Quote:
Originally Posted by Glenhuon
Getting better Duncan. Need to tweak the focus a touch more.
Polar alignmment is a pain at times, but with practice you'll get faster at it. The closer you can get the PA, the less work your auto guider has to do when you get it set up.
My setup is semi-permanent at the moment, so been giving the alignment a tweak before every session and got it to where unguided images are out to 2 1/2 mins. Any more seems to make little difference as drive train errors start to show up with the EQ5.
Work on the auto guiding, just got mine going again and getting 5 min subs with nice round stars, unfortunately the light polution here in town is going to limit how much more I can go as at that length the images are starting to get washed out.
It's a bit of a steep learning curve, but the end results are most pleasing.
Cheers
Bill
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Thanks for the reply Bill, TBH i find focus to be the biggest issue. I will usually get setup, carry out PA, then slew to a bright star in the region (i think last night i used Antares) then use live view to focus, then zoom right in with live view to focus, then i output the live view onto a 17" laptop that i use with the scope, to focus even more, as fas as i can see, i can never get it down to an exact star-point of light, this is about as tight as i can get, i just cant seem to get pin point stars, and i dont mean i cant well enough to focus, i mean at the point of best focus, the stars are still slightly bloated, even thought i watch it go through and past focus.
I have an MPCC, so i will start using that also, that will help with the edge of field stuff. but i am starting to think maybe a Bahtinov mask is the way to go, I am using an Orion ED80 on a HEQ5-Pro mount, with a T-Ring and Canon 1000D attached, loads of others people with similar gear get pin point stars, why dont i ?
