M40

There you go...

I just like the single lucky snap thing so can't really comment on if it improves stability for imaging. What I can say though is that when focusing, plenty of vibration comes into play. I have changed a few things in that I now have a steeltrack and lakeside motor focuser fitted which is a vast improvement over my shakey hands, that setup I can definitely recommend. Likewise I am trying to gear up for live viewing and as far as stability goes I haven't noticed any challenges there as yet. The other thing I have noticed is, to my mind anyway, the horizontal level of the mount is more important than the vertical level. The machining of the extension tube ends are not perfect, as such I struggled to get the vertical level of the mount aligned with the vertical level of the extension tube so I ignored it and just concentrated on the horizontal level of the mount. I got a piece of 5mm thick rigid plastic material, cut a 62mm hole in the right place with a slot for the north peg and stuck it between mount and tube. The size of the plastic was such that I have room to place a level on it without the plastic being too large so it hits the mount or telescope during operation. Hope this helps.

I know where you are coming from, it's quite a balancing act. There are a number of material based luggage straps that can be used or maybe some heavy duty cable tie's but I can offer a slightly out of the box solution. I bought the HEQ5 extension tube and when bolted to the HEQ5 it raises the height of the mount to just below shoulder height. Strangely, I find it far easier to fit the telescope to the mount at that height. Using the extension does make the mount heavier but it also makes the polar scope easier to use and it's a doddle to level the mount as you can simply put a bubble on different faces of the extension tube. A straight through finder is a requirement as well. HTH

I haven't checked but shouldn't you be using the sysnscan pro app with the eq mount?

Found the polar alignment post..... Here's my routine for polar alignment and it works on the basis that your finder is set as good as it can be, so align your finder and telescope on a star at night rather than a daytime object. Before you start, make sure your polar scope is aligned correctly with your mount. Set the mount to it's home position. Plonk your telescope on the mount and using the lowest value eyepiece you have, center polaris in your telescope and your finder using the polar alignment adjustments. Rotate the telescope the 90' so you can see through the polar scope. Hopefully polaris will now at least be on your polar scope target area. It will be brighter than the other stars in your polar scope, now just carry out the polar alignment as normal. There was a superb post on here recently and I kept this link, have a look as it works well and is easy to follow.... https://darkskies.space/easy-polar-alignment/ Hope it helps.

This is my method, bit long winded and I am not sure how much of it will translate to your mount but it's a mechanical setup before you do anything else. Once you have it correct, I just marked the positions on the mount so it very quickly be set to the home position.. I shall find the link to the PA I use. Setting Home Position on HEQ5: 1. Position North tripod leg to face North Celestial Pole (Polaris) 2. Set and level tripod 3. Position motor so that the weight bar is at lowest point and pointing to the North 4. Set the telescope mount so that the telescope locking knobs are to the right 5. Extend weight bar 6. Stand facing ON/OFF switch 7. Release RA clutch lock, rotate body anticlockwise and set body and weight bar to the horizontal position 8. Level with bubble and lock RA clutch 9. RA graticule scale is located adjacent to the polar scope cover 10. Release RA graticule locking screw. 11. Adjust graticule scale to show 12.00 against marker 12. Release RA lock 13. Rotate body clockwise until RA graticule scale shows 6.00 against marker 14. Lock RA clutch lock 15. Release DA clutch lock 16. Rotate telescope mount clockwise so that the telescope locking knobs point down 17. Level telescope mount 18. Lock DA clutch lock 19. Declination graticule scale is adjacent to the weight bar 20. Release the two Declination graticule scale screws and rotate the scale to show zero against marker 21. Retighten the two DA scale screws 22. Release DA clutch lock 23. Rotate telescope mount anticlockwise until the DA scale is at the 90’ position 24. Lock DA clutch lock This is the home position. Telescope should now be in the following position: North leg pointing towards North Celestial Pole Weight bar at lowest position and pointing to the North Celestial Pole When standing facing ON/OFF switch, Telescope mount knobs to the right RA scale shows 6.00 DA scale shows 90’

When I first started using the HEQ5 I frequently had the telescope pointing in the wrong direction for the first star. It proved to be user error in setting the mount home position. Once I realised the error of my ways the mount now behaves, so first off, can I suggest you start with making sure the mount home position is ok. Next I found I had to do numerous corrections on the fast moving solar system stuff, this proved to be polar alignment. Get them two sorted and I think the rest will fall into place. As Padraic M said, if the hand controller is available start with that if you can. I can help with finding the home position on an HEQ5 which may translate to your mount, post away of you would like my method likewise there is an excellent polar alignment method on here, post away if you would like me to find it. HTH.

I had a challenge recently where the reticule wasnt showing in the correct position. I found the eqmod software time/date was different to the Stellarium time/date; I think I have cured it by making sure they were the same but I am not 100% convinced as the two still show different i.e. stellarium still shows "j2000" date whereas eqmod shows current date. So it would be worth checking that the Stellarium telescope module configuration time date is the same as in your telescope software. HTH

Hello and welcome to the site 👍 Can I suggest that you start off by getting yourself a planisphere and load stellarium or similar on your devices. A planisphere is a very simple and useful sky map that you can just take outside and start to familiarize yourself with the constellations and the night sky. Enjoy

Nope wasn't that. I did notice that the eqmod software was configured to the "now" time whereas stellarium mount was configured to the "J2000" time. I changed stellarium to the "now" time and it started working. Not 100% convinced though as the stellarium telescope module still shows the "J2000" time, but hey, it's working at the minute 🤣

Thanks Spile, not heard of that one, I will give it a look.

After watching a few of Martins Astrophotography youtube video's I thought it worth mentioning an alternative method of remote connection to the mount. One challenge I had was being able to polar align and do star alignment remotely from the laptop as I haven't yet got to using sharpcap etc. so I needed to do this locally from the handset. I apparently have a version 5 synscan handset which has a usb port and requires a typical printer type usb cable. Earlier versions of the handset have a serial type cable which came with the handset but you may require a serial to usb adapter to connect to your laptop. Install all the eqmod and ascom software as Raf said but rather than use an eqdir cable use the usb port on the handset. If you are using the synscan gps unit, disconnect this from the handset. Carry out your polar alignment and star alignment using the handset as usual then when you have finished, go to the utilities menu and select PC direct mode, plug in the usb cable at this point. You can now move into the warm and use the controls installed on your laptop. Out of interest, the handset direction controls can still be used. Enjoy

Many thanks Laurence, I shall let you know tomorrow but my money is on you being right as I was selecting a star and slewing to the selected object rather than using the telescope icon.

Hello all, In stellarium when you connect to a telescope, there is a reticule shown. It used to track with the selected object but now it just stays exactly where it was when stellarium is first started. So after ticking and unticking many boxes, could someone point me in the right direction as to what box I should tick or untick please. Ta much

I think you have made an excellent choice in the Ultrastar, have you gone for colour or mono? I have recently landed a Lodestar x2 primarily as a guide cam but after lurking on the eea forums on the site I am now more concentrating on liveview and starlight live. Not achieved yet but I have started with the baby steps. Got everything set up the other night and just started with SLL and the mount battery gave up so kicked a few things went indoors and immediately ordered a power supply 🤣.

I have so many challenges with this, I don't know where to start... 1. I noticed as soon as you started the sun went in 🤣 2. What is that on the table? doesn't look like a beer to me..... Looking forward to watching how you get on. You are miles in front of me on the obsy build but I am a little in front of you in the remote control setup. 👍

Hello and welcome to the site 👍

Looks very solid and the roof looks nicely weatherproof to me 👍 How heavy are the roof sections? Looking forward to the next stage.

Looks good and a nice simple build👌 Out of interest, what height off the floor did you make the pier top? and in your 6 x 6 shed can you achieve about a 30' angle from mount to clear the shed wall?

The short term obsy is a flat pack epic 👍 the story continues indeed, keep us posted 👌

If you buy used we all like to believe we have got a bargain but currently there is room for manoeuver on the sellers part due to the extended delivery times for new; but an unboxed large telescope and mount? we are talking collect only, which limits your marketplace somewhat. Maybe if you can find a safe method of delivery and include that in your sell price you can then gain some wriggle room on your price. At £450 I presume its the 150P on the eq3? Maybe try it as a whole initially and see what happens, then offer each bit individually if there are no takers. Wish you luck

Just to add to the great write up, the FTDI driver did not install automatically for me, so downloaded the drivers and went through the process and it still didn't play. If this happens to you, go to the FTDI site, find the drivers and download the exe file, the file then installs the drivers and off it goes. Enjoy

Hello 2 scoops and welcome 👍 No such thing as a silly question and I know exactly what you mean, ask away, there are some very knowledgeable people on here. Oh and I had to google TLA 🤣 hope the following link helps Enjoy

Hello and welcome to the site 👍

Thanks Martin, I sort of guessed that may be the case but had to ask. The Skymax is not exactly suited to DSO so a bit of research needed there but chasing the minor planets sounds good. It's not really me at the moment to do classic astrophotography, live view and live stacking sounds just right. Still nothing stopping me from playing considering most of the software is free 😜