Hi everyone.
I have a small problem when attempting astrophotos with my CPC1100 and Nikon D300 , I use a skywatcher 80 refractor and orion autoguider on top for the guiding with PHD program.
I am in a permanent observatory with pier and celestron wedge (will get better one when I am more financial as I dont like this wedge very much)
Now I have used the drift method of alignment as described throughout this site and have 98% confidence that polar alignment is not the main issue.
At 1st when I aligned on eastern star about 20 -30 degrees above horizon the star was drifting slowly Westward so I moved my counter balance weight further back on my losmandy plate attached on bottom of scope then realigned star and no further drifting westward it just sat centered. Now I didnt get North or South Drift as I know that is what you adjust for (had previously done alignment for my latitude and longtitude) when doing alignment. Then I went onto Meridian star and again no problem star sat centered for at least 10 minutes that I watched it for.
Now I will attach some photos that I took all are 1 minute photos at iso500 at f6.3
I still have a suspicion weight balance is my issue as If I expose photos longer the stars become longer eggs , which I have read is usually alignment problem , Could it also be weight problem as motors in mount might be having hard time keeping things balanced?
