LaurenceT

Another shout for the 127 Mak, I haven't put it on my EQ5, just on an Az GTi and it's excellent for lunar/planetary visual and photography. I bought the 127 Mak with the Az GTi as a kit, it's worth noting that if you buy the kit the dovetail bar is fixed so that can be problem in using the 127 in different orientations.

I'm looking forward to more of this, I'm a beginner in processing but I have all the applications you are using already installed, I'm particularly pleased to see Affinity there. I bought this some years ago but haven't used it for some time. I've tried to follow James Ritson on Affinity for astrophotography but I find him too fast to follow clearly, while on that note, I agree with Steve above, please slow down a bit and explain your moves more clearly for old duffers like me!

Now I'm a complete newbie at all this but something just occurred to me regarding poor alignment after slewing. I have 2 EQ mounts , an AZ GTI and an EQ5. On the EQ5 it is possible to accurately set the Equatorial Home Position using the printed numbers on the mount, it is not possible AFAIK to do this on the AZ-GTI. I've never had any problems with alignment after slewing with the EQ5 but accuracy with the AZ-GTI is patchy to say the least. Hopefully someone with more experience can throw some light on this. edit: maybe this procedure is not necessary on the AZ-GTI because of the software.

My replacement AZ5 has arrived, there is a small amount of azimuth backlash that I can't correct but it doesn't really detract from performance. There is also a very small amount of rotational wobble in the azimuth that cannot be overcome by tightening any knobs but if it doesn't get worse I can live with it.

Thanks for the detailed replies.

As a comparative newbie I am confused about Clicklock systems. I use 2 scopes for visual, an Orion 80ed for wide field and a Mak 127 for lunar and planetary. Twice recently my 1.25" diagonal has done an abrupt rotation from vertical to facing the ground, luckily my Baader zoom eyepiece did not fall out but my heart rate accelerated immediately! I'm trying to get to grips with understanding the Baader system particularly in relation to the different systems I am using. My main question: is there one Clicklock device that will fit both scopes that I can simply slip my 1.25" diagonal into and can be transferred between scopes or am I faced with buying 2 different Clicklock devices. Thanks for looking.

Apparently the AZ5 replacement is already out of the door and their policy is to only replace like for like, fingers crossed then that this AZ5 is up to the job. At least I've saved some money!

Nothing said but it was becoming deficient in several areas, backlash, erratic azimuth movement and finally general wobble.

FLO have just sent me an email saying they are replacing the AZ5 with a new one. I'm pretty fed up with some of Skywatchers basic engineering and for a few moments was considering asking them to send a Scopetech Zero instead. However, the cost differential is considerable and the heaviest scope I'll be putting on it will be my Mak 127 so buying the Scopetech would probably just be a vanity purchase.

Absolutely right about the Asiair, complete game changer for me as a beginner. After struggling for months with Astroberry and Stellarmate I virtually gave up my astrophotography ambitions because of driver problems with both my Sony cameras making the learning curve an almost impossible mountain. The opportunity to acquire a used Asiair Pro and a used ASI533 mc pro has set me back on the path again.

Excellent then

Was that EAA?

I didn't know that, it will be very handy for me if that is the case, I thought it only functioned in az mode.

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Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone. It seems that far from making my life simpler and easier I would be doing the opposite with a mini pc, the point that @Cosmic Geoff makes about doing some stuff at the mount and trying to the rest remotely is valuable as is @catburglar's comment about frame rates. With a mini pc and an EQ mount I would still have to go through a polar align/plate solving routine before selecting my planet or the moon and track whereas if I simply reverted the AZ GTi to AZ mode in the Synscan app I could just select my target and slew manually, focus roughly and press the "point and track" button in the app. Sharpcap on my laptop will do the rest for me. If I was truly lazy then I could spend the mini pc cash on a used Az GTi mount and use that for lunar/planetary exclusively 😅. Once again thanks for all the advice.

Thanks for pointing out the power consideration, if it's 12v I can use my Nevada unit that I use as my normal power supply.

Thanks Stu, that's interesting. I've remembered seeing a guy called Masa Schumit on YouTube mounting a Mak 127 on an AzGti so maybe it's worth a try. As you rightly say balance is the key.

Interesting, have you a link to the Ebay unit you bought Ian?

Thanks for that. I hadn't considered letting the mini pc do the work I must admit. The unit you use looks good but it's too expensive for me at this time I had been looking at something like this: SNUNMU Mini PC, 8GB RAM+128 ROM,Intel Celeron J4125,Windows 11 Pro Mini Computer, 2.4G & 5.0G WiFi, 4K UHD, Gigabit Ethernet, BT 4.2 Desktop Computers for Office, Business, Home, School : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo I know I could use my Asiair but my lunar/planetary camera is an Altair.

Having now gone back to using my mount in EQ mode for sort of grab and go EAA I'm wondering whether my Mak 127 would be too heavy for the mount when used for remote lunar/planetary imaging. I know could strip the mount back to use as a right side mounted AZ mount but I'd rather leave it in EQ setup. I know I could use my EQ5 but the thought of literally moving the Az GTi and tripod out into the garden in one movement is very appealing.

I've now fully converted my Az GTi to EQ mode for sort of grab and go remote EEA but would like to get into remote lunar/planetary imaging. I would be using my Mak 127 for this and it's probably too heavy for the Az GTi in EQ mode even for relatively short periods of imaging compared to deep sky. I know I can strip back the mount to use as a right side mounted alt az mount but I'd really rather leave it set up in EQ.. A solution I've been mulling over is to use a NUC/mini pc on my EQ5 to send images via wifi to my laptop using Sharpcap remotely, I'm getting on in years and have an auto immune rheumatic condition and the prospect of sitting in the warm during winter nights is appealing! Although I'm an experienced PC builder I'd rather buy a ready built one but the price for an occasional use machine is off-putting. I read somewhere (maybe on here) about relatively cheap mini pc's on Ebay or similar and I've been looking at some. What I'd like to know is what minimum specs I should be looking at considering my laptop indoors would be doing the donkey work. Thanks for looking.

Years ago I bought several Olympus m43 bodies and lenses from them, all items had proper warranty and I was able to claim easily when a tele extender developed a fault. If I was in the market for gear they were selling I would buy again from them.

Thanks, I had seen that item but as you point out I didn't investigate because of the warranty problem. I suspect that if that carrier was indeed fractured like that then there would be zero AZ movement regardless of how tight the knurled knob was tightened.

Thanks for that, I did have a look at those 3 screws earlier and they do look as though they may be integral to that free play in the AZ but they are all tightened down to the maximum already and I'm not inclined to interfere with them. Although I can sort of cope with the lack of AZ control unless that knob is screwed tight it's this free play in AZ that makes the scope unusable at high mags.

Quite suddenly a couple of days ago the mount stopped responding in the azimuth to slow-mo control, the altitude was fine. The only way I could get it to respond was by completely screwing down the knurled knob. It also developed some slack movement in the AZ of about 7mm. It doesn't sound much but when viewing at high magnification simply touching the scope focus control this movement was enough to put the object, in this case Jupiter, almost out of view in the eyepiece, very irritating. I can't find anyway to tighten anything to prevent this "wobble" and I'm reluctant to open anything up in case I void the warranty, I bought the mount in January of this year. I've messaged the vendor so I'll just have await their reply.