Shaun_Astro

Did you have the "Both axes no response" notification? I gave up trying to get it to work, it's sitting behind a sofa collecting dust, £300 down the drain.

Thanks for the reply. I don't have the right size screwdriver, and it seems to have some tool specific bolts on it. When I started it up earlier, I didn't get the "Both axes no response" warning. It stated up fine and asked if I wanted to align as normal. But the arrows wont move the mount at all still. I'll contact the supplier and see if they can suggest something.

The voltage said 12.2v, and the handset cable seems to be fine. I can't find where I put the warranty information, but I assume it's 12 months. I guess nobody has had something similar with other mounts? Such a shame. I don't want to invest a lot more money on another mount if they are so unreliable.

It was using a new set of batteries. I know when the voltage is too low: the slewing slows down and the handset back-light dims while slewing. The power is fine. I "factory reset" the handset: now it says "no response both axes", which is probably related to it not having the correct drivers installed now. Probably shouldn't have done that but worth a try. With the Star Discovery there are supposed to be sensors so you can move it by hand, moving it doesn't seem to change where the mount thinks it is pointing to, maybe the system that controls that is dead. Now I have to install new firmware before I try to fix it, the serial and usb combo; which is expensive, why couldn't they have just had a usb input! Thanks for the suggestions.

Hi, I took my mount out for the first time in 5 weeks, all went as normal on the aligning, until it finished slewing to the second alignment star... As I tried to use the direction buttons to center Rigel, then I realised it wasn't moving, and the handset said "slewing to...." still. I tuned it off for a bit, came back to it, but the thing wont move at all. It says slewing still, but doesn't actually move. Also it doesn't make a whisper. The handset is seemingly working fine apart from that. Can anyone suggest anything? It's just turned 13 months old also! So might not be under manufacturers warranty still. Thanks, Shaun.

Thanks Ian. Just that listed in my signature: 130pds, Star Discovery Mount, 1300d, DSS, Lightroom, Photoshop. Had to crop it pretty hard again because of bad flats & amp glow.

M35 and NGC 2158: iso 3200, 150 x 20" sub, 30 dark, 40 bias, 40 flat. Did this when I started last winter, this is an improvement I think, still would have liked more subs!

Yeah I wondered what that was. Just the camera lens: Canon 75-300mm lens @75mm f4.5

I've wanted to take this wide field shot for a while.. Messier 37, 36 and 36 from the bottom, Elnath bottom right. 75mm lens on my star discovery @f4.5, 60x30", ISO 3200. A fantastic set of open clusters that each fit perfectly in my 8" dob with a 37mm plossl's FOV.

Nice Crab! As for balancing, I find that as the target rises or sets, the scopes balance changes from front to back. I see what you mean a little front heavy, it's like being East heavy on an EQ, to keep the pressure on the gears. I'll try and make it a little front heavy in the East, and back heavy in the West now. I took some more subs of M45, and didn't constrain DSS to process only an intersecting area this time. It's not as bright and overly stretched as the last one, but has more detail. Still struggling to remove this grainy noise though. Also this SW 0.9 coma corrector is a PITA. The draw tube sticks into the scope and makes the stars look like "D"s. Also I can't seem to get that "crisp" focus I could without it, I have the appropriate T mount.

Yeah it's at the 5kg capacity, and 600mm is quite a long FL with this kind of setup I think. I'm happy with 20" over 30" if it allows me to keep this many subs. Yeah I didn't use live view for a while before. I kind of knew I needed a lot more darks and bias & flats, just wanted to see how it would fare without them. TBH I stretched this more than I normally do. Thanks for the feedback and advice, next time I shall use at least 40 darks, bias and flats!

I used 10 x dark and 10 x bias frames, but not enough it was very late. And I stretched it way too much. I'll add to this and calibrate it better with more darks, flats and biases. This is kind of a WIP!

Superbly clear last night, I could see the bands in the milky way over head and Andromeda and the Double Cluster just by looking up with averted vision. Took some frames of M45, I'm still struggling to rid of the vignetting by using flats, I probably need to take more than 10, and I think my mirror was misting up while taking them. Here's 132x19" subs. I realise taking 15-20 second subs allows me to keep most of them. 30" was too much for my mount with this 600mm scope on it, and I was chucking out 70% of frames. I managed to keep about 70-80% now with 20", which means 45 mins of subs out of every hour of taking them, instead of only 20 mins! Planning to add to this in the near future so less stretching and exaggerating of the vignetting is required.

As a small note, I found that aligning from East to South, or South to West, in a clockwise motion works best, then the mount wont spin 270 degrees, and consequently the alignment will be much more accurate.

I've been toying with te idea of getting the skymax 127 for a while, and I've noticed the picture has changed now to one with a rather unsightly green dovetail. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/skywatcher-skymax-127-ota.html After seeing this video, I noticed that the older one says Schoot glass on the side, and came with 2" diagonal. The newer version seems to have a 1.25" diagonal now and doesn't have the label on the side. Can anyone confirm this? Would it not using Schott glass anymore have an impact on quality?