lux eterna

Eliminate risk of binding (too little backlash is bad). Try swapping the RA & DEC belts - in case of some defect on the RA belt. Inspect the big RA pulley teeth with a magnifying glass. Make sure the belt is not "climbing" up the edge of the tension wheel. When you see this guiding "jump", slew backwards a tiny bit and see if you can repeat it (try to find the bad spot). Then stop tracking, take off the cover plate and mark the position of the big RA pulley with a pen or a piece of tape. Take off the RA belt (just take a small screwdriver and slide the belt sideways while rotating the pulleys a bit, and the belt will slip off) then feel with your fingers how the pulley rotates. Check this immediately, without unloading the mount. Ragnar

You are depending on three things: Polar Alignment, Star alignment and cone error. When you have done the PA, you can estimate how good it was by doing a quick drift alignment procedure. Then if you do the three star alignment, I think the mount will calculate the cone error and compensate for it in software (it will be stored even with power off). This is a good thing to do if you do not eliminate the cone error mechanically. (If you are just going to one single position during the session, you can just do a one star alignment on a nearby star, and the goto will be very accurate). Ragnar

My planning workflow includes "armchair framing" using Stellarium. I can see exactly what will fit on the sensor and how many degees of rotation I need, and usually I do the rotation in advance. The scale is a picture I found with Google, then edited it in PS and printed on paper. I had to experiment a bit to make the scale ends meet nicely. Ragnar

The puck rotating position can be anywhere, what matters is that the main scope is pointing north. With a dual setup, the puck can be 90 degree off from north. Ragnar

The puck pointing position does not matter. But you should prepare the mount home position and also align the polar scope. Here is a good starting point. Ragnar

Hi Andy, Besides the date format pitfall, you have the possibility to mistake some other star for being Polaris (I have done both). But that would probably not generate such a huge error (45 degrees out in RA), just wanted to mention it. If the sky is dark, it can be tricky to identify Polaris in the polar scope. Another idea: Have you done the polar scope alignment procedure (very important) ? Ragnar

Hei Sqren, A couple of years ago I gave my HEQ5 Pro the Rowan belt mod, and recently I did the RA overhaul. I never replaced the big bearings, just the two small ones, and I did not touch the DEC department at all. For lubrication I used ("Biltema 36-1861 ") chain lube for bike chains which is very sticky. It works very well now. I would say that with the symptoms you describe, the most important parts to focus on are 1) the two small worm bearings (just a small axial tension after you put in the new ones), 2) the worm belt pulley (do the belt tooths engage perfectly over the whole circumference ?) and 3) too little backlash may cause intermittent binding when temperature falls. Also, the taper bearings - I only tensioned them by hand (without adrenaline =:) Ragnar

You have a great image there, with both details and still a natural look. Could you just mention some hints on what you found most useful in the dust development workflow ? Ragnar

My way of doing that is this: Stack and process a new image with priority for the stars (moderate stretching, good colours and sizes etc). With the starless layer as the bottom layer, put the new one on top and change the star layer´s blending mode to lighten. Then, to make it blend in nicely, create a curves or levels layer (above the star layer) with a clipping mask (so it only affects the star layer). Then tune the adjustment layer until the stars look natural. Ragnar

Thank you Richard ! Ragnar

Wonderful images, impressive processing (I like top one best). I am curious about the dithering & autofocus issues. I guess the operations may not be completed when the next exposure starts, but why would such a thing happen ? I know nothing about SGPro, but if it has control of all actions - how can it fail ? Ragnar

Thanks Dave for the compliments, much appreciated ! My HEQ5 is like going on steroids... I have built an Arduino accessory that removes most of the PE in the RA stepper motor (the stepper itself has a fast, 0.6 seconds, PE) which makes life easier for the autoguider. Will make a write-up of it when time allows. Ragnar

I much like the careful processing. Ragnar

I like the conservative stretching - a very nice image. Ragnar

Thanks Michael ! No I will not do a full mosaic, I think I may proceed with M33 instead. Ragnar

I wanted to see what a closer look at M31 would be like, so I let my (cooled) Nikon D7000 spend 77 x 10 min during two nights staring at it. Meade LX200-ACF plus reducer is some 1600 mm FL and F8 so really not much exposure for the darkest areas, but I think the core came out pretty well, and also the Ha regions. Guided with NexGuide on a HEQ5 Pro - I just gave it an overhaul and new worm axis bearings. Happy to see it performs well after the surgery (thanks to http://www.astro-baby.com). Ragnar

Not bad for being just one exposure. Ragnar

Hi John, and welcome here. I enjoyed reading your website, especially as I was working in the electronics / IT area myself around that time. Thanks for sharing. You really did some pioneering work in such a high-tech environment. Wow, what a career ! Since you retired, have you been using your technical skills for any DIY astro related work ? Ragnar

Hi James, A switch will be fine as long as you connect it to the plus cable. The Arduino thing - you are the first to ask... It started over two years ago as a way to cure the HEQ5 Pro´s built-in non-linear movement of the RA motor during tracking (the motor rotation speed varies a little, with a 0.6 second cycle) . Then I added 2 x dslr intervalometer support. And then came the marriage between the Arduino and my NexGuide autoguider by emulating the NexGuider cable connected handpad so the NexGuide could be controlled by the same IR remote (from old dvd player) as the intervalometers etc. Then came dithering. Then I upgraded from IR control to radio ("HC-12 module") control and had two-way communication with provided for a cloud alarm (triggered by zero st-4 pulse activity from the NexGuider). And somwhere along the road I moved most of the parts to a box outside the mount, so I need to change my signature to Arduino Outside - but how cool is that ? I will try to describe this better in a separate post. Ragnar

I have two of these little evil dc plugs in my system, and I just created a home for each of them whenever I need to unplug them : /Ragnar

Anyone with "Both Axes no response" on a HEQ5 Pro, see this thread. Ragnar

FenTaylor, I wish I could buy you a beer ! Tonight I had the same nightmare - "Both Axes no response". I followed your excellent guide and found the same faulty (dual) inductor. I had nothing to replace it with so I just snapped it off and made two solder bridges where it was sitting, and now the board has come back to life ! The handset was not affected, just the motherboard. Thanks a lot mate, you saved me both money and time under the stars ! In my case, the reason for the breakdown was a 12V connection (intended for my NexGuide autoguider) that was unused for the moment and just hanging from the mount. The center part is +12V and it is not very well protected, so of course it would touch some grounded metal and that was it. /Ragnar

So you started this thread, and also sent me (and maybe other users as well) a PM, asking for help. And you immediately recieved a few suggestions. Did you read it ? Did/will you try it ? No idea. So demotivating for people trying to help. Ragnar

Not sure if this is relevant in your case but my HEQ5 Pro can do the "sticky button" trick under special circumstances, which I narrowed down to this: When the mount is recieving a guide signal via ST-4 and you simultaneously press a slew button this sometimes happen. Never press these buttons when guiding is active. To stop the creeping, stop guiding (or pull out the ST-4 plug) and (if necessary) shortly press the opposite slew button. Another important thing is correct (un)balance. RA = "east heavy" and DEC = slightly unbalanced (front or back). If you have perfect balance (no bias), creeping may occur. Ragnar

Hi George, First, you may be lucky with just a faulty handset cable. If you can find a standard Cat5 or Cat6 Ethernet cable (also called "ethernet patch cable") it will be a perfect replacement (I use one all the time). Just make sure (very sure) that it is a "straight wired" cable, and not "crossed" wired. If no success with another cable, try nudging the plugs (handset and mount) to see if there is just a bad contact for some reason. And if you can borrow another handset, you can make sure if yours is ok. The last option would be to buy a replacement motherboard. That was my situation a few years ago, and after removing the motors it was easy to swap the board with just two screws holding it. One thing that is very likely to kill the MB is a sloppy 12V power supply plug so make sure you have a solid connection there. Ragnar EDIT: You can find my power plug fixes here