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Old 21-11-2017, 11:19 AM
E_ri_k (Erik)
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Lakes Entrance
Posts: 825
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese View Post
That is certainly uncharacteristic of an MX. However you might want to try the following. I have an MX and they can be finicky with regard to issues that cause guide error.

Balance on an SB mount must be near perfect. You need to move the mount without locks and not see any residual balance issues (ie it should stay where you put the scope and not slowly move. I think this is the most likely cause of your guiding problems.

Cables through the mount are problematic with this mount. I think I can only put one or two through my MX and after that it gets some binding. Also reasonably likely that this is causing the problem. Perhaps remove the cables and use a centre fixed loom of cables which hang to the ground from the centre of the versa plate.

Cable drag - perhaps a possibility too. Be thorough with looking at this. Cables can cause guiding errors in one part of the sky and not others.

I'd reconsider using PH2 and move to something like MaximDL or similar programme that allows both min and max movement settings. This gives better results. Probably not a likely cause to your current guide error, but it will tighten up your guiding in general.

Finally, if all that fails you need to check the worm gear for any knocks. The mount might have received a knock and damaged the worm. Or have a poke around and examine the grease and lock settings on the dec assembly.
Hi Paul, thanks for the reply. I posted on the SB forum, and one comment was that binding in the DEC would produce an error, which I haven’t seen.

In regards to your comment on balance, does that apply in the RA also? I have it slightly east biased. But the DEC is balanced evenly.

Funnny you mention guiding in MaximDL. I always used to guide in Maxim, until I started using SGP. I found MaximDL handled the guiding a lot better, and gave me rounder stars, not sure why though. But PHD has given me grief in the past. Tonight’s test will be guiding in Maxim.

Through the mount cables is also something I’ll play with. When manually moving the DEC axis in balance mode, I can hear the cables rubbing. I only have 3 cables in there, but maybe the the cause also??

I hope the worms are all good, I don’t want to go down that path! I have noticed it happening more so I’m certain parts of the sky though. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it, and it won’t occur when I turn DEC guiding off.

Erik
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