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Old 22-07-2018, 10:09 PM
Zuts
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Help with AZEQ6

Hi,

I had a great time imaging last night. Got Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and the Moon all at F30 with my Edge HD 9.25 and a ZWO 1600 mmc.

At the end of the night I thought I would try Saturn at F20 to compare details. However whenever I centered it in the camera it would slowly drift off-screen. I could stop the drift sometimes by slewing in the opposite direction a bit.

I already had some quality imaging time so it was late, I gave up and went to bed.

Tonight I setup again (with fully charged batteries) but could not get rid of the drift. Basically after getting aligned in AZ mode with the mount level according to the bubble whenever I slew to an object it will slowly drift off screen, making imaging impossible.

It takes about 20 seconds from a centered position to drift across the chip, which is a 22mm diagonal chip.

Any ideas because at the moment the mount is unusable for photography if it behaves like this.

Cheers
Paul
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  #2  
Old 22-07-2018, 11:47 PM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
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I note the last target before going to Saturn was the Moon. Was the mount tracking at sidereal or lunar rate?
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  #3  
Old 23-07-2018, 12:49 AM
Zuts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by barx1963 View Post
I note the last target before going to Saturn was the Moon. Was the mount tracking at sidereal or lunar rate?
Hi,

Definitely sidereal, I didn't change it all night, and checked tonight. The moon shot is one frame (from 30 seconds of video), it's so bright you don't need to change the tracking.

Basically after 6 hours, it just stopped working properly, and the problem continued tonight.

Cheers
Paul
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  #4  
Old 23-07-2018, 06:11 AM
Kunama
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Depending on the firmware version, the mount will switch to lunar rate automatically but then will not switch back to sidereal unless you do so manually. I think it was 3.33 that had that bug in it.
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Old 23-07-2018, 11:54 AM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
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Yep that’s what I was thinking. One handset I had would automatically switch to lunar if you did a go to on the moon.
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  #6  
Old 23-07-2018, 12:45 PM
Zuts
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Originally Posted by barx1963 View Post
Yep that’s what I was thinking. One handset I had would automatically switch to lunar if you did a go to on the moon.
Interesting. Still I did check that it was siderial when I set up as in the morning I was doing some solar observing and changed to solar tracking. When I found it not working properly I checked the tracking mode and set it to siderial just to make sure.

Cheers
Paul
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Old 23-07-2018, 01:07 PM
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The_bluester (Paul)
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The only ties I have had that sort of issue with my Orion mount (Same as the AZEQ6, just painted black) it has come down to either initial setup and alignment, power issues making it lazy or balance.

Given you are in AZ mode, how is the balance in altitude? And rather than rely on the bubble in the mount check the top of the tripod with a spirit level in two directions 90 degrees apart. I am tempted to put a screwdriver tip through the bubble on my mount head to keep myself from being tempted to use it when I feel like being lazy and skipping a step. It is not accurate in the least.
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Old 23-07-2018, 01:08 PM
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Camelopardalis (Dunk)
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Some folk use an auto guider to keep the object in the FOV. FireCapture supports this for planetary, although it doesn't require specific support IMO.

I find that when I polar align properly the planet will stay pretty much centred. If I just roughly polar align, it's a bit like playing a video game with the Hand Controller

If you have the cable to be able to use EQMod, it might be worth trying that as you can increase/decrease the tracking rate in small steps and see if it's the HC that has tracking problems.
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Old 23-07-2018, 01:59 PM
Zuts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The_bluester View Post
The only ties I have had that sort of issue with my Orion mount (Same as the AZEQ6, just painted black) it has come down to either initial setup and alignment, power issues making it lazy or balance.

Given you are in AZ mode, how is the balance in altitude? And rather than rely on the bubble in the mount check the top of the tripod with a spirit level in two directions 90 degrees apart. I am tempted to put a screwdriver tip through the bubble on my mount head to keep myself from being tempted to use it when I feel like being lazy and skipping a step. It is not accurate in the least.
Hi Paul.

I never usually balance in Azimuth in AltAz mode but the Alt balance is not bad. To check if it was balance I put a weight on but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Pointing accuracy was terrible, but since I was after planets it didn't bother me. I originally aligned with a reticle and slews were still way off, so I agree with you and will take a spirit level next time.

The problem is it was working fine the night before until the end and now it has a problem and I am not doing anything different.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelopardalis View Post
Some folk use an auto guider to keep the object in the FOV. FireCapture supports this for planetary, although it doesn't require specific support IMO.

I find that when I polar align properly the planet will stay pretty much centred. If I just roughly polar align, it's a bit like playing a video game with the Hand Controller

If you have the cable to be able to use EQMod, it might be worth trying that as you can increase/decrease the tracking rate in small steps and see if it's the HC that has tracking problems.
Hi Dunk.

Good idea, I do have an EQMod and will try ditching the HC.

Cheers
Paul
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  #10  
Old 23-07-2018, 04:01 PM
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By alt balance I mean sliding the gear back and forward so it does not head for the sky or the ground if you release the clutch rather than adding counterweight.


When I have had pointing issues it has invariably come down to me being a bit lazy with the setup, levelling, balancing, centring alignment stars, and occasionally picking the wrong star/s in the alignment routine, that will throw it well off!
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Old 23-07-2018, 04:19 PM
Zuts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The_bluester View Post
By alt balance I mean sliding the gear back and forward so it does not head for the sky or the ground if you release the clutch rather than adding counterweight.


When I have had pointing issues it has invariably come down to me being a bit lazy with the setup, levelling, balancing, centring alignment stars, and occasionally picking the wrong star/s in the alignment routine, that will throw it well off!
I have updated the HC (V4) firmware and done a factory reset. I will try again tomorrow with a spirit level and a nicely balanced setup in siderial mode.

Here's hoping it starts working again.

Cheers
Paul
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  #12  
Old 23-07-2018, 05:31 PM
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I have had issues a couple of times and wondered if it was faulty but it invariably boiled down to PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)
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  #13  
Old 24-07-2018, 08:49 AM
Zuts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The_bluester View Post
I have had issues a couple of times and wondered if it was faulty but it invariably boiled down to PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)
Hopefully it is PEBKAC as that is a far cheaper problem to fix
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