[RussellH]

So my scope has finally seen it’s first night-time sky, although the results haven’t been that great.

Recap on the setup. HEQ5 Pro mount, Skywatcher f5 150mm newt, asi120mm mini guide camera, svbony 50mm guide scope, Canon 450d dslr, raspberry pi3b+ running astroberry using Kstars/Ekos/Indi for control.

So first question, how the heck do you focus without autofocuser or visual observing? 3 hours of fiddling and I finally got the guide scope sort of focusing (stars visible, but furry) but the camera I ran out of time for tonight ght so had to give up. Taking 10 second exposures and tweaking the focus incrementally is very slow.

Secondly, focus distance. I had to pull the asi right to the back of the guide scope mount position, and pulled the focuser out all the way, to get it to focus. i have very little movement room left but hopefully tomorrow night I’ll finally get it properly focussed.

As for the Canon, I’m not sure how far I am off the focal plane, but it seems to be somewhere within about 5mm of bottoming out the focuser. At least I hope it’s around there, or I’m going to be short of back focus distance. Where I think I’m in the ballpark causes significant protrusion of the focus tube into the body of the scope though, which I think is why I am seeing the squashed side on the out of focus donuts I have been try to resolve in the image all night.

Ikm trying to attach some pictures to show where the focuser and guide camera seem to be required, but having some troubles with attachments. Will try in a separate post to follow this one.

Russell.