New rig, any tips?

[bomberbaz]

Hello all. So I finally got round to unboxing my new gear, it had been sat in spare room for 3 months due to personal circumstances that some may be aware of. 

Anyway, so newly purchased were a SW 150 quattro, a two auto focuser and ioptron hem15.  There was a little bit of tinkering needed after assembly but nothing major, tested on some distant trees and all seems well. 

Pleased that this new setup seems no heavier than my previous one (no counterweights) so happy that I can easily carry it outside assembled.

Auto focuser seems straightforward enough once fitted although that was the most fiddling part. 

Wiring up again seemed pretty easy, zwo do know their stuff when it comes to ease of use.

Now I know there are umpteen threads on here but due to my lack of forum inertia, it would take me a long time to read all and catch up so just wondered if there are any snippets of advice anyone can through my way prior to it seeing first light. Pictures attached. 

Cheers, steve

[Elp]

Have you checked the east/west balance of the setup to make sure it won't fall over?

I tried the SW pier, I didn't find it stable enough so opted to use it without, or when using a long refractor a larger diameter pier extension.

Have you set your fixed altitude range on the mount yet, definitely an indoor workbench/table task.

[bomberbaz]

27 minutes ago, Elp said:

 

Have you set your fixed altitude range on the mount yet, definitely an indoor workbench/table task.

Yes and so glad I did this before, quite a task and still not sure it is right. I will watch a video tomorrow to check but thanks for heads up anyway 

[Elp]

Getting the brass washers back into the inner walls and their cutout location was the fiddly bit but goes in with a bit of careful maneuvering.

[bomberbaz]

1 hour ago, Elp said:

I tried the SW pier, I didn't find it stable enough so opted to use it without, or when using a long refractor a larger diameter pier extension.

Further to this comment I tried it and it is rather unstable. One of my aims was to keep this lightweight so I can shift it all assembled from house to garden and if I want to stick with this, stability needs addressing.

I shifted the orientation of the tripod but now it is unstable at the back to front 😬, so extra weight seems the answer.  I do have a 15kg weight in the garden and I will either fettle some kind of anchor to aid stability or try without the pier. 

Again, thanks for heads up. 

[bomberbaz]

Forgot I had this, an old loom weight. Circa 15 pounds in weight. Should be plenty.

 

Edited February 23 by bomberbaz

[bomberbaz]

16 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Forgot I had this, an old loom weight. Circa 15 pounds in weight. Should be plenty.

 

Just tried attaching this and it works, very solid now so happy to go from here and as it attaches with a cable tie it doesn't affect portability.

[ollypenrice]

Newt experts, like Pieter Vandevelde who built this fast instrument himself, set the camera up under the OTA rather than above it. Here he is at my place:

You'll need less counterweight that way and be less likely to bump the camera when working around it.

I'd be prepared to devote initial sessions to careful collimation with the Quattro and, perhaps, consider using an artificial star to get it as close as possible on otherwise wasted cloudy spells.

Olly

[bomberbaz]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Newt experts, like Pieter Vandevelde who built this fast instrument himself, set the camera up under the OTA rather than above it. Here he is at my place:

You'll need less counterweight that way and be less likely to bump the camera when working around it.

I'd be prepared to devote initial sessions to careful collimation with the Quattro and, perhaps, consider using an artificial star to get it as close as possible on otherwise wasted cloudy spells.

Olly

Yes I think I will check collimation tmorrow, results from tonight seemed to indicate it is slightly out although not as bad as it could be.

Regarding my tracking it was a little over  1 but we have a full moon and cloudy patches running through so it never really got chance to settle properly.

I am pleased to say that polar alignment was simplicity itself, whatr a very good design Ioptron have incorporated into this liuttle mount, I am most impressed.

Finally the auto focuser is another great bit of kit  although referring back to collimation I did notice again a slight comet tail on the star it chose to focus on.

Overall a useful little session and it has wet my appetite to do some more astronomy related things now after what has been a fairly lengthy break.  

[ONIKKINEN]

+1 vote the camera under the OTA advice, really no downsides to doing that. Easier to balance the system since the rather heavy imaging train is now closer to the center of mass. Could make a noticeable difference if stability is suspect.

[bosun21]

9 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Newt experts, like Pieter Vandevelde who built this fast instrument himself, set the camera up under the OTA rather than above it. Here he is at my place:

You'll need less counterweight that way and be less likely to bump the camera when working around it.

I'd be prepared to devote initial sessions to careful collimation with the Quattro and, perhaps, consider using an artificial star to get it as close as possible on otherwise wasted cloudy spells.

Olly

Sure looks like a beautiful area you live in Olly, with the added pleasure of having dark skies. I can now understand why you chose to move there.

[R26 oldtimer]

I would definitely use a beefier tripod to make the mount justice. In my setup (harmonic mount & eq6 tripod) even finger pressure on one of the legs, sends the guiding RMS from 0.6" to more than 1"

[bomberbaz]

So update on how things have gone for anyone interested.

I made sure I got a good position to calibrate the mount tonight somewhere close to equatorial equator and it is currently tracking at a little over 0.5, very pleased with this.

As already mentioned I have added a heavy loom weight to the mount and this greatly increases stability.

As per advice from @vlaiv I have dropped my tracking speed down from 0.9 to 0.5 and this is obviously helping as per above. I may experiment with 0.25 later but for now I am very happy with what I am getting.

Since I collimated using a laser (I don't have an artificial star) the stars on the images look very tight indeed, once I have stacked these test subs of California nebula we will be able to see how good this is.

I moved the camera to the bottom following advice from you guys above and I concur, it is far more stable this way.

I am sticking with the mount I have, the whoile idea of this is keeping it light and portable. I can carry the entire rig out in 30 seconds and be up and running in a few minutes, this was a key aim. I realise this will impose certain limitations but having a better (read heavier) tripod would bring it's own limitations and I am not prepared to compromise on them.

Anyway, I would have no problem recommending the HEM15 as a lightweight mount, super bit of kit. 

steve