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EQ6-R tracking improvements ?


alpacajack

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Hello - I like my new eq6 -r mount except that images I take over 30 seconds show star trails and does not track very well.  I would think that a heavy duty mount in this price range would perform better.  My OTA is the Explore Scientific 208mm f/3.9 Carbon Fiber Reflector Astrograph and my imaging camera is a Touptek G3 1600KPA.  My mount has a computer port on the mount that I connect directly to my computer.  The interface is through ASCOM and EQMOD.  The  program I use for control is Astrophotography Tool.  My normal routine is leveling the tripod, balancing the mount, polar alignment using iOptron iPolar Electronic Polar scope, find a star to focus, goto an object and photograph it.

Has anyone experienced this problem?  Any suggestions on improving the tracking.

I would really appreciate any suggestions.  Should I send it to skywatcher for repair?

 

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it could be a number of things. Fisrt of all you should guide your mount in order to remove tracking errors as much as possible in order to get longer exposures. Other things that cause problems are bad polar alignment, flexure, bad collimation. Start with your polar alnignment, make sure it is ok, a good check is to do a drift alignment with your camera or use phd2 drift alignment. Then use guiding and see if the images are improved, then look for flexure, it may be at the dovetail of the scope and the saddle, the scope rings, the focuser may need some tightening. Also make sure the mount is on sturdy ground that doesn't conduct vibrations and everything is tightnened.

Also it would be good if you can show us some images with said problem and figure it out.

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The eq6r pro is certainly a mount that can guide very accurately .. 30 seconds don't sound that good unguided.. if you can eliminate PA, tracking speed , balance etc and still not get more than 30 seconds then maybe look to send it back.. more likely to be user error thou..

First thing id do is make sure that it's tracking at sidereal rate, and eq north.. Then I'd look at PA.. you can tell which direction the trails are going to see which directional axis you have errors in.. You mentioned that you use the ipolar system,  not familiar with that one myself but things like sharpcap, polemaster etc are really great for speed you can't say that they're 100% accurate..personally I get better accuracy using Sharpcap but with my polemaster camera than I do using the polemaster software, and if I use the drift align tool in phd2 I get even better results( but it takes far longer).. all 3 conflict each other's results but we're aligning to the same point in the sky ..just as a hunch check that the ipolar is seated correctly in the housing and is secure, what power supply are you using? These mounts like slightly more than 12v.. If you're confident that these aren't causing the issues then contact your supplier and maybe send it back, as with all mass produced items you get the odd rouge one..

Are you guiding? 

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On 25/06/2020 at 09:31, michael8554 said:

Have you adjusted the Periodic Error ?

Michael

Periodic error comes from the worm, its usually about 7 mins to do a full cycle, so unless there's a really bad thread on the spindle or something stuck in there I'd doubt it..

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Hi @alpacajack & welcome to the SGL!

I use a SW AZ-EQ6 GT Pro with a 200dps, DLSR & similar laptop/APT/ASCOM set up, with an iPolar for alignment. Unguided, I could get 60 sec subs without trailing, provided that it isn't windy, though I've sometimes had problems with cables catching on the mount & causing trailing.

Recently I've started using a guidescope with PHD2, which has improved tracking & allows me to take (at least) 3 min subs without any problem. PHD2 also has a good logging facility, where you can export the file & diagnose the mount movement/correction/polar alignment with PHD2 Log viewer.

Cheers
Ivor

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44 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Have you actually measured your PE ?

If you have a typical corrected PE for this mount  of about +/- 5arcsecs, then no problem.

A typical uncorrected PE could give you 2 arcsecs drift in 30 seconds.

Michael

Question 1.. no, never found the need

So at a guess as the worm cycle of 7 mins you're saying there's 28 arc secs of error per cycle.. wow never knew that..

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7 hours ago, newbie alert said:

Question 1.. no, never found the need

So at a guess as the worm cycle of 7 mins you're saying there's 28 arc secs of error per cycle.. wow never knew that..

The tracking error won't be smooth, you'll may get parts of the worm gear that will track reasonably well for a few minutes, then you might see several arc seconds movement over a much shorter period of time.

I had a couple of nights with my EQ6-R without guiding and I was managing 60 second subs with about 1/3rd being rejected at about 1" per pixel resolution. These produced nice images but they wouldn't stand up to pixel peeping.

Ultimately your guide exposure length is how long your mount will track for unguided - e.g. 2 to 3 seconds for the eq6 r

Edited by SamAndrew
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