Hi guys
Lots of bad press regarding the MX+ going around at the moment, which is, very unfortunate for those unlucky enough to end up with a bad one.
I must admit I found my self spending the last month of what little clear nights we've had in looking for problems instead of real time imaging.
Ok,so after getting a much better understanding of the drift that occurs in HA due to refraction,and coming to terms with the fact that what I'm seeing in the recorded pec curve was due to this fact and not anything mechanical(simple maths)I decided to do some real time testing.
The target I chose was Eta Carina for Its brightness and distance away from Dec=0 where, I would expect It to be less effected by the refraction index If my understanding of It is correct.
After a closed loop to Eta I let the mount settle for a minute and then shot a 10 minute unguided exposure.
The result was an image of Eta with nice round stars.....well,come on at the 380mm focal length of the FSQ this is no test at all!
Decided a better test would be 15 minute so, proceeded to take longer exposure which again produced nice round stars.
Still,I felt that this was still not testing the mounts tracking accuracy because, by my calculation with a raw pec of 3.4",and a corrected pec of 1.2",I should have no problem being able to achieve a 30 minute exposure with the FSQ at this Dec.....oh,I must mention that these test exposures were taken with a 109 T-Point model in place and Protract activated to deal with what refraction there is at that dec.
Ok,off and running is the 30 minute unguided test so,went and had a coffee(had 6 by now)
Back at the mount, and only seconds to go to image download....don't know what I was expecting at this time?
Bugger me!nice round stars......nope don't believe,might be a fluke so shot another.....result?still nice tight stars!
Ok,now I believe It
I don't think that I was lucky enough to get a good one but,I do believe I was not unlucky enough to get a bad one.
For some reason the movie Matrix popped into mind....where the Oracle said to Neo"don't worry about the Vase"Neo turns around and brakes the Vase...Neo replies"how did you know?the Oracle replies"ah,a more interesting question is would you still have broken It if I didn't say anything?
So,was I experience the placebo effect in a negitive way?after reading all the bad press on these mounts? maybe..... I like to think that I was making sure that I got what I payed for!
After the many hours of testing the MX+ I'm totally convinced that, I've recieved an exceptional mount and will be enjoying many hours of excellent tracking
Anyone who finds It hard to believe this sub is a 30 minute unguided exposure can feel free to email me and I'll send them the fits file.
...sometimes I could just watch a stationary guide star for hours 
.....
