david_taurus83

The only way to determine sensor tilt is on a purpose jig with only the camera on there. If your judging tilt by shape of stars on an image, them you would need to rule out collimation, focuser, flattener spacing etc.

A completely valid point and makes perfect sense, however it still doesn't remove the spikes from guiding without a long settle time and it would mildly bug me that it's not an even capture! I realise I'm trying to fix a problem that isn't there but I do want to put my 6D on there soon so a guidescope is needed anyway. To answer my original question, yes, the Esprit finder can be converted to a guidescope. You need the M51 to C adapter from FLO, the ZWO M42(T2) to C adapter and a helical focuser. I happened to have most of these bits in my astro parts box so only needed to purchase the M51 adapter. The spacer between the guidescope and focuser is optional also. I prefer to have the camera inserted almost fully into the focuser body as opposed to sticking half out.

I can't see how you can machine that out and still use it after. What's the ID of the tube? TS do various adapters to fit different OTA's. I'd be inclined like others to chop the tube and find or create an adapter to suit that. My concern with this approach though would be how much dust is going to end up on the lens from cutting..

What focuser are you trying to fit? 2" not big enough?

Your not using PEC correction in GSS are you? When I tried it it was great for a while but then my mount started doing strange things. Would randomly start drifting off in the wrong direction despite input from PHD. When I switched PEC off it behaved normally so I haven't used it since. Still use GSS though and it's behaved each time with PEC left alone.

This thread is 6 years old and he hasn't logged in since May. If you send him a PM he may get an email notification though.

Is that a dovetail flange for the focuser?

If you have access to an engineering shop for machine work could you not come up with an adapter to fit the flange left on the scope and with the thread for the focuser of choice?

How did you mess up your bias frames?

It's noisy because the background noise (bias signal) is dominant due to such a short exposure. The only way to overcome this is to expose for longer or shoot many many more subs, which will then require some time on your PC for processing and stacking. Orion is a bright target so you really don't need to go higher than ISO800. Are you shooting from just a tripod with no tracking?

I already have NINA set to focus if temp changes by 2° and star HFR increases by 5%. Also a refocus every 30 mins anyway using the L filter which usually only takes less than 2 mins. So far it has worked very well and even if I only gather an hour or 2 of subs, I have a full even set of data across all filters. I do prefer the OAG but I would prefer nice smooth guiding even more. The idea of changing back to guidescope is it will become fully independent of any movement by the focuser which is causing the issues you can see above. I should have the adapter from FLO tomorrow so will find out if the Esprit finder is OK to use.

Perhaps for others, but for me I'm trying to gather a full data set each session. Also, if I done something like that, it's 6 autofocus routines and hour, so say 12 mins per hour, or 1 full hour of autofocusing per 5 hour session! It all adds up!

Here's a better example of what I'm taking about. Those spikes are my filter changes and subsequent focuser movement at minute intervals. So clearly this method of using filter offsets is problematic for an OAG unless your willing to compromise with long settle times. I digress though, this thread was started to see if anyone used the Esprit 9x50. Hopefully I will be able to demonstrate that with use of the adapter.

It's the Esprit 100 and using NINA. I'm not focusing. It's using a predefined autofocus step size (offset) for each filter. For example, I shoot a 60s Lum sub. The filyerwheel then changes to Red and the focuser moves 25 steps to account for the different focus position. During all this, PHD is guiding away merrily with the OAG but the focus movement is picked up as either a sudden star movement and/or the star profile changes size due to either moving in or out! I could add a 10s settle time after any focuser movement so it settles before imaging again but these 10s add up with each filter change and autofocus would take much longer as well. It goes against the idea of using the filter offsets to gather as much data as possible in a session! Anyway, I've looked at the Esprit finder and it's essentially a slightly shorter 9x50 than the normal one you get with a 200p for example so I've ordered one of those C adapters that let's you add a guide camera to the end. I'm hoping it's short enough where I can install a helical focuser and still get focus. If its 180mm focal length, it should work.

Hi Adam, I haven't seen (or missed?) you post on here for a while so good to see you back with a nice image!

That's pretty good for just 3 hours with the Atik!

That was how I 'traditionally' done it but fed up of gathering half the data needed each season due to weather! It's not even an issue to be honest, but I'm just wondering if the Esprit 9x50 has been used as a guidescope as I've got one in the box doing nothing.

Has anyone used their Esprit series finder scope for guiding? If so, how did you fair? Secure enough in the shoe? Adapters needed to fit the guide camera? Reason I ask is I'm considering this as opposed to my OAG. I have started using filter offsets to capture data one filter after another without refocusing each time. So every filter change invokes a small movement with the focuser and my OAG is picking this up and I get a little spike in PHD with this. So far it hasn't caused a major issue but its a slight annoyance all the same. Those spikes you see are about one minute apart every filter change and focuser movement.

I would also argue for an OAG on an SCT.. In the meantime however, I would also say it needs to 'bed' in a little as it's new. My AZEQ6 seemed to perform a bit better after some use. With everything off the mount, turn it on and slew it all the way round and the same in reverse in both axis to get a good spread of grease on both sides of the gear teeth.

The EQ6R and AZEQ6 both have optical encoders on the RA axis so that's how it probably knows where to start the PEC corrections but I couldn't say how accurate it is. I use GSS and was happy with PPEC correction at first but I've found it to be too unreliable and the mount can behave strangely with it on. Now I just use PHD's algorithm which kicks in after a couple of revolutions of the axis each time you start it.

Yes guiding all the way. I had an iOptron CEM25 and though it was a good mount and could perform very well, I did have to open it up to adjust belts, grub screws etc. To me, this is an acceptable compromise for a mount that cost me £700 new but I would really question the QC you get on one of these considering the premium you pay for the EC versions. Esprit 100, while not a long focal length, it's a heavy scope and I need 2 counterweights on my pier mounted AZEQ6 to balance it so I would question the CEM40EC's ability to manage that as well without guiding. As mentioned above, get a small 32mm guide scope and an ASI120 mini and give guiding a go with your current mount. If guiding isn't for you there's always someone who will snap up the camera and guide scope.

Not bad?!

ENS Optical will be the official UK dealer with stock inbound..

Thank you Peter! I'm quite pleased with how it's came out with less than 2 hours per channel.

OK, seeing it now on my phone screen and it does look a bit green..Let's roll it back a little.