JamesAstro2002

Update: If anyone was curious about what this could be, it was down the the belt. I had to take it off, flip it around and adjust the tension again and the clicking was gone. Glad the drop didn't cause any damage!

Just gathered a few more test frames, that weird coloured blob seems to be moving across the frame?! Now another bright blob around Vega has just popped up! These are some nasty looking reflections, but I don't know what's causing them. L_0009_ISO400_120s__20C.CR2

Luckily enough, tonight is a decent clear night so I've been able to do a test run. Stars are looking nice and round all the way to the corners now, so you were correct, thanks a lot alacant! Do you have any idea what that odd looking thing is under the bright star? I'm guessing some sort of reflection. Looks like I have a slightly twisted spider vane as well.

Hi people, So I've been a bit of a fool and managed to drop my entire HEQ5 Pro mount head on my foot (Ouch). I was carrying it upstairs 'attached' to the tripod so I could make some adjustments to the DEC axis since there was a slight amount of play. So I set the tripod down and bam, the head rolled off and landed right on my foot. Silly me didn't realise the head screw wasn't done up all the way! So I gave it a test to make sure it was okay, got the hand controller out and moved it in both RA and DEC and it seemed fine. Then I decided to proceed with what I was going to do in the first place, adjust the worm gear engagement for DEC since there was a bit of play. After following astro baby's guide, I can hear this awful clicking sound when rotating the DEC axis a certain direction. I've attached a video below to show what I mean: HEQ5 Video.mp4 Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, I really hope I haven't messed it up too bad. Cheers, James.

Yeah I know. But the clouds rolled in quickly so I only had time to quickly look at polaris out of focus. I did briefly view the star in focus but it still looked to have that fringing on the edge, but the clouds soon rolled over so I couldn't tell properly. I thought that the out of focus star test for collimation was supposed to look the same in the edges as it does the center ? It looks to me like the dark circle has shifted slightly when at the edge of the frame. And I've already cut off some of the focusser, looks like it may need a little more cut off as you suggested, though. Hopefully I'll get a longer patch of skies tonight so I can actually test the stars in focus. I just assumed that the out of focus star test looked bad at the edges - but we'll see. Thanks for helping out :).

Well this is not the result I hoped for 😕 star test at the centre: And at the edge:

Great. Now I just need to wait for the sun to set, cross my fingers and toes the weather forecast is correct for once and the sky will be clear. Thanks again for helping out.

Not sure why the image didn't attach in the previous message, but here it is.

Sure. Okay, I've adjusted it again, this looks better to me, not sure if it's perfect..

Okay, thanks. Does this look any better?

Yeah, true. As I was doing the collimation with the cheshire, I noticed that as I reeled out the focusser, collimation slowly went out! This is with the focusser all the way in: And all the way out: I'm guessing this is due to some tilt in the foccuser or something?

Right. Have you got any other ideas in mind I could try before getting out under the skies for a test? Thanks for taking your time to help me out so far.

Oh right, okay. Thank you. Hopefully there should be a patch of clear skies tonight so I can give it a test.

Hopefully this shows what I mean. No matter how loose I make the screws, the clip will always drop down and rest on the surface of the mirror. Which I'm guessing is wrong, seeing as you said I should be able to slide a sheet of paper between the clip and the mirror.

Yeah the clips still touch the mirror, I could only slide a sheet of paper between the clips and the mirror if I lift them up, otherwise they fall back and just rest on the mirror's surface. I'll just send some pictures to show you what I mean.

Okay, cheers 😂. Though, I'd have to wait another year until I'm old enough to legally buy them, lol.

Actually, I just thought. Could I take off the black plastic bit on top of the clips, then put them underneath so they act as a spacer so the clips won't touch the mirror? If that makes sense, lol.

Thanks. Just tried that, but still, they fall back and touch the mirror.

So I just tried looseing the clips more, but no mattter how much I loosen them they still come in contact with the mirror. Almost looks like there should be a spacer to raise the clip so it doesn't come it contact with the mirror.

Oh okay, thanks.

I'm still thinking that my star shape problem is because of the mirror being pinched. Do the clips need to be touching the mirror or not ? Because I have loosened them but they still touch the mirror.

Yeah, the focuser can be a pain at the best of times, lol. Guess I just have to play by it's strengths. That focusser does look a bit of a tank!

Yeah, a moonlight would be great. Hmm, interesting. They seem perfectly tight to me already, though.

Oh right, okay. I've tapped an extra thumbscrew into the focusser as well, so I would've thought that would help with any tilt that may occur.

Okay, thanks for the response. I should probably mention i'm using the Skywatcher Coma Corrector.