Joe84

Hello there, I have updated my AZ GTi wifi to allow for eq mode, but since then i feel the mount just hasnt worked but its hard to say as the skies have been terrible anyway. So i tried to update over wifi and it would never seem to work so i bought a mount to usb cable which updated the firmware first time with ease. But now it seems whether in AZ or eq mode the mount just doesnt want to do anything. I try to do an alignment it starts for a second then stops. If i connect to the pc via the usb cable and use the windows version of synscan the same thing happens. Even when just slewing randomly it will cut out and i have a circle in the top right of the app that spins around im assuming means lost connection or some ind of issue. for a while i thought the issue was wifi based but now im having the same issue with it wired im very confused. do i need to revert to an older firmware perhaps? currently on 3.33.A5 i think. Anyone had this issue? would really appreciate some advice, thanks a lot! Joe

I would never have known that, thanks for pointing it out to me!

Just a follow up, I had a bit of luck last night where my problem disappeared and then reappeared after i did something which made me figure it out. my telescope is in the spare room next to the radiator. as i open the window to take shots it gets cool air on it and softened my photos. So i took my telescope outside and tried again. Heres what i managed. a big improvement!

some great photos there! the shot of the moon in sharp focus is what i'd love to be able to get. i am very new at this and skies are so rarely clear where i am i struggle to get enough practice and when it is clear im never set up or ready so rush about trying to get things together haha Im going to keep trying and hope i can improve with this scope, then as time goes by i'll look in to buying one thats more suited to astrophotography rather than viewing by eye. thanks a lot for your input! included a photo of a view from my house not too dissimilar to yours haha, but also highlights a big difference in air quality can make to a clear image. This was with a phone taken over the eyepeice, but sometimes seems sharper than when my dslr is set up :S

plenty of travel as using a barlow to focus, the barlow is very good quality so i think its just the imaging limitations to my fairly cheap telescope. thanks for your reply

Yes i'm starting to realise this telescope while nice for eye observations just isnt up to the task of astrophotography. The mount is shocking and really doesnt like a camera added to it. Im going to keep trying for a bit and research which scope would suit my needs better. as with most things itll prob end up being a lot more expensive as is life haha thanks for replying

Thanks for the quick reply. Ive stacked before as ive done some astrophotography and used a stacker for that. I'll give RegiStax a try and see if it helps. Im so used to getting pin sharp focus with my camera lenses that maybe my expectations were too high? I'll keep trying and wait for better conditions to see what i can get, really has been so damp and the air is thick recently. Thanks again!

Hi Thanks for your reply! These are two examples that i ha to hand, but all my images tend to be soft in terms of sharpness. I agree it was quite moist humid albeit cold when the Baader photo was taken and it is a much better quality barlow than the other one i used. I wanted to show both as i feel the same problem persisted with lack of sharpness. So you think it could be related to the moon being low on the horizon? I think that could be an issue, but i never manage sharpness so im hoping im missing something like colimation. I have included another shot just to show again a softness. This hill top is about 1km away or more and shows the same issue. Do you use a reflector telescope?

Hi, Sorry should have uploaded as jpeg but didnt think about it at the time. Here are the two images again.

Hello there, I've started trying to take photos through my telescope. Its not an ideal scope for this but non the less its what i have and i am trying to make the best of it. So using my telescope it seems fairly sharp with my eye, but when taking photos i just cant seem to get it sharp enough! I've got a Powerseeker 114eq - with this prime focus isnt possible with a dslr, so im using a barlow to get an image. I have 3 barlows varying in quality but all suffer the same problem. I can focus with plenty of room on either side of where i would expect sharp focus to be, but never find actual crispness. neither via live mode on the camera nor once the picture is taken. Im fairly new and have never collimated my scope. is that related to focus? i mean i can see through it ok as it seems sharper to my eye than when i try to take photos but it could just be my eye thinking its sharp. I have a Baader Zoom Barlow and a Canon DSLR, both fairly quality items. so im left with the telescope being the issue. Any ideas or advice would be great! Thanks Joe I have included an image of the moon i took, it has been sharpened a bit in post but it still shows a softness. i have included another photo using a different barlow with the purple fringing as it more clearly shows the lack of sharpness. Moon Baader Full 2.tif IMG_2402.CR2