Problems tracking with star adventurer

[Nerf_Caching]

Hi all, after using the Star Adventurer a few times, I ran into a very worrying problem with tracking tonight. I performed a rough Polar alignment with the mount with my lens set to 300mm. Stars in my image had very unusual trails like the images below. And yes, I did turn the mount on to track. In the second image I slewed the mount back and forth in RA if that helps.Could it be batteries or poor polar alignment? Or something worse relating to the motors? Thanks for the help in advance!

Edited November 30, 2019 by Nerf_Caching

[knobby]

I'd say check polar alignment as you're at 300mm. The bottom one looks like the result you get if you  were to polar align using the darv method when poorly aligned.

[Nerf_Caching]

8 minutes ago, knobby said:

I'd say check polar alignment as you're at 300mm. The bottom one looks like the result you get if you  were to polar align using the darv method when poorly aligned.

From my understanding, the darv method should exhibit a clean-looking 'V' shape, but mine displays a rather wonky 'V'. Could that be the result of a wobbly tripod as mine isn't particularly strong?

[knobby]

Could be wobble, I'd check your balance and polar alignment. I used to get around 2 minutes at 24 mm with rough polar align but at 105 mm or 300 has to get spot on to go above 1 minute on mine.

[Davey-T]

I can do 90 to 120 seconds with 300mm lens on mine.

Dave

[Nerf_Caching]

Is it safe to rule out any internal problems with the mount?

[Davey-T]

17 minutes ago, Nerf_Caching said:

Is it safe to rule out any internal problems with the mount?

No, mine had to go back as it was running slow making elongated stars.

You can do a test indoors by mounting a laser pointer on it and leaving it running for 24 hours ( 23 hours 56 minutes ) when it should end up in the same place pretty much.

Dave

[Nerf_Caching]

Well, I tried again a couple hours later and the problem seems to have fixed itself, so I wonder what’s going on! Attached are slightly out of focus 1-minute subs of the Pleiades and results using the DARV method to drift align. I hope my mount is working alright bearing in mind that I accidentally dropped it from a foot above a table while unboxing it!

[knobby]

Pleiades is looking good 👍