Enceladus Dan

I did think of swapping the RA and Dec worms. I read that backlash is less important in RA as it is continually driving. Just a bit daunting where I'm new to all this and wasn't sure if I would make things worse. I did pluck up courage to remove worms and clean and re-grease them. I used geoptic grease, the grease I found inside was really sparse and had some metal pieces in it. Probably from the gears being cut at factory.

I think it's because both the worm and ring have areas that are tighter. I can reduce the backlash but I get binding. If the worm didn't have any tight spots I could adjust more out. I'll look into proper measurements to get real figure. Thanks Danny

Thank you for a fast reply, is there a way to measure it? By eye imaging a clock face the free play moves from 12 to 1 maybe just after before any movement happens. Thanks Danny

Hello, Looking for some advice on my Dec worm gear. Since getting my EQ5 deluxe in June, I have been having issues with tracking. I thought it was my PA, but I have found out both RA and Dec have tight spots. The Dec also has a point in every rotation of the worm that binds. After doing some adjustments to both I'm now happy with RA having no tight spots and very little backlash. However because Dec has issues with both the ring and worm I can't reduce the backlash as much as I would like without getting binding. As its only 5-6 months old should I tell FLO? My opinion from looking into this is most of the skywatcher mounts have these problems. I feel quite lucky the RA is pretty good. Or should I try and make a certain area of the Dec as good as possible and avoid the areas that bind? From what I have learned Dec worm normally moves a max 90 degrees. So if I mark the slow motion knob where the worms tight spot is I can set it to the opposite side before guiding. Regards Danny

My chart definitely wasn’t like this lol. It looked like my mount was having a heart attack. But even so it did guide 5 mins. I can only get better at the setup and get my error lower. My Dec was more like the RA in this pic, possibly the bad backlash in Dec. It doesn’t help the worm having a tight spot as well as the ring gear. thanks everyone I am over the moon now and eagerly awaiting clear dark skies.

I picked up a 50/200mm guide scope and an asi462mc, while testing my smoother RA I added them to my setup for a quick test. A bit finicky but I got there and the result was. Let’s say magical. I aimed for 5 mins but due to only setting up camera and IR remote not Wi-Fi to app on phone it was 5.5 mins. this one was 5 mins, happy as Larry. Now I can’t wait for a clear night without the moon. My biggest issue it seems is work life+ home life +British weather all playing ball at the same time. I do need to test some new balance now too as guide scope and cam made it rear heavy.

Hello all, I thought I would come back with some updates. Perfect advice, I was able to do 3 minutes and the V was less than half my frame. Although I assumed out the box it would be nice and smooth, it turned out I had tight spots and backlash in the Dec axis and tight spots in RA. I stripped, cleaned and re-greased the ring gears and worms(wasn’t much grease there). The Dec axis some bad backlash and has a tight spots in the ring gear and the worm as it was getting tight every 360 degrees of the slow motion knob and about 120 degrees of the axis is tighter. In RA luckily it’s just the ring gear that got tight about 180 degrees was stiff and no backlash at any point. now RA has no tight spots and little to no backlash in the looser areas. But Dec has bad backlash and very sloppy in the looser areas, I may readjust to minimise in the loose areas and try and avoid the tight spots. The result? After a quick alignment and test exposure I have doubled my length from 45 secs to 1.5 mins. it’s over exposed even at iso 400 as the near full moon was high and bright.

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This is my entry of M42 taken on the 02nd of November 2021. I`ve only been doing astrophotography for 5 months and still and learning the ropes, I think I need to focus more on learning to post process. Taken in Bortle 5 with my 150pds on an unguided EQ5. My camera is a stock canon EOS M3, as it doesn't have the port for an intervalometer I used the canon camera connect app and an intervalometer app on my phone. 60x 45 s lights at ISO 800 30x 45 s Darks 68x bias 56x flats. Stacked in DSS and processed with Gimp. Thanks Danny

With the weather being the typical uk weather I have been doing A lot of reading, in between making a storage box and case for my telescope and gear. I also made a diy dew heater controller and now trying out my own diy heater pads. After much spiralling and going round in circles saying if I just go a bit more I can get…… getting way out of control. I have settled on the following. ASI462mc with a ZWO 850 ir pass filter Astro Essentials 50mm guide scope. the hope is that although an ASI120mm mini is cheaper and more than capable the ASI462 has very high QE ( I admit I had to google what this meant) at close to 100% in IR making it almost the same as a mono cam is used with IR pass and guiding with only IR light. Then I can also use it as a planetary cam with its fast frame rate( a lot faster than the gpcam 2 I was originally looking at) and also as a dedicated Astro cam for small targets with its high sensitivity. I will then get the M3 swapped for a 600d and send that for its mod to use on the large objects, lastly I’ll keep an eye out for a cheap second hand ASI 120mm just to guide my ASI462 when I use it for planetary and dso imaging. thanks for all the info everyone. Danny

Hiya Astromuni, How did the asi224 effect your FOV? I was looking to keep to APS-C sized camera as my current camera and the 150pds only just frames some DSO objects. I used astronomy tools to see what I would expect so was skepical about even dropping to a 4/3rd sensor. So I was planning to stick with DSLR for the time being while I figure things out. A 600d is pretty much free with trade in, then it’s just mod cost while I learn the ropes. Maybe the plan could be to keep the 600d for larger brighter objects and a 4/3rds dedicated for other objects. thanks Danny

I will wait for advice as don’t want to jump in again with my own decisions and be wrong. I did see that bundle too and cheaper than the Astro Essentials 50mm f4 guide scope and GPcam2 I was planning on but if it works I can dual use the camera for planetary and guiding. thanks danny

Hiya Rob, it’s good to hear my issue is solvable. guiding was on my cards, now it may be something to get sooner than planned. I’ve only been into this a few months and my collection of equipment is growing more than I initially thought lol. I had looked into a planetary cam to use for guiding too and had come up with the Altair gpcam2 290c, is this good for guiding as I read mono is better but if I can I want colour for planetary imaging. thanks Danny

Thank you, some good food for thought. I have much to think about now, but most importantly I know it’s not the alignment or camera. Now I learn to work with it and I don’t need to spend hours retrying polar alignment over and over. first I’ll trade the camera for the 600D and go guided, give myself some time to learn and see how much my laptop drains my power pack. At home I can use an extension but I’m limited to 3 hours from 1am to 4am due to street lights. I’m waiting on permission to go to some private land in a bottle 4 out of the city with no artificial lights around. next will be the leap to dedicated Astro cam, I’ll spend my time with the 600D looking at astro cams and if dropping to 4/3rds sensor size will be ok or save for APS-C sized one. Another subject I have much to learn about. thankyou everyone, much appreciated Danny

Thank you, I think this was another error when I was first looking into what I should get. When I planned my set up I looked up the weight capacity on skywatchers website as 9kg and the OTA was 5.5 so I upgraded the EQ3 to the EQ5. Now looking again I see there are posts saying for AP we should not go over 6.5kg. so this will need addressing, I’ll keep plodding on with my journey and keep an eye out for a HEQ5 maybe second hand but at the moment the ones I see are only just cheaper than new. Could be because of waiting times for new. thanks Danny

The thought had crossed my mind but I put a 4/3rds (based on a hypercam 294 pro camera) into the astronomy tools fov calculator and large dso objects like andromeda, orion etc don't fit. They just fit in my aps-c crop and astro cams with aps-c i found came in quite expensive to the hypercam. Worth their money I'm sure but too much for me now. 600D is almost straight trade for the M3 so just the modification cost. Or get some money off the 77D / 6D I'm tempted with. If I think sensibly, I should get the 600d for little actual cost and use it to learn more before diving in with a more expensive camera be it dslr or dedicated. But I've not been that sensible since I took this up in June lol.

Thank you, makes me feel better now. I thought I was loosing to many subs, eventually I’ll go guided but I want a better camera first then get it modified. This was the reason for the 5 mins as my M3 has the hybrid AF sensor and when looking into cameras I saw lots of posts with strange dark lines caused by the hybrid AF. So I was trying to make my m3 do it to find out if it can be avoided. But I never got an image with the dark lines. now I’m looking for a 600D or a model after the 800D like the 77D etc. thanks Danny

Wow, sounds so simple to diagnose when explained like that. So I opened stellarium on my phone and orientated so same as my image and moving the time moves andromeda in exactly the direction of the trail. So it’s periodic error or drive train if I’m understanding this right? this one will need to be permanently stored with other stuff learnt so far. Thank you this tip. thanks Danny

On my attempt at drift alignment, did I get the instructions right? Following a guide but was aimed at AZ mounts so I kind of just did what I could on my EQ Mount. thanks Danny

I’m planning to add an Aluminium bar to the top of the OTA rings for a dew heater controller and telrad to sit on. Might add a p clip to hook camera cable to and some Velcro somewhere on the Mount for the cables.

Thanks, next time I’m out I’ll try disengage the motors and use the slow motion controls see if it feels smooth, hope so as it’s only a few months old. Cables I use a dummy battery and the cable drops to a power pack not tied just hanging loose not touching anything. maybe the weight of the cable I can zip tie it up loose see if helps. thanks Danny

Hello, I am unguided at the moment as I’m new to astronomy, photography and astrophotography so all a big learning curve as just started in June this year. I have the EQ5 deluxe with enhanced motors, using a 150pds. I hoped it wasn’t the alignment as most 1 mins were ok, I aim to be able to reach 3 mins max but tested to 5 to try figure out a banding issue with the Hybrid AF sensor. I was thinking of getting a 760D which shares the same sensor as my M3 but uncertain if I’ll get lines so now thinking of a 77D. thanks Danny

I just thought of tracking and you found this wonderful info, thank you

Has tracking motors been known to cause any intermittent shake? I have the EQ 5 deluxe with enhanced dual axis motors. thanks Danny