Quote:
Originally Posted by jbdave
I am getting frustrated. So very frustrated.
I set up an 8 inch newt in the backyard of my old house, and took some decent images., albeit with only 20-30 seconds. I am guessing my polar alignment was a fluke more than anything.
Fast forward a few months and I have moved house. Now no matter what I do, I cannot get an image of 20+ seconds without star trails. 8"newt fail, ED80 fail. Nothing.
For the past few days I have been screwing around with everything and anything. Here is my procedure:
1. Set up tripod with compass directing true south.
2. Level tripod
3. Fix mount to tripod. Use clinometer to get approx latitude.
4. Attach telescope and balance everything.
5. drift align for a bit, and notice stars don't really move off line
6. Try and take photo and remove camera after trails are evident
7. Try the DARV method and with 1 min exposures showing nice clean lines with no movement (I know not long but I am only after 30 seconds exposures here for photography).
8. Try another shot. Trails again.
9. Punch fence, and walk inside to get a drink.
10. Come back out with laptop, guide camera and all the cables i hate setting up.
11. Run PHD, and undertake drift align. Get pissed when EQMOD stops tracking at random for some unknown reason.
12. Monitor tracking and make sure it stays on. Get that stupid line pretty straight, albeit slightly up and down but within 1 arc minute. Then I run it again where the line appears to do what it wants (and I'm making sure I am not tracking on a hot pixel).
13. Run it about 390 more times to make sure I was not seeing things. Confirmation that I wasn't seeing things. The line isn't consistent.
14. Try to take another shot as it's getting late and I'm cold and frustrated. Guiding is on via PHD.
15. Scream when realising tracking does **** and I was doing better without it.
16. Take another photo just to make sure the astro fairy hasn't magically set up my scope properly in between steps 14 and 16.
17. Pack up scope and cover up mount. Go to bed trying not to wake the wife and kids and I stomp down the hallway like a 3 year old throwing a tantrum.
18. Wake up and post on Ice In Space so I can get advice and go screw it up all over again tonight.....you know, when the clouds roll in.
So there you have it. I guess my imaging at my old place was more of a fluke than anything as I was quite happy with some of the images.
Could my mount be an issue ?
Does it need a service or a tip run ?
Am I meant to be going loopy ?
Sorry for the long post, but I am about to throw it all in, and I'm not going to continue a hobby where it takes me 3 days to set up in a new location...
PS: I am heading off out bush for the weekend. I was considering taking the scope, but am concerned it may end up getting thrown in the Murray River. Thanks in advance for any assistance.
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EQMOD stops tracking for some reason......Do you have "mount limits' enabled in the EQMOD menu? If that's a yes I'd guess that's the issue with the tracking stopping, I had the same problem.
You're obviously running a laptop.....if possible try and get a copy of Sharpcap and use their polar align tool (if you can get version 2.9 it's free). I faced the same issues as you with PA until I used Sharpcap.....with it I can get within seconds of the pole in less than 10 minutes