Rallemikken

Most likely you have accidentially changed your coordinates or time. Happened to me many times, while fumbling in the dark with the handcontroller. Or if this is managed by software, check if the right driver is choosen in the dropdown list. Managed my heq5 through the handcontroller in the beginning. The SynScan and SynScanLegacy indi-drivers where not interchangable.

My guess is you don't get enough inward travel on the focuser. Put the eyepiece directly into the focuser, without the adapter. You can't use it like this, but if you get focus by moving it in and out, you know you need another adapter. There are adapters that almost goes flush with the drawtube. The one on the picture adds a lot of length.

Guide module in Ekos is a little hit-and-miss. Struggling with it myself. When it works, it works very well, but on some nights I have to use PHD2 just to get things done. A matter of options, and for some reason, the options you succed with one night messes it all up the next. I have found a setup where i just change two parametres, Exp (1.5 or 2.0 seconds) and Bin (1x1 or 2x2). The rest is left to defaults. Always clear calibration (the red trashcan) when starting guiding, and don't touch the Swap checkbox. I belive Ekos ticks this itself if nesecarry during calibration. Box size 32. Guiding rate 0.500. Is camera and guidescope given correct specs? And tick the two Corr checkboxes, that will give you a visual aid to what's going on.

I have used cotton balls and clean water, just as when I clean them. The surface aluminium is soft, and fluid to a certain extend. It is the glass under the aluminium that determines how the mirror performes, as long as you can get the surface coating even. Scrathes and small dots can be polished out, but if the coating is corroded and partly missing, you are in trouble. Work gently from the sides and onto the fault. With that said, I don't think a small defect makes any difference, but it calms my brain to make any imperfection disappear. Many possible variables in this hobby, nice to eliminate some. The claimed reflectivness of theese mirrors lies around 95 percent, so they are far from perfect when new.

Just bought an 8" f5 mirror from lens-store on ebay. Seems to be good quality, delivered on time, well packaged, but I have not actually used it yet.... They have very reasonably priced 6" mirrors to, considering buying a set and build me an 6" f8. One thing is sure, their service was excellent. Maybe like cursing in the church, but have you tried to polish it? I have repaired small scratches on mirrors a few times, amazing what you can do with the right attitude. Btw, not much to loose if it is spoiled.

Be aware of clipping in post-prosessing. Learn what it is, what it does, how to recognize it and avoid it. Many opinions on this, a lot of youtubers are sloppy. THOU SHALL NOT HAVE CLIPPING AT ALL! Stick to the Crop, Levels and Curves tool, with the aid of the histogram, in that order, to the end. If you need to adjust colors or remove noise, that's the last step. I use Gimp, mostly because I'm a Linux guy, but I've watched many tutorials on Photoshop. In my humble opinion, Gimp seems more mature and grown-up, with the menus and tools more logically ordered. It does what Photoshop does, and more. With the Gimp G'Mic plugin-suite installed alongside I can't think of any rival. Take notice of the "Copy Layer"-trick! You will see some using this. A quick and handy way of Undo/Redo - new to me, now I use it all the time!

Get some 5mmx50 bolts with recessed heads, and move the mirror upwards in the tube. Did that with my 200PDS, works like a charm. Made 3 spacers 15mm thick, this will give room to move mirror 15-20mm. No problem with eyepieces. The drawtube is now flush with the tube when my Canon is in focus. This mod can be reversed without the need for a hacksaw. Make a drawstring bag in some dark cloth and tie it around the bottom of the tube. Theese tubes leak light unmodified, and the rising of the mirror makes it even worse. I've not done anything regarding the three clips, but I've painted the sides and bottom of the mirror matt black.

Yes. Up or down in ten seconds. Very tight fit, not a drop of rain inside. This end is facing west, which is my dominating wind direction. Looks a little to shiny, maybe I'll matt it down and paint it red.

Nope. But we had lots of them. The children had sort of a business. One small for a couple of bucks. And we grew hay. Fond memories of this house. Now the children has left the nest, and I've wondered a couple of years what to do with it. Think I nailed it!

Mostly for imaging, but I have a eyepiece and a barlow handy. You never know when curious kids turns up. I have a bag under the mount, that allows me to remove the DSLR without loosening the cables. Was out in minus 17 last winter, and I had trouble keeping the electronics alive. This is a flexible solution. I have extension cords on most, and keep everything except the mount indoors. Use a Canon 600D, and a small monocamera on the original finderscope as guidescope. Hope this gives less time to setup and preparations. Just to get polaraligned once and for all is worth all the work!

Small house where the kids kept rabbits during winter. Located at 64N, so temp may drop below 15 minus celsius. Was fully insulated, and the "office"-part is still insulated, heated and windproof. Just finished, not tested much. Wifi and 220V, 12cm concrete floor with concrete pier. Roof is winch operated, but gives little resistance. More a precaution if the roof is heavy with snow. Buildt with stuff I had around. Total cost around 9000 norwegian kroner, that's around 900 euro/pound/dollars.

New to astrophotography, but quite skilled in Linux. Pleasently surprised at how easy it is to get going, with good help from wine. I use a HEQ5 GoTo with a Canon 600D. DeepSkyStacker, Siril and Sequator all run fine, and PHD2 does the autoguiding. To control the camera I use AstroDMx. Postprocessing is done in RawTherapee, Darktable, Siril and Gimp with the GMic plugins. The whole ASI-suite works as well. I use Stellarium for planning. Have not implemented remote control over the mount yet, but don't think that will be any challenge. The only thing I have not got working is the original Canon remote-control software suite, but that hole is filled with AstroDMx. Same functunality, but with a clunky UI. And some of the USB wifi-dongles, those are a nightmare.... I only run Debian stable. If you have trouble getting some of this software to work under that distro, I might have some tips on which version to use and how to configure. And I'm open to suggestions on other things to try! Feel free to ask if you run Mint or Ubuntu, but don't expect me to sort everything out; those distros are juveniles, children of Debian, and they have taken their own path over the years.