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Hi Dan,

Glad to hear I'm not alone. I wish I could get to 600s at the moment I cant do more than 15 without it causing some sort of star trail.

Really not a good situation, and very strange how phd2 seems to not be able to move enough in RA. Especially because slewing with cartes du ciel does usually work. 

Yeah I can move the mount about using the eqmod just fine.

I'll give it another go tonight.

Best, 

3 hours ago, Hughsie said:

What acquisition software do you use for capturing your images?

I use Sharpcap. It has a plate solving function, but I hadn't used it. So does something like Sharpcap or SGP sync with your other software like cartes du ciel? 

I'll have a google and see what I can find, however I think what you guys have just suggested is going to help me massively.

Thanks!

7 hours ago, Star101 said:

Not sure why you are getting this.

I would reset the configuration of PHD2, reboot the mount ( take power out and re apply ) Then recalibrate PHD2. 

I would also calibrate closer to the horizon than the high points of the sky.

That's what I did when I used my NEQ6 and it usually worked. 

Good luck.

Hi I'm not sure why I'm getting this problem either.

I haven't tried recalibrating phd2 yet so I will give it a go later tonight if I get a chance. 

Is there a way to confirm my mount doesn't have a mechanical issue as well?

Hi,

With my imaging set up it takes forever and a day for me to star align. Generally I spend 45 minutes aligning, which then means less time spent imaging.

What can I do to speed up the process?

Part of my problem is that i see too many stars on screen and find it difficult to precisely sync up to the right one. 

Thanks,

Hi,

Has anyone encountered this problem with PHD2?

It says that it cant make the necessary corrections in RA. 

Initially I had thought that it might be an issue of polar alignment, however this problem has cropped up on multiple nights. It's quite quick to come up, taking less than a minute for the error warning message to pop up, and then not long after it loses the star I was tracking.

It means that I cant take any exposures longer than 10 seconds, as star trails begin to show.

I am using a skywatcher eq6-r pro mount. The error message that comes up says that the problem may be caused by cable snags or a mechanical issue with the mount. I am sure there are no issues with the cables, the mount is only 3 months old, so I cant imagine that the issue would be with that.

Thanks,

1 hour ago, DirkSteele said:

Do you mean the water spots are on the rear surface of the lens? i.e the side facing the focuser?  If so, there is no quick easy solution for that.  Can you post some photos focused on the spots so we can see how bad they are?

 

Yes there are some minor spots on the surface of the lens facing the back (focuser).

They are quite hard to photograph properly. The finderscope picture I posted is a good indication of the problem for the main scope. 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have been drying out with the suggested methods as much as possible.

It seems dry for the most part. I'll wait a couple more days to power it on, really dont want to risk damaging the mount.

I have encountered another problem though. The lens inside the OTA has these kind of blotchy spotty watermarks left over from the drying water. Any suggestions on the best way to remove them? Best in mind these are both on the side facing the inner tube and the side facing outside the tube.

Hi,

I came back from a two week holiday to find that my telescope was sweating. There was a sheen of water on the whole setup including the mount, legs, scope, camera. Everything

I had left it in my garage for two weeks whilst I was away. I had covered it completely in a plastic tarpaulin. My garage/shed isnt air tight, but it had never been an issue before. From what I can there has been a steady two week build up of condensation that has been unable to evaporate because of the tarpaulin. 

The result is that I have water everywhere. I have wiped of most of it on the outside. But looking through the lens it would appear that I also have some condensation inside the inner tube of the scope. 

I am also very concerned re the mount, the chip could be completely fried if I run any power through it. 

Thanks,

Hi Guys,

Finally after some really cloudy weather we had a night tonight where the clouds were clear and I could take my new scope and set up outside and start getting to grips with imaging.

This isn't technically first light, but the times I had taken this scope out before was just to get my head round the various bits of software. So to give you an overview of what I'm using:

Skywatcher EQ 6r pro connected direct to laptop with EQMOD EQASCOM interface driving it using Cartes du ciel.  All of which was working fine till tonight. 

Here is the problem, after manually slewing the scope via the interface to a chosen star, lets say polaris, I go into my Cartes du ciel app and click sync and I get an error saying ra dec sync rejected. I'm not too sure why at all. My scope also thinks its near Meridian limits when manually slewing sometimes even though I know its pointing at or near polaris. 

After a little investigation I think a lot of it is because I don't park to a home position after I finish a session- perhaps. The day before I just disconnected the scope after I had finishing capturing some data. I take it this is not the the thing to do? That being said, what do I do now. How do I get my software to now know where it is properly and sync to stars correctly.

Thanks in advance,

Best