david_taurus83

Not sure what's causing this on your lens but I used to own a William Optics scope that had 3 similar spikes on bright stars. Its fairly common and I think on the WO scopes anyway, it is/was caused by lens retaining clips at the edges. I have also seen examples of this on pictures taken with Takahashi scopes. I had a Samyang myself and never noticed these artifacts though I never shot below f4.

19 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

You need to download and install the prolific USB to serial drivers from Skywatcher even with the USB cable.

By the way EQMOD is not necessary then. At least NINA works with the native skywatcher driver just fine.

That's interesting. So you don't use Eqmod at all? It doesn't get called up when you connect the mount? 

29 minutes ago, tomato said:

I blind solved the image successfully with Astrometry.net and then used the co-ordinates of a named star in the FOV to try and solve it in the PI script, but it still wouldn’t have it. 

In the results page on Astrometry, you can download your solved image as a fits file and the coords are already embedded when you open it with PI. I just used the Annotation script without solving it again in PI.

You have the mount and you have a modded camera, so maybe look at a scope? What budget do you have? 

Also, would the parallax difference be much between our locations in the UK?

18 minutes ago, tomato said:

Thanks for this, it could explain a lot. This is the site where I obtained the co-ordinates from for my local time and location:

https://unistellaroptics.com/observe-jwst/

Maybe not the most reliable?

Is that my image you have overlaid the grid? May I ask how you solved it, as I couldn’t solve it using the Pixinsight Imagesolver script no matter I hard I tried.

I've just checked that website v Sky Safari for my own location and it's currently 2' out on RA and 8' on Dec. So not far off. A decent fov should be able to grab it.

I also couldn't solve in Pixinsight. I used nova.astrometry.net to blind solve and once it gets the result you can download the image in fits format from the table on the right hand side. I didn't know you could do that until this evening. Wasted half an hour with Pixinsight solver. A bit daft how it can't blind solve.

Where did you get your initial co-ords to aim for? According to Sky Safari it should have been at RA 06H-11M-06S, DEC -00°-16M-01S around that time and its just outside your fov.

1 hour ago, scotty38 said:

You don't need a fancy cable, EQMOD and ASCOM drivers are all you need along with a bog standard USB cable.

I just set up a new mini pc to control mine (AZ-EQ6 but essentially the same) so will dig out the links i used to set it all up again

Start here for ASCOM:

https://ascom-standards.rg/    Link at the RHS for 6.5SP1

Then you need EQMOD:

http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/eqaindex.html

and follow the links to download or just go here direct:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/eq-mod/files/EQASCOM/

I think that should be all you need then in Cartes du Ciel or whatever choose the ASCOM HEQ5/6 driver.

I tried to use a normal USB on mine the other week but it didn't show up in the COM ports. Any ideas? My EQMod cable is a bit too long so was wondering how to use with a shorter USB cable.

19 minutes ago, Rusted said:

Although the dealer ultimately has responsibility for quality issues it doesn't help if the distant manufacturer demands a return to base.

I had a failed, completely unusable ZWO camera: The German dealer required the camera be sent back to China for analysis.

Doesn't the dealer have any responsibility for obvious flaws within the nominal guarantee period?

I would argue that such behaviour does not satisfy the spirit of EU/UK Consumer Law.

I suppose it would depend on the fault. A consumer should never have to repair a product that's covered under warranty. That said, a lot of us would, for example, be able to replace a fan that had stopped working on a ZWO camera. Only to save sending it away and being without. Most dealers should be able to do the same and offer warranty on the work. If its something more complex like a failed sensor or blown circuit board, it may need to be sent back to the manufacturer. For something like the leaky sensors, ZWO at the very least should have offered to reimburse their dealers to accept returns and cleaned professionally. I know FLO will do this and Altair also for their own brand. ZWO's stance though is, or was, that consumers should do it themselves and risk damaging/scratching the sensor. With customer service like this, I for one will be staying away from their more expensive products. 

3 hours ago, Rusted said:

Rather spookily [?] YT recommended a couple of videos about irregular jerking of a harmonic drive mount. Dec first and then the RA.
The mount was accepted back by the dealer after abut a year. [Lazy Astronomer channel?]

That was Cuiv and his Hobym Crux 140 mount. I watched those myself last night. As I understand it, Hobym use the Harmonic branded strain wave system yet they still had issues. After Cuiv sent his back they must have had more complaints as Hobym done a recall on up to 30% of that model as they had issues! Apparently it was only the Crux 140 that was affected and none of their other mounts. Reading up in the Crux 140 they claim if PEC is used the PE can be brought down to +-5 seconds which is impressive. Remains to be seen how good the ZWO attempt will perform given it is nearly half the cost of others in the same class. If somethings too good to be true and all that..

I have to say, in regards to Remote Desktop v VNC, I find VNC much more reliable. Since I first used a RPi to my now preferred mini PC, VNC viewer has never let me down. The weak link with them all is definitely wifi and a wired ethernet connection of some sort is better. I have my mini PC in the shed with an ethernet connection to the mount, but I use a powerline adapter indoors hooked up to the router and it sends the signal out to the shed via electric cable just fine. 

Have a look at this video from @rorymultistorey

He looks at sub £100 options but gives you an idea of expectations.

Is there no website or animation showing its current orbit/position?

6 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Out of interest, what are the stats on RST-135 - P2P periodic error and guide performance?

(given that it approaches in price to a serious mount).

About +-30". From their website:

1 hour ago, Space Hopper said:

I think we should cut them a bit of slack.

The OPs photo at the start of the thread shows the mount in use and i'm sure its been tested thoroughly since prototype and pre production.

If problems are forthcoming been now and release (April 2022?) it will be delayed.

I'm glad to see more of these HD mounts coming out. It means prices will fall and thats a good thing for us consumers.

Given their response to the 'Oilgate' scandal, basically suggesting customers need to clean their own £2k+ cameras at their own cost, I wouldn't cut them any slack. How do you think they'll handle disgruntled customers who find these new mounts don't perform? And we all know how how demanding we can be with our kit.

Your not alone with your experiences John. I have similar feelings..

Anyway, Atik are finally releasing an APX26 so I shall be saving my spare kidney for the necessary cost of this and larger filters 🙂

36 minutes ago, Jezphil said:

Hi

 

Thanks - I am using an ATIK460 CCD monochrome cam.

Can't say I've seen this effect on mine or any other 460's. Below is a single sub but no sign of microlensing.

Are you using an ASI1600 or similar camera with same sensor? This is well known issue with this sensor and bright stars. Yours doesn't look too bad though. I have seen worse! Still a great image. Nice, tight stars!

Regarding the proposed 91% QE. Isn't this peak around the green/OIII wavelength? The more important Ha QE is more like 60%? I think this point gets lost in all the hype.

For the length of time it's taken me to read this thread and the links, I could have shot enough flat darks to do me a couple of years 😁

Wonder if there is actually any real benefit to those though. I'd say yes to small worm bearings and needle bearings. If it was me doing it, I just like to be thorough and do them all, that's all.

Has anyone ever been brave enough to try and remove those inner bearings? 

Just had a skim through their FB page and could only find one person that's posted example pics of the 26M. The colour version is much more popular. Stacey tries out Altair cameras on her YouTube channel so it might be worth sending her a PM on the other forum and see if she's had hands on experience with it. 

1 hour ago, gilesco said:

JWST will not orbit the Earth, it will orbit the sun at L2, it is unlikely that if anything goes wrong, or if something doesn't work that we could do what we did with Hubble and go out and fix it.

Yes, I know that but it is still essentially a satellite launch, albeit a very expensive one! 

I honestly think (and hope!) everything will be OK. They are basically launching a satellite which is built on current knowledge and experience. Sending rovers to Mars and getting them to work seems much more complex.