f300v10

Not as bad as I had feared it might be, and easily corrected with flats.

I recently obtained a 130P-DS from FLO as SW doesn't sell these state side. I paired it with the new Starizona Nexus 0.75 reducing coma corrector and shot this first light last night. Camera was a ASI2600MM with 2" filters. Two hours total LRGB:

Knobby, I run a C11 XLT/ 0.64 Starizona Reducer-Corrector / Celestron OAG + ASI 290mm / ASI filter wheel / ASI 1600 mm as my primary imaging system riding on my EQ6-R. Typical guiding is 0.6 to 0.65 arc seconds RMS. Under good seeing I have gone over an hour at 0.39 arc sec RMS, including dithers. The net focal length of my setup is 1840 or so, so slightly less than the C8 Edge, but also much heavier. I think you would be fine. Scott

Dawn, Do you have limits turned on in EQMOD by chance? If they are on and default to stop the mount at the zenith that may explain your issue. If this is the case you can either turn them off (could be dangerous), or set them to allow the mount to go a safe time/distance past the meridian before the limit stops the mount. Sorry, just noticed you had this issue post flip, not before flip right? I would still double check your limits aren't set right at zenith. For the plate-solving, make sure you have the EQMOD sync set to 'Dialog mode', not append. Scott

Just to reiterate, using units of arc-seconds RMS is preferable when quoting guiding accuracy as it is the same for all users and hardware configurations. Pixels on the other hand are hardware configuration dependent, and explain why you would see numerically larger error on a system where the guide system used a higher image scale (arc seconds per pixel).

Are you quoting your guide error RMS in arcseconds, or pixels, as PHD displays both. I always use arcseconds as it is the same unit in all cases, while pixels depend on individual setups. I have also found my guiding accuracy actually improved when using my C11/OAG when compared to my ED80 with guide scope. My typical guiding with the guide-scope (300/60 mm, asi290mm) is around 0.8 arcsec RMS. When using my C11 + reducer /OAG (1850mm focal length) I get 0.6 rms typical, and as low as 0.4 with good seeing.

CTRL-SHIFT-1 all at the same time syncs for me using the 0.19.3 with direct ASCOM. CTRL-3 was the stellarium scope equivalent.

I've had good luck with the C11 on the EQ6-R. I use it with a focal reducer, so the effective focal length is 1850. My typical guiding error is between 0.6 and 0.7 arcsec RMS, which I view as very good for a mount in the price range of the EQ6-R. As far as buying recommendations for a used C11 I'm afraid I don't have any tips for you. I bought mine new and am happy with it.

Also check that the screw tip is not caught behind the black plastic insert inside the counter weight. That happened to me once, and I kept tightening the screw but the weight just kept on slipping. The plastic ring had shifted and the screw tip was pushing on the plastic rather than making contact with the counterweight shaft.

My C11 imaging rig is at the high end of the weight capacity of the EQ6-R, so I use the maximum amount of weight I can at the top of the shaft, and a small weight further down for fine adjustments. My guide error with typical seeing in this configuration is around 0.65 arsec RMS, and 0.4-0.5 under good seeing.

To minimize the load on the mount drive motors and maximize your guiding performance, it is best to use a higher amount of counterweight at the top of the shaft, rather than a lower amount at the bottom. The reason for this is that while he righting moment (the force that balances the scope) goes up linearly with distance from the point of rotation, the polar/rotational moment of inertia goes up by the square of the distance. It is the polar moment that the mount must overcome when making guiding adjustments, so a lower moment reduces the load on the motor, and allows for quicker more accurate guiding adjustments.

Make sure the pulse guide rate is 0.5 or above in your EQMOD settings. It often defaults to 0.1, which is not high enough and will cause issues when PHD2 attempts to calibrate due to lack of star movement.

Not sure if you still need this answer, but I believe the EQ6-R worm has 180 teeth. That value comes from the below page in the EQMOD docs. From what I can tell the EQ6-R and the AZ/EQ-6 GT share the same drive components. http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/prerequisites.html

One other thing I forgot to say, it is best to tune your PHD2 settings on a target fairly close to the celestial equator, something with a DEC between +/-20.

Droogie, I sounds like the mount was not responding enough per PHD2 command as my calibration step is set to 600. Check your ASCOM PulseGuide settings in EQMOD by clicking the icon of the wrench with three red >>> symbols. My RA and DEC rates are x0.50, min pulse width of 20 and a DEC backlash of 0. If you change any of these values you will need to force a PHD2 re-calibration. Another thing to try is running the PHD2 'Guiding Assistant'. It will evaluate your setup and suggest setting changes to improve it. Hope this helps. Scott

Droogie, I believe EQMOD gets the date/time from the laptop and uses that. I don't use the handset at all, so I can't say what if any data it can pass to EQMOD when connected through the handset. I can say that when using the EQDirect cable you must enter the lat/long of your observing site into EQMOD. It will persist the location you enter so you only need to do that once unless you change your observing site location. As for the Alignment points I believe those would populate if you did a normal star alignment and synced the location with EQMOD. As you say you will not need to do that as long as you are plate solving to the target via SGP. You have several options in terms of what plate solver SGP uses, which one have you chosen? I use the locally installed ansvr since I don't have internet at my observing site. It has worked very well for me: https://adgsoftware.com/ansvr/ Clear skies and let us know how it goes. Thanks, Scott

Droogie, Your setup sounds very similar to mine as I use EQMOD and SGP with my EQ6-R. With the mount connected to the laptop via the EQ direct cable I don't bother with any star alignment. After polar aligning with SharpcapPro and returning the mount to the 'home/park' position, I simply start SGP, connect to the mount and run the sequence. It slews fairly close to the target, plate solves to within my pre-defined error limit and done. SGP will then automatically sync the final position back to EQMOD and any subsequent slews are usually spot on. If your EQ6-R is anything like mine you will love the results. Last Friday I was able to use the mount under near perfect conditions, with no wind and better than our usual poor seeing conditions. With my 32lbs of scope + cameras the mount averaged 0.53 arcsec RMS over a 4 hour period according to PHD2. Can't really ask for more than that. Scott

javaruba, I just looked at the photo you uploaded of the voltage reading with the power tank attached, and as you know its already below 12 volts. It will only drop once higher load is placed on the battery. Thats the issue here, the EQ6-R really needs a higher voltage than a lithium Ion 12volt can supply. If you pull the voltage meter back up on the hand control and slew the mount with the arrow keys at max rate, you will see the voltage drop. Once it hits 11.0 or less the mount will stall. The higher starting voltage of a lead acid battery avoids this problem. I'm using an 18 amp hour sealed lead acid and have powered the mount for over 6 hours in below freezing temps without issue.

javaruba, I had the exact same problem as you describe when I first used my EQ6-R and I to was powering it from a large Lithium Ion battery. Mine stalled exactly as you describe, as documented on page 4 of this thread. I replaced the lithium battery with a sealed lead acid model and have had zero issues with the mount ever since. I used the sysnscan hand controller voltage meter function to monitor the voltage while slewing the mount. With the lithium ion battery the voltage would start at 12, but when slewing would drop, and once it got to 11.0 volts or less, the mount would stall. The LED light on the mount would often stay on solid and not indicate an issue by flashing. The sealed lead acid battery has a higher voltage at over 13 volts and is a better match to the requirements of the EQ6-R.

Took the new MN190 out for a spin near the house to see how it worked with the EQ6-R. The mount handled it with apparent ease. It was a bit gusty at times and the wind did have more impact than with the refractor due to the shear size of the MN190. Guiding was around 1 arcsec RMS or below when the wind was down. I'm not a big fan of globular clusters but M15 was near the meridian so that's what I used as a target. I think the collimation was just a little off but not to bad.

Thanks for the info Marc2B, I should be at least a couple Kg under 17. As for the power source I found that out the hard way when I first got the mount as documented earlier in this thread. No issues since I upgraded to a higher capacity battery.

Neil, Luckily I won't be approaching the stated payload limit of the EQ6-R as I expect an MN190 + my imaging gear would top out at 16kg, short of the rated 20kg. My primary concern is maintaining the excellent guiding results I'm currently achieving with a much heavier scope. The moment of inertia will certainly be higher on the MN190 as the heavy bits (lens, focuser, camera and mirror) are concentrated at the far ends of the scope. As you point out this could be both beneficial in resisting high frequency movements, but slower to respond to guide inputs. I guess I won't know for sure until I try it myself. Thanks

Wow that's an impressive amount of weight for an EQ6. An MN190 should be easy compared to that rig.

Thanks mikey, I figured with the extension bar two weights would be enough. The 'conventional wisdom' for photographic payload on a mount is 1/2 the stated max payload value, which would be 10kg. I have seen the EQ6-R rated as 20kg for astro at several sites, but would like to hear from an owner with actual experience above 15kg.

I'm considering the purchase of a SW MN190 Mak/Newt as my second imaging scope. It is much heavier than my ED80, at close to 30 lbs with camera. I'm wondering if I would be able to balance that heavy a load on the EQ6-R using only the two 11 lb counterweights that came with the mount, or if I would need to add a third? Does anyone in the owners club have experience with a 30+ lb payload on their EQ6-R? Thanks