Star Adventurer - Serious Periodic Error?

[newbie alert]

So it's misalignment rather than drift..

 

[FaDG]

4 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

So it's misalignment rather than drift..

 

Let's say that misalignment is the cause, drift the measurable effect. 

[SteveA]

I've lost count of the number of times I've jumped into a problem and ignored the basics in favour of a complicated reason behind a problem, so just a question here....

Have you checked the batteries are good and/or are making proper contact within the battery compartment? I could imagine a possible stop-start of the drive might produce some fairly erratic movements in this mount. 

Steve

[Knight of Clear Skies]

2 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Have you checked the batteries are good and/or are making proper contact within the battery compartment? I could imagine a possible stop-start of the drive might produce some fairly erratic movements in this mount. 

The batteries were new so should be OK, and it was warm outside. Now I've plate solved the image the image and checked the movement in RA it's running both fast and slow, which is good evidence the gears are the problem. I have two more 5 minute subs that look very similar.

[ariesram]

Hi there,

I purchased Star Adventurer a few months ago and tried it really hard more than 10 times. It never worked - 30 second exposure shows trailing. Polar alignment is very good, from what I can see. All screws are tightened, camera and lens are under 5 lbs weight, attached directly to DEC plate without ball head. 

 

I believe for sure it is the star adventurer malfunctioning. How can we verify star adventurer is tracking correctly? Is there any tests we can run to confirm it is functioning as expected? 

 

Thanks,

[Davey-T]

57 minutes ago, ariesram said:

Hi there,

I purchased Star Adventurer a few months ago and tried it really hard more than 10 times. It never worked - 30 second exposure shows trailing. Polar alignment is very good, from what I can see. All screws are tightened, camera and lens are under 5 lbs weight, attached directly to DEC plate without ball head. 

 

I believe for sure it is the star adventurer malfunctioning. How can we verify star adventurer is tracking correctly? Is there any tests we can run to confirm it is functioning as expected? 

 

Thanks,

Set it up indoors with a laser pointer mounted on it and leave it running for 24 hours and the pointer should end up in the same spot more or less, allowing 4 minutes difference for sidereal day.

The first Star Adventurer that I received ran slow and produced star trails in a few seconds.

Dave

Picture of my test using a laser level.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Davey-T

[Knight of Clear Skies]

19 hours ago, ariesram said:

Hi there,

I purchased Star Adventurer a few months ago and tried it really hard more than 10 times. It never worked - 30 second exposure shows trailing. Polar alignment is very good, from what I can see. All screws are tightened, camera and lens are under 5 lbs weight, attached directly to DEC plate without ball head. 

I you have a clear horizon, you could try aiming at a light in the distance and take a long exposure with the tracking on. It should produce a clean arc, if it wriggles back and forth it's likely to be periodic error.

I had my SA replaced and the new one seems to be fine, but I've had very little opportunity to use it.

[newbie alert]

With a star adventurer the tripod needs to be fairly solid in makeup..I've got a flimsy thing and unless I weigh it down I get subs like this..

Good balance is key..