Quote:
Originally Posted by AstroViking
Hey there,
I have one of these, too.
Never had too much trouble getting the thing balanced, oddly enough.
Polar alignment is the hardest thing to get right. I usually end up checking alignment a few times over the course of the night, between targets. Not having goto capabilities means you really need to know your way around the sky and trying to re-centre your target after checking PA is not going to happen.
Yes, the SkyWatcher wedge is rubbish. The backlash in the altitude adjustment is insane.
I've never tried longer than 30 second subs, so can't comment on tracking. I have heard of people getting multiple-minute exposures, but at fairly short focal lengths. Anything past about 200mm is going to be difficult.
There's a guy on YouTube - Kamil Pekala - who has a number of SA videos, including how to setup auto-guiding.
In hind-sight, if I could go back to when I bought it, knowing what I know now, I would have bought a "real" mount like an EQ5 or HEQ5.
However, it's what I have, and it's what I'm going to use and make work.
Cheers,
V
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I actually have an EQ6 and an EQ5! This was meant to be the mount I took on long road trips in the van. Sounds like my Astrotrac would be better though it has its own limitations.
As for finding things- I tried with a laser on the hot shoe mount and it sort of works with some trial and error
Better though is to point in the general direction of the target, connect the camera to a laptop, take a photo, plate solve to get RA and Dec of where the camera is pointing - I use NINA for this - and make incremental adjustments in RA and DEC to get to the target. If I am lucky can get there in a few iterations
Easier to do this with the SA than with the Astrotrac as there is no way to make micro adjustments in RA and DEC With a ball head