as elitism </deploys fire-retardant PPE>

And I guess the point of this thread is to make sure that people who recommend it as 'the entry point' to beginners bear in mind that 'serious' means that the beginner is willing to spend the £1,000 or more - in addition to the cost of the mount - in order to achieve what they want (not necessarily all at once, admittedly, but a reasonable chunk more than just the mount). At the outset of the hobby I would imagine that fewer beginners fall into this category than outside of it. In particular I'm thinking about the posts where a beginner is asking about 'getting into AP' when it is obvious that they don't really know what that entails. I mean this sort of person; not this one 😉 ; Ady

I think it is worth pointing out that most people posting in defence of the HEQ5 here aren't the sort of people who I would consider give the 'if you don't spend £500+ on a mount you aren't serious about AP' advice (which is how I personally used to read the worst cases of this in the past). I do wonder whether the 'absolutely, always, without fail' nature of the original post has detracted from the original sentiment (apologies if I'm hijacking your point, @wuthton) There's probably some cross-over here with a previous thread that went along the lines of "I wish people would only give advice when they are really sure they know what they are talking about"

In the past I've mulled over the idea of starting a discussion about whether the expense on each component of an AP setup can be expressed as a rough percentage of the overall cost of the setups, and that the setups could be broken down into different budgets (as a rough example, maybe the advice would be "if you're a beginner and you've got £500-800 and already have a DSLR, you should leave guiding until you have more money and spend X% on a mount and Y% on an OTA, and leave Z% for cables and adapters / if you've got ". (THIS IS NOT ACTUAL ADVICE - JUST AN EXAMPLE 😉 ) But it seemed that there would be too many permutations and maybe such a thread would end up meandering (maybe in the 'get an HEQ5!!!' argument) so I didn't bother 🙄

I agree wholeheartedly with the points you make here. Many is the time I've seen the HEQ5 card played as soon as someone mentions 'interested in maybe doing some AP' . Sure, there are good examples where an HEQ5 is the right advice, but it seemed to be mentioned regardless of budget. I have lost count of the times I've wanted to post what you have, so you get a 🌟 from me 😁

Good point, I wasn't clear... Using nina with an alnitak-compatible flat panel. There are a few settings like minimum and maximum exposure length, etc - so what are good or bad values? Although NINA *could* change the intensity of the panel automatically, in the default method it doesn't... And complains if it isn't bright enough!

No. Set it up exactly as you have, but with the camera pointing to polaris. Don't worry, it will be really obvious when you're looking at a clear sky. Or your tracking will be shocking 🤣 (me checks whether there is a Camberley in Oz 😁)

@LaurenceT, I hope I've not misunderstood, but you've said mount pointing north and camera pointing south - which is the opposite way round. With your rig set up like that in the field you should be taking lovely photos of Polaris and the Ursa Minor region... in other words your camera should be pointing North. Everything else is set up correctly. Ady