newbie alert

If using just as a guide cam as your title suggests then I'd say if it can see stars, guide on them then the old " if it ain't broke" saying springs to mind... If as with mine I needed abit more sensitivity to use PhD multi-star guiding and using it with a oag I bought a 290m version of the newer qhy 5... Awesome camera, alot more sensitive than the older model...

Nothing to laugh at there, nice image... ASTAP has loads of features... Great software

Glad it's working for you, and continues to do so

I've seriously thought of getting one of these for my 8 inch SCT... My Celestron version isn't too bad, far from perfect but not unacceptable The few things stopping me are no solid screw on fittings, it would give me a focal length of 1400 odd instead of the 1280 from the Celestron version, and I know of a guy with a 9.25 which has one, has issues and has zero support from starizona.. they don't even reply to his multiple emails... Is the lower pic from the Celestron version?

Unless the eq35 is on a totally different system to it's larger brothers, certain nylon washers act as spacers to align the worm and ring gear... And 9x out of 10 they're factory misaligned...anyone that has done a hypertune will know this, although plenty of u tubers use this term for simply replacing the bearings, therefore people that follow it also say it's hypertuned.. You can't get a bearing as thin as a nylon washer, unless it's in a stack of say 30-40 ... Needle bearings are thinner but not as effective as a ball bearing race Anyway, adding a bearing will misalign the whole axis, and almost definitely crush when you tightened the locking nut..

I doubt that sweet spot that you refer to would be hardly recognised on a image on a laptop screen... Seen plenty of amazing images done with big pixel cameras and short focal lengths and the other way around with long focal lengths and small pixels I personally use a 8 inch SCT with a reducer, using a 4.54 um camera... Your 650d has a pixel size of 4.3 and relatively small proportion of CMOS sensors have bigger pixels than that.. I'd look at fov of the targets you want to shoot than pixel size

I've had some excellent results using my 8 inch with baader film in white light Ha however is in a totally different league, to use your Daystar you would also need a energy rejection filter on the objective and a ir filter to protect the etalon The erf will be the most expensive component of the system, far more than the Daystar itself

So would the results from using a hydrogen beta filter be better than using a O111, O111 was ok but I've seen it just as prominent in broadband in in bottle 5 .. Is the done thing to use O111 filter for contrast or would a hydrogen beta filter be superior?

Not familiar with that mount but most synta mounts are the same Have you loosened the grubscrews on this part and unscrewed the locking ring?

You really want to stop dust entering your imaging train, cleaning can add dust.. I generally keep my camera, filter wheel etc attached to the scope to avoid this... If you disconnect then you will have to shoot flats every imaging session as you won't ever re attach with your dust bunnies in the same position...

I use Apt... Tried voyager trial but had issues with connection so couldn't go any further .. have Nina but don't like it as much as Apt

Hi all, I'll start by admitting I'm more of an imager than visual astronomy ... I'm currently away in Gran Canaria and doing my normal up the mountain sky tour with Astrotours GC .. They use a couple of large 16 inch dobsonian scopes on various targets of interest, one of them being the mighty M42, where a O11 filter was used for higher contrast, seemed to do the trick but to my mind M42 emits more hydrogen alpha than Oxygen, so my question is, are Ha filters used for visual are would they make it too dim?

Hi and welcome Sathya, are you Canterbury in Kent?

That's the amount of dither, not the settling time

Shouldnt be, that's what the documentation is for, you're not buying a new item, it's going for repair....

I'm sure no-one will complain about that... Awesome image

Yeah sorry I should have said communication instead of power, but you can get the no response flag up if there's not enough power

I'd check out the power supply first, use a direct mains fed power supply.. no response from both axis means the communication from board to motors isn't getting power, take it the led power supply light is on, not flickering or dimming? If that seems in order then contact the retailer and proceed from there

If using the ST4 connection then fine, if using the pulse guide method then definitely not... Calibrate on the equator/ meridian intersection , and nudge the mount north until you see the star move and then calibrate... Waiting 30 secs won't help the known backlash

If you're pulse guiding the mount knows which side of pier the scope is on so no need to tick the box... However you can calibrate both sides of the pier if want, under the tools tab

M81 is a fantastic target... Looks like you could have some spacing issues going on with your stars

Dark frames should be the same exposure length, temp and at the same setting as your lights, just with the lens cap on... Darks frames are to calibrate out the imperfections caused by the camera The gain and offset will change using the extreme and the ultimate

Looks amazing Dan, well done on the build and the images that you're producing.. top draw..

Just seen this part Assume it be the same as windows but not 100%

Ascom works in the background, it's the translator between software's... Just use the same com ports for the same equipment, don't swap them around