etunar

Thanks for the links - i did the worm adjustment by following the first video. Not sure how applicable the 2nd video is if you have the belt mod? I have not done the star test before - probably worth a try. After i did the worm adjustment and used the guide assistant on PHD2, it did report negligible backlash though which was a nice suprise.

Yea worth a try. I have readjusted the worm gear as well to see if it helps

direct EQDIR at the moment. I am dithering - but not every image - every 5 image if I remember correct.

If I remember correct, the restart was due to meridian flip. On my last go, I intentionally woke up around the time on previous nights when i started to have problems (2-3am), and checked for cable snags. I couldn't see anything obvious. USB connection to the mount is via a powered usb 3 hub. Seems ok as I have not had problems with the main camera (using a 1600mm now instead of 6D).

you have been more than helpful for someone who doesn't have an EQ mount. I am suprised too - i thought there were lots of people with heq5s..

i know you said that - but when i asked how do i check for tight spots, i didn't get a response?

So does anyone have an idea for a solution?

I guess that's good. PHD was working fine at least. By the way, how do you tell the lurches in the debug log? When I look at it, it all looks random to me. So do I just re-adjust the worm gear to loosen them up a bit without introducing backlash?

Thanks. Those times line up with the trails in the subs i think. I checked for cable snags and I can't see anything obvious. How can I check for tight spots in the worm? as i said i couldn't hear anything obvious when slewing at high speed. The phd message was "PulseGuide command to mount has failed – guiding is likely to be ineffective" - which seems like an occasional loss guide commands?

Last week I discovered a reasonably wobble on the RA axis on my HEQ5 which ended up causing lots of double stars on my subs (i am guessing because the mount kept wobbling between the two positions.) So I did the worm gear adjustment and the wobble seems to have disappeared. I did a full slew rotation check and couldn't tell any binding/grinding (I had binding at 1st attempt but was resolved after further adjustments). Thanks to the clear skies last few nights, I had it running throughout the night 3 times now. My overall guiding is much better than before, averaging between 0.6 and 0.8 Total error. However, when the mount gets closer to the home position (usually after 2-3am), I seem to start having tracking issues. I have attached screenshots to show examples; sometimes it's trailing, sometimes it's double stars, and sometimes it makes a u-turn to track back to the original position. PHD log files from another night are here: https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_tych.zip Is this a balance issue that becomes apparent when the mount is more vertical? I'm relatively new to using this mount, so most of my previous sessions have been closer to the meridian. Or is my worm gear tightened just a bit too much and causing issues? I can't really hear anything wrong when slewing at high speed. Only other thing i can think of is, I sometimes get error messages on PHD but pulse command being ineffective, but these happen at other times as well without causing any issues. It's losing me 7-8 frames over the span of 2.5 hours, so it would be nice to get it resolved if anyone has any ideas? Thanks

I'm thinking the same. Been going back and forth between 1600 and 2600 but if a mono 2600 is coming soon, possibly worth holding on!

Thanks for sharing your data Datalord. Not having worked with proper mono stacks before I thought I'd have a go. - Used the base stacks and stretched in photoshop. - Created starless copies of both ha and O3 using starnet - further minor stretch on the starless copies. - combined the starless copies into HAOO. - used the copy of Ha that was stretched at the beginning as a luminiosity layer and blended with the colour image. It was interesting to work with - that blue quickly disappears under red despite looking bright in mono images. Very clean data to work with!

Haha. I can relate to that. I love my combo of 6D, 135mm and star adventurer combo. It's a perfect travel setup i think with no laptops etc.. This is also one of the reasons why I'm more hesistant about buying an OSC - while it will definitely be an improvement over 6D, I am chuffed with what I can get from dark sky locations with it.

oh definitely. I dont like doing short subs at all. too many files to manage as well. How come you have gone back to a 6D after asi1600 if you don't mind me asking?

I thought about CCD, but I was a bit intimidated by very long exposure times (20-30min) people tend to use for subs.