Vega

Hi I have an EQ6 GOTO Pro which is several years old now. I’ve been experiencing some play in Dec when the bolts are locked. Please see attached video. This is me able to slightly move Dec with my hands while locked. Since recording the video, I decided to put the cover on the scope and the DEC head slipped completely around (when still locked). 😩 Does this require just tightening some screws somewhere? Any help greatly appreciated. IMG_3049.MOV

Hi All So having updated Stellarium to 0.20.1, I double checked that there wasn't a new version of StellariumScope too. I then read on the website "that Stellarium supports ASCOM telescopes natively since version 0.19.3. There’s no need to use StellariumScope in order to use your ASCOM telescopes with Stellarium anymore" "Fantastic" I thought to myself! Went right in to the Telescope Control plugin and there it was, an ASCOM option. I selected my EQ6 mount form the familiar Ascom drop-down menu and connected fine. Slewing and ctrl-1 ing everywhere. However, when I tried the sync (ctrl-3) option... nothing. I realised that StellariumScope used to put the three entries in the Telescope Control panel #1 Slew, #3 Sync and #5 Cancel. Now I just have the one local, ASCOM entry that I created with ASCOM. Here's what StellariumScope used to set up in Telescope Control (as External software) Has anyone managed to get a Sync option working in Stellarium without the use of StellariumScope? Thanks Matt

Hi I'm just looking for some second opinions on software for polar alignment. I've been looking around at software such as SharpCap, Kstars etc. Most of them however recommend a field of view of at least 1 degree... So here comes my problem. The only camera I have that can take video is my trusty Philips ToUcam (my current guide camera). I attach this to my Skylux 70/700mm guide scope. Needless to say, this provides a small FoV of about 0.3 degrees. Would this setup still work for these softwares? Is 0.3 deg a lost cause ? Any other recommendations? I'm trying to avoid doing the drift alignment method which is so painful and timely. I've polar aligned using the EQ6's polar scope so far. This is for the purposes of imaging rather than observing. Thanks Matt

Hi all sorry for the late report back... blame the weather. We'll what can I say. Stargazerslounge never disappoints! Thank-you all for your sound advice. I would probably have not thought of the tightness issue on the mirror. I can now achieve perfect focus. Confessions time, it appears I had tightened the screws as far as they could go. Having loosened them all round and had another go I could see an immediate improvement. Zooming in to 10x on the DSLR live view however still showed the spiking affect. I took it all apart again and loosened each holder until I could see a clear gap, then slowly tightened until barely touching the mirror. I was worried this wouldn't secure the mirror enough but it certainly does keep it solid regardless. Mounted it back up and tried it on a mag 3 star. Perfect focus! Thanks again

Will un-tighten today and report back tonight... oh wait clouds rolled in of course! 🙄.

Thanks for confirming Steppenwolf. Will loosen them first thing tomorrow! Shame I missed a gorgeous night for imaging tonight. Jonathan, will certainly consider flocking

Ouroboros and MIkednight you both may be right. I tightened them quite tight from memory. It’s been screwed in for a few days now. I presume the twisting I f the glass will not be permanent?

Please help, very worried astronomer! After 12 years of use, I cleaned my primary mirror the other day taking great care not to ruin any coatings. I researched and followed several videos and guides online. I submerged the mirror in a bowl of luke-warm water with one drop of fairy liquid diluted. Let it soak then rinsed. Then used an individual cotton wool piece under it's own weight for one, smooth brush across the mirror in one direction. Repeated this with new cotton wool until the whole mirror was cleaned. I then did the final rinse with de-ionised water and left almost upright to dry (most water drained off right away anyway). I put the mirror back in the back plate and all back in it's place in the original orientation (used markers for this). Next I re-collimated all seemed fine. Got it bang on. Anyhow, after trying first light tonight, it seemed like I could not achieve focus (see video below). This was my DSLR attached to the scope on 3rd magnitude star Almaaz. When getting close to focus, it appears to develop streaks then goes through the focus point (star does not appear to reach true focus), followed by the streaks again in the other axis. The out-of-focus circle appears to look more like a hexagon rather than a circle. New video.mp4 I've also taken a photo of the primary mirror before treatment, after and now in the scope tube. If you look closely on the third image, I 'think' I can see faint streaks across the mirror from each cotton wool clean. Obviously being a flash photo you can see every speck of dust on there but this is to be expected. My worrying questions are: -Is my mirror ruined? -Should I attempt to somehow remove the streaks? -If so how? -Am I missing something and something else could be causing the focusing issue?

Thanks Paul, interesting report I had a quick try with my 10” dob... I *think* I saw it by hopping from u aura Maj, h Ursa Maj then to a little isosceles triangle that ‘points’ right to it. Desperately ain’t in the 2” 40mm EP. Not any better in other EPs. No AC power to the EQ6 at the mo. I used to have 12v solution now moving to AC (AC to 12v cig lighter supposed to be coming from amazon tomorrow but not sure if it will come since the announcement in the U.K. tonight). hey ho might try again in a week or two unless C/2019 Y4 decides to outburst. Anyone else have anime more luck?

How about THIS for a photographic challenge! I'm game, anyone else?

Very informative post. Thanks for that. Here's some info on viewing mars this opposition.