Trifid

[ChrisV (Chris)]

Apologies John
I don't know what I was looking at but those stars are perfectly OK ....

Chris

Originally Posted by oska

Cheers Chris. I appreciate it, thank you.
Do you mean the stars are a little fuzzy as they seem at least roundish to my poorly eyes
The 2nd is a screen cap of the DSS live stack showing the dust/detail I had missed noticing previously, being laser focused on the "bright colours" aspect of the target.
I was guiding getting about 0.7 arcsec total (EQ6R) I naively expect that's OK-ish, am I mistaken? When I cull I'm quite strict now with eccentricity usually grading (WBPP) to about 1/2 to 2/3 (statistically) on that alone. FWHM and star count are the other criteria. I'm trying to keep the criteria simple enough to make obvious changes and see obvious results. I intend to progress to more sophisticated grading once I get my head around "things".
I think I may have a little bit of tilt still and have messed with it a bit. I got it to "better than it was" and will give it another go when I can find the energy to - so fiddly.
I definitely have major backlash in DEC and manage it with imbalance. One of the adjustment grub screws is seized and I don't want to snap it or the allen key (already bent an allen key). I've tried every penetrant I can find/concoct but I fear I'll have to disassemble the dec axis and give it a little kiss with a blow torch to get it loose. Not looking forward to that.

[oska (John)]

Bugger, I was hoping I was going to learn something but either way it set me off on a tangent that, for now, bore fruit.

Cheers!

[oska (John)]

Originally Posted by Startrek

John
Good news
Now for some clear nights and testing
You may have to fiddle with the Dec again and some micro binding may still be present
I used my ears ( yes my ears ) to listen to the Dec axis whilst I drove it around both sides using the handcontroller.
It worth spending time on these mounts to get them running and guiding well
Both my mounts guide at 0.50 to 0.60 on nights of good seeing. One carry’s 15kg ( 8” f5 Newt ) and the other 11kg ( 6” f6 Newt )

Good luck with it

Clear Skies
Martin

Thanks Martin. Something you said, dunno what, changed my thinking about the problem from "delicate scientific instrument" to "precision machine" it became "obvious" and "easy", well to my scattered brain. I'll be sure to give it the needed refining first chance.