AstroNebulee

Just a refresh on this thread. I had binding issues mainly with my azimuth axis was free on a quarter of the mount then the rest binding when turned. So followed these instructions and a video on YouTube to fit a plastic washer out of a margerine tub lid and greased it up with some white lithium grease. When doing the grub screws back up you have to be careful as tightening to much binds the axis so getting the balance is key. Tested and it rotates using the app and so much more free movement. Whilst I was about it I undid the locking ring on the alt axis as this was stiff but not binding and greased this with white lithium grease also. Now both axis are moving so much better can can push with one finger. Whilst fitting the washer I check the meshing of the azimuth axis motor and this was fixed and not working with the spring so left this as was, the alt axis was working on the spring so left as is. If any issues I'll make the spring work on the azimuth axis. It left the factory like this so maybe the fixed mesh on the azi works well as my goto was/is great. Just waiting on clear skies to test it out.

It's so much better, not tried it in anger yet but hoping to tonight. The scope feels much more solid and stable now.

Reckon another 2 hours yet

Can I stay awake long enough, overtime work is tiring 😴

This little beauty of an upgrade for my az gti mount arrived today from Auntie @FLO. Now my scopes will be well secure and no more marking my dovetails to pieces. Now just to regrease the worm and cogs inside with some white lithium grease and maybe fit a plastic washer to RA axis to stop some minimal binding and she'll be perfect. I can even fit my big losmandy plate on it should I want to. 😍

I have used the baader solar film for all my homemade solar filters and just sandwiched between two rings of card and a tight fitting cardboard collar works a treat and can always tape the collar to provide an even tighter fit.

Same here

Thank you, I didn't think of that one. I think I'll stick to the 72ed and canon 600d on video mode now it seems to be the best. Thank you for your advice as I was going with the skymax 127 until now. 😊 now should I try to capture video through my dslr to laptop or just take single frame by frame?

Thank you Alan, I was thinking that but just wanted to gauge an opinion on it. Like you say there might be more going on around the sun or moon at the time

Hi In anticipation of the partial lunar eclipse on 10th June, I have booked a day off work and now am wondering which scope to set up on my az gti mount to image the event with my canon 600d in video mode. I have all the solar filters for both scopes and fs. I know my sw skymax 127 would give better detail but also quite tight in the frame and not sure if I'd miss anything going on around the edges of the sun or , whereas the my sw 72ed evostar can easily fit it all into frame, but I'm wondering will I miss the detail to much. I'm attaching a screenshot from astronomy tools FOV calculator to show you what I mean. I'm leaning towards to the evostar 72ed which most likey seems the most obvious.

This is my prototype so far. I may get longer thumb screws so it clamps onto the small tube of the polar scope but I like the look of it so far.

These rings, dovetail and bracket arrived today from fellow member @Second Time Aroundwell packaged, smooth transaction. Thank you again Steve. It will form part of a project to attach a polar scope to my az gti.

Yes it's very similar I'm trying to replicate as I think mounting the polar scope on the wedge side and not mount side will provide much better polar alignment and stay put. I'm trying a combination of dslr l bracket fitted to wedge plate then az gti on top of that. Then a cheese plate on the short side of l bracket to fit a dovetail clamp the fit a set of 2 rings onto a small dovetail a fit polar scope inside that. All parallel to the mount as it would be fitted there but keep still. I'll provide a drawing of what I mean after work. But think this'll work well

OK maybe I should of phrased it better I guess. My apologies

This is my dslr connected to the back of my skymax 127 as John says which I forgot to add has a sct thread on it.

This may seem like the daftest question. I'm going to try and fit a eq5 polar scope via rings onto a bracket. Most of the placement positions I've seen for the polar scope are mounted onto the actual mount. So when the mount moves in the RA axis the polar scope will also. So is it better to fit the polar scope to the wedge instead as this doesn't move with the scope, it stays fixed on polaris. I hope this makes sense

You can screw the t adapter for your Canon straight onto the back of the scope and then attach your dslr as this is what I do. A batinov mask would be handy for focusing. I just use an old lif with hole in it pushed onto the original focuser and works perfectly.

Will do. I can't feel any movement/backlash when inserting an m12 bolt and trying to move it so maybe a good bit of grease will help but maybe a plastic washer under both lock nuts in both axis. What's prophylactic greasing?

Hi Peter Thank you for that links. I've not seen the first video but have seen lazy geeks one. It's due to be cloudy, wind and rain for the next week, so I think when my lithium grease arrives I'll give the gears a regrease and check if there's binding and use a plastic washer. Maybe I was tightening the clutches to much the past few sessions as not had the tak tak before and getting regular 30 subs and satellite trails were straight lines, some of the trails in the past 2 sessions had slight wavyness. At least I wasn't the only one to experience tak tak Thank you again

Hi Bill, welcome to SGL, such a lovely, friendly, helpful place to be for all things astro. I'm hoping to get to Lanzarote in November all being well, taking my dslr with me to hopefully get some great astro shots. The Canary Islands are a beautiful place and some great skies. Good luck obtaining your scope, clear skies 👍

I've had my az gti mount since the 12th January and gets a good but of use since then. Every now and then I hear a tack tack sound when tracking an object, I tighten both clutches (how tight do these have to be) sometimes I can loosen them off a bit and the noise stops but then how well is it tracking? I used to reliably get 30 sec subs with star trailing in az mode as I don't have wedge or counterweight yet for eq. I get the bubble in the centre on the mount whilst setting up and get scope level and North, it gotos very well and that part is perfect. Just this tack tack. I have some white lithium grease coming and will probably have a look inside to see if the spring is to loose or tight as this could cause it maybe. Just wanted to know if others encountered this. It's a beautiful mount and I love it to bits for my circumstances for portability with my sw 72ed. Clear skies and thank you reading this.

Eeeeek 😬, you could experiment to see, light pollution filter or light pollution removal tool for your software may be available, I know colormancer is a good free noise reduction software that I use with photoshop, whether it works on gimp is another thing, clear skies and good luck 👍

I have had 3 clear night's on a row here in North Cornwall on Thu, Fri & Sat so tried to make the most of it for the last bits of galaxy season. So my final offerings before the rain, wind & cloud gods descend here tonight is M63 The Sunflower galaxy and NGC 4631 The Whale galaxy & NGC 4656/57 The Hockey Stick galaxy both 120 x 26 sec no darks, 20 flat and bias, stacked in dss and processed in ps using my sw 72ed AzGti Canon 600D. There's a cheeky 10x26 sec sub of M13 but will give this a proper go next time unless I image more galaxies 🤔

Hi I'm not sure as I don't own this mount but once polar aligned it should give you a couple minutes maybe more exposure time and iso of 800. The focal length of your scope is 400mm I believe so should achieve a longer exposure time with the tracking the mount provides. I could be wrong though, someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Great capture there, especially with manual focus and no batinov mask. I use deep sky stacker to stack my files and photoshop to process so can't advise on your software processing. But you've made a great start and I to am trying with no darks and the final image is a lot better as long as you take lots of light frames. I'd definitely recommend getting a batinov mask makes focusing so much easier and quite cheap to purchase. I'd also say you can crop the frame in a little as they may help you, the stars are a little eggy, so maybe cut the exposure time down or adjust your PA (what mount are you using) but still a fantastic cadprure seeing the arms of the galaxy, just keep plugging away and enjoy what you do because as soon as it becomes a chore you wont enjoy it. clear skies 👍