Zakalwe

If the synch position is too far from where EQMOD *thinks* the scope is pointing, then it won't accept the synch. Look into the message centre (by clicking the + key) to see if this is the case. This is why an obsy scope is "Parked" each night...it gives the system a known starting point. if you are setting up each night, then you'd use a rough Park position...for example I used to use counterweights down, OTA horizontal.

Judging by the number of trashed DSLR sensors on this thread, I'd say the same about de-Bayering!

Hi there, I only had one chance to test it (the first clear night in ages,,with a New Moon and I was away! grrrr ). Unfortunately, I mad a mess of the focus, but this shows that the tracking was spot on. 80 seconds exposure at 70mm. 70/200f4L lens on a 1000d camera. I shot 50 frames and everyone was bang on (apart from cocking the focus up!)

Plus the Star Adventurer has settings for panoramic photography. It can also act as a basic intervalometer with the addition of a simple cable.

I had a very quick test of mine last night from my urban, light-polluted back garden. I mounted a Canon 50D (with extra battery grip) and a Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens (also a first light for this lens). I bodged a counterweight using a long 8mm bolt and a counterweight off another portable rig. The whole ensemble was mounted on a fairly wobbly Manfrotto 190 aluminium tripod. A cheap eBay intervalometer was used to set 30 x 1 minute exposures. Polar alignment was fairly rough and ready, just using a phone app to get the approx. Polaris position. To be fair, a 14mm lens is never going to stress the PA! First thoughts: You are never, ever going to PA this thing and then mount the camera afterwards. There's just too much movement in the tripod for that. The clip on polarscope light is rubbish. I need to come up with a way to attach it when the L-bracket camera head is mounted. There's a decent sized slot in the bracket to give an unobstructed view if you use a counterweight to slide the bracket out of the way. I',m sure niothing nire than a bit of velcro will sort this bit out. I have no idea of how to set the polar alignment using the date circles. The manual is, at least, confusing. Being used to robotic mounts, having to start polar aligning by scrabbling around on the ground, peering through a poxy polarscope made me feel like a blooming caveman. Give me technology anyday! Using the locking clutch will almost certainly move the PA. A half decent tripod is a must for this thing. I've ordered a Velbon DV-7000 to see if that's a bit sturdier and will report back on this when it arrives. The DV-7000 is supposed to be a fairly sturdy little tripod of under £90.The results aren't going to win any prizes. This is the stacked image straight out of DSS with no post processing. The camera was pointed in the general direction Cygnus, though I paid no real attention to where it finally ended up. All the subs were fine, so the little mount had no problem here. The Samyang lens looks pretty good, with half decent star shapes (the focus could be better, mind). There seems to be a pretty severe off-centre vignette. Some flats would sort that though. Next steps: Test a better tripod. Test it with my 70/200mm f4 lens. This will give a much better idea of what the mount is capable of. Make a right angled viewer for the polarscope. I have a couple of RA viewers for camera viewfinders kicking around. I might be able to bodge one of them on. I wonder if I can extract the polarscope and replace it? I have a pretty expensive (for what it is) Losmandy polarscope, which has a superb polar alignment method. It'd be great if that could fit into the mount. I have no idea how to process extreme wide-fields in PS. I had better do some reading! Star Adventurer

Great progress and skills! This is probably a daft question, but you can fit that box through the door, can't you?

Placed on order for one from FLO. Looking forward to receiving it.

The one that I bought was in white....

Even a Jawa can be knackered by taking it apart without the correct tools and procedures. I hope that you get it sorted. I know only too well (from years of messing with motorbikes) that sinking feeling of "I'll just nip this up another touch" and feeling the threads strip. :sad:

To be fair Olly, the OP damaged the thread through his own lack of mechanical skills (see his other thread). Further damage was caused by incorrectly dissasembling it. You could hardly claim that a BMW was poorly built if an owner decided to adjust the engine without much in the way of skills, and then tried to fix it with no workshop manual and cobbled-together tools. No offence to the OP.....personally I would have sent it to someone like Graham at Astrotec. He knows what he is doing and is geared up to fix things properly.

FLO had better make sure that the site is bang-on accurate, or they'll be getting a visit :grin: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/12/kim-jong-weather-north-korea

Itd probably die from overuse.....

LOL. Ill have two please!

Hmmm...this is the forecast for my location: 100% clear skies And this is the reality from Sat24: I'm in the red square. :clouds1: it sure ain't easy this forecasting malarkey!

Thanks Grant. Can the location not be stored in a cookie?

Nice idea! Can you include a way to store locations so I don't have to input my location every time?

Absolutely amazing.

Connect it via a powered hub. I find that it fails evertime when connected to a USB port on the pc or laptop. If I use a powered hub then it works perfectly.

Why did you re-sync the encoders when you went into EQMOD? If you parked with the handset then the mount will mark where it's pointed. EQMOD will then pick this up. You should only need to resync if you have moved (manually) the mount when it was parked. Or if you've fitted something like a side-by-side bar.

Try deleting the EQMOD.ini file and restarting EQASCOM. There was a similar issue reported on the Yahoo group and it was a corrupt EQMOD.ini file.