woldsweather

My neighbour has many years experience of using PHD and he can't get anything.

Yes I'm wishing I hadn't posted that image we tried every conceivable level of gain and low exposure. Just got a fainter image of the above.

I've done that these past 4/5 evenings but I've always given up and switched to Polemaster. Its not in focus and it doesnt come into focus by the normal means. There have never been any stars showing in PHD's screen but as I'm new to this I didn't realise there should be. I have wasted the whole winter 6 month period over this.

PHD won't hold a star at all. No stars show on the PHD screen and SharpStar is very poor at finding stars.

I have the same issue with my GPCAM guide/finder scope. It was new 6 months ago. I have never seen a really sharp image with it. Is this likely to be a collimating issue? Altair GPCAM2 130 Mono Guide Imaging EAA Camera Altair 10x60mm RACI Finder Scope Altair 72 EDF Refractor with CNC Dual Speed R&P Focuser Optical Test Report - Add 1.0x Flattener:Add Flattener, Choose Version:Deluxe CNC (Imaging) EQM-35 PRO mount

BY thumbscrew do you mean the 3 screws holding the camera in?

I did this again last night but it stopped tracking after that.

I havent successfully got guiding working yet.

I'm not using a right angle corrected image I have the GPCAM on instead of the corrector and eyepiece.

Its the Altair 10x60mm RACI Finder Scope . Ah yes the camera does rotate extremely easily. I have been caught out by misting up but I have a dewband on and regularly check. How do you get around the problem of the image rotating out of view when you try and focus?

No I have never heard of the pin hole in foil method. I shall give that a go though thanks. Tonight I have the moon to focus on so I was going to start with that before it got dark then move on to a star. I wasn't guiding when I swapped out the SD card. I obnly discovered it hadnt been tracking this morning when I downloaded the lights. So no I didn't reselect tracking. I don't know if the device went to sleep because as I say I only discovered this morning it hadn't been tracking.

Last night Sharpcap wouldn't work at all. A couple of star images on screen were very blurry so I decided to find a bright star and use the Bahtinov mask. Unfortunately Sirius is below trees by the time its dark so used Capella. I have grown to really hate the helical focuser on the Altair GPCAM . There werent even the expected 3 rays to centre, it was just a blurr. You turn the focusser to sharpen and the star image moves with the focusers rotation. Before you know it the star has drifted offscreen any way as the mounts not tracking at this point . Eventually my hands were so cold I had to give up on this and PA with P{olemaster. That done I did 2* alignment (when sent to the first star - Capella in the west the scope slewed towards the Plough. I manually centred Capella the went to 2nd star and Procyon was nearly centre frame. I them went to M86 and to a 30s exp. Huge trails. Mount clearly not working. I went into the synscan app and clicked on tracking and it showed the RA and DEC reading as they were changing. It had commenced tracking. After leaving it an hour taking 1min exps I came back out and swopped over the SD card to have a look how it was doing. The 1 min exp,s were fine. THis morning I have just looked at the second batch of lights after I had swopped out cards and the mount had stopped working - huge trails. Would it be expected that by replacing an SD card you have to ensure tracking is running? If there is such a thing as a guidescope with a rack and pinion focuser I'd be very tempted.

I can't see anywhere whewre you input the date?

Mount is EQM-35 PRO

I still can't find this park option.

O rightio O maybe I'll see it tonight thewn when I start using the pro I had thought I was using.

Can you explain how to do a 3 * alignment? My synscan app only has 1 and 2* ?

Apparently I had both synscan apps on my phone and wasn't using the pro though someone said this didn't matter. C;lear skies tonight and I think I have sorted a back focus issue so getting there slowly.

I havent been using it this morning. It doesnt always point to the ground, recently it jst moved a very tiny amount from the home position.

I have input the lat long positions now they were pretty close. My phone says no location sensor which seems odd as it works fine as satnav or walking with OS maps.

Just checked I had Synscan pro installed and I had but also Synscan and I had been using this rather than pro the last 6 months. Don't know what difference that would make. I can't find anywhere in Synscan pro to put the date/year

I just went to download it and I already have it on my phone. How do you use it then? Does it make sure synscan is using the right data? Do you run it every time before you run synscan?

Many thanks for the detailed response I shall print off and work through it.

When you say making sure the mount home position is correct can you explain? I am very familiar with where Polaris will be in my garden and even setting up in a different part of the garden I usually have Polaris visible in the polarscope from my first guess. I have never used the hand controller hust the app and am familiar with that. It would be another learning curve starting with the hand controller. My neighbour who has 60+ years experience watched over me do the PA last night and was happy we had a good PA. Then a 30sec shot of M86 showed long star trails - the mount wasn't even tracking.

The mount is an EQM-35 Pro