Jamgood

I bought a used HEQ5pro from someone on here and it was a decent mount to start with. Regular guiding of 0.8 which is more than acceptable but in my mind, I was always going to do the belt mod to it. A week later it was done and it now guides at 0.4/0.5.  How much of a difference you'll notice with those numbers I really don't know but I know I have nice tight round stars and that's what's important.

The sound was never an issue for me as the mount is outside and I'm not but the noise reduction was huge. Those gears are noisy little buggers.

Slewing is not really any different but settling after slewing is much nicer. Tracking is much smoother. No sudden spikes during corrections.

I say it's a worthy upgrade to make the mount the best it can possibly be without sending it away for some crazy hyper tuning or something.

If you do go for it, buy the pinion extractor as well. It'll save you a lot of time and you won't have to put much cash in the swear jar. Took me 30 minutes to do both motors after watching a few video's so I knew what I was doing well ahead of time. (Before I owned the mount in fact)

I use to run my HEQ5 via a 30ft 12v extension cable, it only received 11 volts and it never skipped a beat. I've since change a lot around and now it gets a steady, regulated 12v and still doesn't skip a beat.

I can't see how increasing to 13v+ will make much of a difference. There will be a min/max power for the mount to work sufficiently and as long as your supply is within the boundaries, it should work fine.

That's not bad at all. The secondary mirror could be tweaked a little but for observing, that should be pretty decent.

Fantastic! Well done.

Still hanging on in hope.....looking up into the gloom.

Clouds to the left of me, clouds to the right. Here I am stuck in the middle with a telescope waiting patiently in hope. 😐

1 minute ago, rnobleeddy said:

Yeah, leaning to giving up (near Notts). The met office app had the skies clearing at 10am, then 11am, then noon and now 1pm. 

Not to worry - I'll just have to make sure I make it to the next one!

Same in Derby. Not even a brief glimpse through the clouds. 

1 minute ago, rnobleeddy said:

The met office forecast still has clearer skies as the morning goes on. I was able to see the sun for a brief moment but not long enough to align either, although it's now that I wish I had made a filter for my finder scope - it was easy enough to find the sun on my test run, when there was not a cloud in the sky!

Exactly the same issue here. Can't find the damn thing!

4 minutes ago, AbsolutelyN said:

Cloudy here in Harrogate but we just got a tiny gap with about 10 second totally clear and managed to gab this.

 

Awesome!

Clouded over here completely. 😒

Watching two live streams. 

Can't see a thing. Got the scope set up and pointing in the direction but only seeing clouds here.

Very nice. Just done a 6 panel mosaic of the Veil Nebula myself. Great target.

Two nights worth of data so far on my first 6 Panel Mosaic of the Veil Nebula. I'm really pleased with this so far. I've also learned a few new processing tricks along the way. 

10x300sx6 Light Frames (50mins Per Panel) Cooled -10°
40 Darks
40 Flats
40 Dark Flats
Sky Watcher 130PDS
HEQ5 Pro with Rowan Belt Mod
ZWO ASI294MC Pro
TS-Optics GPU Superflat Coma Corrector
Optolong L-Enhance
Orion 50mm Guide Scope & Orion Star Shoot Auto Guider
Pegasus Powerbox Advance
Astro Photography Tools & PHD2
Astro Pixel Processor & Photoshop

Started working on my first Mosaic last night. 4 panels of 30minutes and 1 of 10minutes. (I ran out of time to do all 6 as the sky started to get bright) Looking forward to adding to and working on this.

This is straight from APP. No extra processing as yet.

I got some practice in today in preparation of clear skies.  🤞

On 05/06/2021 at 14:05, johninderby said:

Looking a bit iffy in Derby. 😕

Fingers crossed for a clear part in the middle of all that cloud.

On 04/05/2021 at 16:56, bish said:

I booked the day off work for this, so expect cloud. Sorry.

Me too.

Have you calibrated your polar scope?

Many, if not all, are way off from the factory. 

That is correct. You should see something like this.

A quick google of the William Optics adapter you have linked says that it is:

• Optical length: 37mm

Should be just right. 👍

I think it depends on the cc and the connection. Mine is 55mm at m48.

Baader is 55mm at m42 and 57.5mm at m48. 

You'll just have to double check with whatever you choose and get appropriate spacers in the correct thread to make up the difference. You can get sets of m42 and m48 spacers in all different sizes.

The ASI294MC comes with enough adapters to put any CC at 55mm, as that is the standard for most, so it was literally just plug and play for me. When I had the Baader, I used it with a Canon 60Da. With a Canon, the back focus to the sensor is 44mm. Add a T Ring at around 11mm between that and the CC add it gives you, roughly, 55mm. Maybe a few spacers needed to fine tune.

I have no experience of Sony cameras, sorry. I don't know what that back spacing on the Sony is.  You can measure it though. 

The little marker on the camera indicates the position of the sensor. (Red Arrow) Measure from there to the flange (Orange Arrow) and then you need to make up that distance to 55mm, obviously including a T Ring. So for example, say the sensor to flange distance is 18mm, plus an 11mm T Ring, you would need to make up 26mm before a CC in whatever connection you're using.

Hope that helps a bit.

44 minutes ago, Vroobel said:

Hi Jamgood, it's me again. 

I have read on the linked page that there is a camera connection through M48 thread in the cc. Does it mean that I have to buy T2 ring as it's not included? Was it ready to work after a purchase? 

Thanks.

Tomasz. 

If you use use a DSLR, you will need a T2 Ring with M48 connection.

I've only ever used mine with the ASI294MC and connection was not an issue right out the box.

It isn't cheap, you are right but I wish I knew about this CC before I bought the Baader. I would've spent the extra and saved myself a lot of confusion and messing around. I got the Baader when I first started Astrophotography and although I did get good results with it, I always had to crop my images because it never gave round stars all the way to the edge. YMMV. Some people are very happy with their chosen CC's. My experience of the Baader was hit and miss drom one night to the next.

As for visual, I have no idea. I've only ever owned the one telescope and I've never put an eyepiece in it and looked through it. People find that strange but I've never had the desire. My viewing site in my garden is surrounded by so much light, I figure it's a waste of time and Astrophotography is all I wanted to do from the get go.

1 hour ago, Vroobel said:

Where is your focus position with the cc in comparison to setup without the cc?

With the Baader, my focus position was very far in. Regardless of the focuser attachment I was using, there was a big chunk of the path taken up by the focuser tube protruding into the OTA, leaving Pacman or D Shaped, stars. (I don't have any images of that set up)

With the TS Optics CC, the focus is pushed outward by roughly 20mm, give or take. My focus point now has no focuser tube protrusion at all.