AZ GTI EQ PHD 2 Guiding Example

[Adam J]

When I was looking at this mount I found it difficult to find guiding examples that also gave detail on payload etc.

In the end I got one and so decided to post some of my guiding here.

Payload = 4kg

Counter Weight = 2kg

Nutral Balance.

The grease was repleased with white lithium grease. I also shimmed the RA worm gear to give a better mesh as it was sitting a little low (added a thin washer under the mounting points at either end of the motor assembly).

On a different point why the heck would anyone want to remove the spring loading and fix the worm??? Seems like a terrible idea to me so I just made sure the worm was free to move smoothly by adding grease to the pivot point and adjusting tention on the mounting screw,

Connection via EQ Mod.

No wind.

Estimated 2 arcsecond seeing.

Polar Alignment Via Sharpcap Pro graded as (Good).

Some guiding examples.

 

Guiding RMS was between 1.4 and 0.70 arcseconds over 50 samples during the night with the majority of guiding being between 1.0 and 1.2 arcseconds RMS.

I strongly suspect that some examples of this mount are better out the factory than others. But with a little tweaking I think its reasonable to expact less than 1.5 arcseconds RMS so long as your within its load limit and well balanced. Mine was terrible out of the box, like really bad the RA axis was sticking badly. I guess I could have sent it back to FLO and have probably invalidated my warrently but to be honest my assessment was that after months of waiting for the mount I could well get a replacement that was either just as bad or worse.

Hope this helps people thinking of getting one of these for mobile astrophotography.

My conclution: Some tweeking required.

Adam

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Adam J

[vlaiv]

6 hours ago, Adam J said:

Hope this helps people thinking of getting one of these for mobile astrophotography.

My conclution: Some tweeking required.

Adam

Excellent post. I think this will be helpful to many people.

[fireballxl5]

yes, nice report Adam.

'out of the box' with a slightly lighter imaging load (Samyang 135mm f2, ASI071MC, AAP, 8x50 finder/ASI0224MC guider) I usually have an RMS figure somewhere in the range 0.7-1.5". For my needs with this setup or a slightly heavier 60mm f6 scope this is adequate and quite impressive!

It's makes for a very capable and mobile imaging setup

CS, Andy