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Another EQ8

Zakalwe

By Zakalwe
in Discussions - Mounts

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Mine landed today from the guys at FLO. :icon_salut:  Great service as usual.

What a beast. Beautifully packaged in a substantial roadie type case. The mount looks absolutely superb, and the quality of machining and finish really marks a step up from Skywatcher. The counterweight bar is massive compared to the spindly, wobbly thing on the standard EQ6.

I've thrown it onto the pier, but I need to fetch a M12 bolt to secure it down.

I'll do a proper post when I have it secured to the mount, but in the meantime.....no more graunching gears!

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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I think you can probably wave goodbye to guiding at shorter focal lengths :)

I'm hoping to use my C11 (with a focal reducer) to image some galaxies in the Spring. 1.7metres of focal length will soon see if it's any good!

1471391_10152084823608281_915286235_n.jp

The Equinox 80 looks lost on it! I can't polar align as its piddling with rain. Plus the new EQDIR cable doesn't want to play. Windows 7 sees it and installs the driver, but EQASCOM won't connec to it, even though its on Com5???  :mad:

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Chris

Chris

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Looks amazing, almost war like even!

Have you had a word with Gina? Hers is running nicely I think she might be able to help. If you have a laptop with a diferent OS it might be worth trying perhaps?

I'm picking up the bigger brother of your Equinox on Sunday and I'm just thinking how nice that would look on an EQ8! :D

Speaking of which, slightly off topic if you dont mind, I see you have a TRF with your Equinox, is it a straight forward connection to the scope? Just thinking of other options to the SW .85.

I will be following with interest, especially your plans with the C11, that will be some serious resolution and framing on galaxies!

Chris

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Hi Chris,

Thanks for the comments.

The TRF has a 2" nosepiece that goes straight into the focuser. I would prefer a screwed connection, to be honest...I'm paranoid about it dropping out! Hence the blue lanyard cable-tied to the camera and hooked back onto the scope.

Is it the Equinox 120 that you are getting? If so, the TRF-2008 isn't suitable. It works on scopes with a focal length of 400-600mm

http://www.televue.com/pdf/literature/Focal%20Reducer%20Flattener.pdf

You want the "normal" Skywatcher one:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/skywatcher-focal-reducers.html

Rgds

Steve J

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Problem solved on the EQDIR front. I de-installed ASCOM and EQASCOM and then reinstalled the lot.  It still didn't work, so I installed the Celestron Unified ASCOM driver and it all sprang into life. I have no idea why this was de-installed itself?

Its now chucking a pretty big load around like a boss

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Well I snatched a couple of minutes to try and polar align tonight. Clouds rolled back in though, so I didn't get anywhere. To be honest, I am just playing with cable control and tidying up at the moment. I have never used a Synscan controller, so I'm not too sure of what I am doing. I *think* that I have to do a 3-star align and then see what it says about the error?

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stephen_usher

stephen_usher

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Well I snatched a couple of minutes to try and polar align tonight. Clouds rolled back in though, so I didn't get anywhere. To be honest, I am just playing with cable control and tidying up at the moment. I have never used a Synscan controller, so I'm not too sure of what I am doing. I *think* that I have to do a 3-star align and then see what it says about the error

Not quite. You're supposed to do a 2 or 3 star alignment (three is better) and then use the "Polar Align" function, during which you pick a star, the mount slews to it, you centre it and then the scope slew to where it thinks the star should be if the mount's polar aligned. You then move the mount using the adjusters until the star is in the centre of view.

You then do another 2 or three star alignment and  repeat until the error given in the alignment is small enough.

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Right, I think that I've sussed it. It took a good few goes as the mount would shift ever so slightly when I cinched up the azimuth bolts. Perhaps the base or base plate is not perfectly flat and it is "rocking" slightly? Or there could be a bit of grit under it? Anyway, its reporting a pretty small error now. GOTOs put the selected star pretty much bang in the centre of an 8mm EP on the 11" SCT. I can always have a bash at drift aligning later.

Compared to my old EQ6, this thing is a joy. I had a fair bit of backlash in the 6 in the DEC axis that I was never able to tweak out. The 8, in comparison, seems backlash free. Touch a direction button and it just moves.

Its a school night tonight, otherwise I'd have a bash at shooting a few frames. I've got my SCT focal reducer already spaced up, so shooting at 1.7metres of focal length will soon tell me what the tracking is like.

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Do you have the FR to Chip spacing, i may one day decide to image something.. :))

I've set it at 108mm. Its an Antares one that I've had kicking about...there's various posts on t'Internet about how the spacing on the Antares should be 105mm, 108mm, 79mm or 85mm :icon_scratch: :icon_scratch:

I've never tried imaging with the big SCT, so I fancy having a bash. Mind you, there clouds are all encompassing, so I might have to wait until March!

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Tinker1947

Tinker1947

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Thanks for the info i have the Celestron 6.3 so the spacing will be different, will have a search round later.....the sky was clear last night here, 2-3 hours just roaming about, think i need a EP heater as they were misting up or may be get the hairdryer..:)

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Last night was clouded over (again) so I had a bash at upgrading the firmware to the latest (3.35). Things, predictably, went skew-whiff as the damn USB-to-serial adapter kept failing on me, which resulted in a dead handset. Everytime I ran the firmware upgrade it would die at 1 or 2 %. I spent an hour messing around with  the COM port settings with no luck. Finally, on the off-chance, I plugged the USB-to-serial into my USB3 hub (it was plugged direct into one of the USB ports on the PC) and it only went and worked like a charm. I have no idea why it wouldn't work when plugged into the PC, but would work when plugged into the hub???

I hate computers........

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