Dave2292

How long is some time ago and do you have the receipt, I had something wrong with my optics on my explore scientific scope and explore scientific themselves paid for postage to them in Germany and fixed it for me. I do believe the scopes have like a 10 year guarantee, might actually be longer.

Hello again, Just wondering if people have any tips for balancing a light telescope on my Heq5pro. The reason I ask is because the axis on the heq5 pro are stiff enough to make it difficult to find perfect balance, as the explore scientific Ed 80 isn't heavy enough to make it easy to notice, with my heavier scopes it's incredibly easy to do. The reason I suspect the balance is off is due to poor guiding with phd2 (polar align excellent with sharpcap) , after calibrating and using guiding assistant. Appreciate any help and time taken to read this.

Okay so this is bizarre but it seems to be working fine now, not really sure what happened but thank you for the help anyway man.

I would ignore it if the mount pointed correctly at my target after doing the star alignment. yes the alignment is successful, the 2nd and 3rd stars are pretty much bang on, I get the warning and then it takes me back to the star alignment but if i choose to ignore this and try and slew to a target, it isn't even close. It's strange I had recent issues with Cartes du ciel. where I would sync on a star, slew to my target for the night and take a test shot but it would so far off. It was working fine for a good year with Cartes du ciel with a lynx astro cable and a year before that using the handset. It is bizarre , ive had the mount for a few years now and done lots of astrophotography using either the handset or connected to my laptop using a lynx astro cable. Just when doing astronomy I like to use the handset. well before my laptop had some issues, it was actually acting very strange when using Cartes du ciel (after a year of perfect working). Thinking about it now it was probably doing the same thing but not as bad, I would sync to a star and then I would slew to a target but it would be off by so much I could not see the target at all or recognisable stars in a test shot. I will be trying again tonight with Cartes du ciel and see if it is accurate.

Hello and thanks for coming to this post. So I currently have a problem with my skywatcher Heq5 Pro mount, after I do a 1, 2 or 3 star align and the handset says successful alignment it gives me this 'caution previous NPE is applied'. It then goes back to the start of the start alignment where I have to chose either a 1, 2 or 3 star alignment, if I ignore this and try to go to an object it is completely off target. I have tried factory resetting but that hasn't helped. Any help is appreciated, thanks

hmmm just tried a single session of the pinwheel and they are still there, going to try the other session and see what happens. thanks so far

it is strange, the way i use deep sky stacker with groups is like this (as deep sky stacker is odd) main group has my bias master and then each group after includes its separate flats and lights (don't use darks) the top image is two separate sessions unfortunately.

Here is a much better example, this includes about 4 groups with there seperate flats and stacked in different groups within deep sky stacker

Here is a an overly stretched image as a quick reference, they do get worse than this in some images but i haven't saved them. what i think i may have noticed is the more sessions i add to deep sky stacker from different nights and different flats for each group, it seems to get worse

hello, i have an issue with what i am assuming is my flats, they seem to leave an almost indent looking blob where the dust would of been. my flat taking process is as follows: slew telescope to point straight up stretch white t shirt over top apply light box at a low setting put dslr in AV mode and use backyard eos flat mode to capture flats now i do refocus slightly mid shoot as the temperature changes but i have read a few times that this shouldn't cause any problems. i can add a picture if it helps. any help is appreciated, thank you for reading.

That's interesting about the reducer, thanks for that info as I was thinking about getting that in the future.

I have asked them a while ago, they didn't seem to know, if I remember correctly they said it'll be fine with the noise piece but definitely getting some kind of tilt.

Hello, i am just bumping this thread as i was wondering if anyone knows of an adapter to go between the extension tube on the explore scientific ed80 and the stella mira field flattener with the 2 inch nose piece removed (female m48 thread) . the extension tube thread which needs an adapter is a male thread with the diameter of 52mm (using a tape) . hoping someone has done this to their ed80 on here. thank you

Try the monkey head nebula, I tried that as my first target with my modified dslr

Hello, just wondering what the best reducer and flattener there is for this scope. Many thanks

Yeh almost what I'm on about, as the current dovetail that comes with the es ed80 means when it's perfectly balanced, the focus can't be rotated. Might try some washers or something similar.

hello again, just wondering who has used this scope before and what they done to be able to rotate the focus all the way as currently i cannot as the focus knobs hit the mount (heq5 pro). is it just a case of getting some tube rings and finding the best spot for them to hold the scope, or maybe making the scope sit higher? any help is always appreciated cheers

hello guys , sorry for not replying in a while but ive started doing my flats using the AV flat mode on backyard eos and using an art light box instead of my laptop, seem to be getting better results doing this instead of using the histogram on the back of the dslr. thanks everyone though

i checked out that ASTAP software, analysed some of my recent flats and the 'background' level is only around 2500, im assuming thats the ADU? is this really low or am i missing something here, can see all the dust spots really well though.

Thanks for the replies,will look into that siril program as looks perfect. Apologies for the late reply. Cheers

Thanks for the link, shame it mentions pixinsight as damn thing requires me not to use a Hotmail account haah gonna try use apt flat aids. New software but from the sounds of it, it's better than backyard eos.

hello there I've been searching the interweb with no success, i need to find a program that will measure the adu of my flats which isn't too confusing. i'm currently exposing to half way on the histogram on the lcd display of the dslr(canon 1300d) I've read that this doesn't work correctly and i should be basing how far to expose using ADU values, i have no idea how to find these. I use backyard eos for capturing lights and darks but use the dlsr functions for flats. any help will save me pulling my hair out, thanks haha

So I want to calibrate on a star that is as low as possible and South? Thanks for the reply

I calibrated on the end star in the big dipper and the only warning that popped up now and again was the max ra duration was too low but I bumped back that back to default. I calibrated on the end star of the big dipper and yeah using eqmod with the cable from first light optics. I did use the guiding assistant for about 5 minutes and used the suggestions. Thanks for all the messages, this has ruined two nights for me haha I have tidyed the wires up considerably as well and the only error I got was the max ra setting wasn't enough, which I restored to default. Thanks again

hello just a little question, whenever i guide looking at something in the northish direction PHD2 guides really well but if i am looking in any other direction it is horrendous. the mount is a heq5 pro, polar aligned using sharpcap pro and the balance is as perfect as i can get it any ideas? thanks for reading guys