Tomatobro

from your description it seems like you have the DC version. Between the motor and the output shaft there is a gearbox which has a high reduction ratio so with the motor removed from the focuser with just the output shaft with the flat on it its not possible to stop this shaft from rotating with your fingers when powered from the handset. If you can stop it turning then the problem lies with the motor controller and most likely the controller. Later on I will do some tests where I will attach a pointer to the shaft and give some idea of the revolutions per 20 seconds at max and min so you can compare. The numbers are (Max speed) 4 rotations in 45 seconds and 2 rotations in 55 seconds at minimum speed. Using a blutak pointer on the end of the shaft

There is a Beta testing version of a push too aid now available for download from Sharpcap. You enter the RA and DEC numbers of the item of interest, point the scope to roughly the right part of the sky, plate solve and Sharpcap reports where the scope is pointing and what needs to be done to correct the position ie. left 0.9 degrees and down 1.7 degress. Perfect for Star Adventurers SharpCap 4.1.10652

my estimate was about 160,000 miles an hour............

Shame it was over so quick but it did go a long way from the surface. It broke up into pieces on the way out.

Five so far with an ED72 and ASI178 mono. Can anyone beat this?

In Camelopardalis NGC2403 can be found. About 8 million light years away and 50,000 light years in diameter, its and outlying galaxy of the M81 group. 10inch RC QHY268 mono 5 hours Luminance, 1 hour each of RGB, stacked in APP, further processing in Pixinsight, and Gimp.

Tracking with software. Watching the scope it is tracking the ISS well but it needs help with initial positioning as my scope and camera has a small field of view. I dont have a guide scope fitted but it is something under consideration as I have an illuminated cross hair eyepiece.

I take my hat off to you as I know how hard this is. I tried last night and could not get the ISS on the chip.

your pier will be fine so don't worry. Stuff gets repeated so often it takes on the status of fact.

I watched the videos and I think the issue is with the tripod. In particular the structure above where the legs attach to where the Mesu sits. Tomato used a portable mount with his Mesu for quite a while and had no issues with wind even though the setup was in the garden. That mount had a 125mm diameter steel tube with a wall thickness of 5mm.

That mottled effect dew maybe?

If you stack, say, 10 images, each 1 minute long, your integration time is 1’ x 10 = 10 minutes.

if the mount is an equatorial here is no need to level the tripod. To test the built in bubble level adjust the tripod till the bubble is centred, tighten everything up and then lift the tripod off the floor and rotate 180 degrees. If the floor is level then the bubble should be centred.

It lay down just for an instant.......and then blew up (John Force quote)

If you get a camera every day you will find in your email inbox details of last nights captures with still and movie pictures from all the cameras that caught the meteor event. You also get a detail analysis of the meteor entry and loads of other statistics. My favourite is the jpg stack of all your captures for the night. Once set up it's a case of sit back and enjoy. One thing though is that is vital that the camera is not moved (even by a fraction) once calibrated. My window cleaner offered to point the camera down thinking that it was a security camera but luckily he checked with me first beforehand.

That's boosted the Taiwanese GDP a bit☺️

After building the camera (as above) I discovered an organisation called UKMON. I purchased one of their camera kits and now have a permanent meteor setup. If you are interested in meteors then this is the way to go. Yes it needs careful setting up but I had lots of help from the folks at UKMON. Every day I get an email of the UK's data capture (there are about 250 cameras UK wide) with lots of statistics and recordings of each event. The data we capture is used by NASA and commercial satellite organisations and has discovered previously unknown meteor showers. Currently the kits and raspberry pi's are in short supply but you can start by registering an interest if you want.

given the high cost of the equipment we were trying to protect we went in the end for the Hydreon RG-9 Rain Sensor. These have been running for several years now and are 100 % reliable. They seem to have come down quite a bit in price compared with what we paid back then.

I tried this a while ago and the problem I had was the change is resistance on the stripboard sensor due to oxidation of the copper strips.

Yes with the lens Tomato has and using meteotux software. Works ok.

is it possible to unbolt the legs and turn the base upside down and reattach the legs?

how high does that pin stick up above the top of the mount?

Not a sensor for guiding but for automated exposure/gain/ black level settings

1000ms / 8.6 fps would suggest that exposures are over a tenth of a second which is way too long for daylight. Try reducing the exposure times while pointing the scope at a distant tree or chimney.

Lift up your hearts all will come right in the end (WSC)