Much frustration .. so Jupiter to the rescue

[xa-coupe (Jeff)]

I must have some sort of mental block regarding alignment .. and subsequently guiding. The rare time I get the alignment right, I gget clouded out.



Tonight I didn't have to worry about getting it right... I could get 30 seconds from a 900mm refractor but more that that, the eggs appeared. I aligned, realigned, 3 star aligned then polcar aligned ... and guiding made it worse not better .. so back to the drawing boards and a lot more reading.



Anyway, after a while I stopped trying for DSOs and took a few pics of the moon (old faithful) which ,with a 2x barlow, gave me great chromatic aberration but at least it was close up CA. Then I saw Jupiter so I gave it a bash. This is a single shot from the 1500D, cropped and mangled slightly in PS. First run for the Barlow so I'm pretty happy.



After this I swapped for my guide camera and the video will get processed later today.

[PKay (Peter)]

Yep, that's Jupiter!

I noticed last night, the moon was illuminating a high misty cloud layer, making seeing very average.
And that can play havoc trying to retain a guide star.

At 5am things had cleared and Orion was amazingly bright.

How are you checking polar align Jeff?

[xa-coupe (Jeff)]

Peter,
I point the mount towards celestial south, then use the synscan to do a 3 star alignment, then do a polar alignment with the uber tight altitude bolts and much more friendly azimuth knobs. Where I have my scope I can't use the polar scope as the neighbors house is in the way. Sometimes it works a treat and others, despite using the same procedure, not so much.


I've seen that sharpcap has a polar alignment tool... may be time to give that a try.

[sunslayr (David)]

Hopefully your scope has a view of the celestial pole otherwise sharpcap might not be much help. If the south pole is obscured you can always use phd2's drift align. Also three star alignment only corrects cone error, so if you want to save a little time 2 star should be enough.

[raymo]

Jeff, If you put a bit of upward effort onto the bottom of the counterweights
with one hand, whilst rotating the altitude bolt with the other, it will make adjustment much easier, and hugely extend the life of the threads on the bolt, and inside the mount. A smear of grease on the thread is of course a good idea.I did this for eight yrs with my HEQ5 and never had a problem. A better system would be good, but it is a budget level mount that
actually does a damn good job for the price.
raymo

[xa-coupe (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by raymo

Jeff, If you put a bit of upward effort onto the bottom of the counterweights
with one hand, whilst rotating the altitude bolt with the other, it will make adjustment much easier, and hugely extend the life of the threads on the bolt, and inside the mount. A smear of grease on the thread is of course a good idea.I did this for eight yrs with my HEQ5 and never had a problem. A better system would be good, but it is a budget level mount that
actually does a damn good job for the price.
raymo

Thanks Raymo. Not a bad idea, those bolts are TIGHT.



In this day and age I am surprised that someone doesn't make a mount that does it all automatically. Plug it in, the gps finds it's spot, it looks at the time and date, it looks up and sees some stars, identifies them, says 'here I am, there is celestial south (or north).. makes a few whirrs and buzzes, and is on it's way. I realise that's quite lazy of me but it seems that we are still doing things old school to begin with.'


Tonight is clear... despite the wind I'll be out giving it another go after a near terminal hissy fit the other night