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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 12:26:34 GMT
Here are a couple of images . Clear night, no wind,no moon. Had the 183 on the 8"sct on heq5 and the 432 on the Rasa on the eq6-R. M65, 183,29s x 11 stack and night owl fr... the HEQ5 tracking is terrible.Not sure what the problem is. M65,432,Rasa8 19sec x 16 stack ,EQ6-R cheers Paul
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Post by Dragon Man on May 14, 2020 12:41:23 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 15:57:08 GMT
Thanks Ken. Wish me luck. This could end in tears. cheers Paul
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iannz
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home town/country: Tarurutangi, NZ
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Post by iannz on May 14, 2020 21:48:52 GMT
hi Ken, Paul. after a look at the Astro-baby page (great site, thanks for the intro, Ken), I'd suggest to first check that the set-screws on the motor/worm-shaft gears were indeed seated to their shafts. Before fiddling with the worm gear's engagement. The other, first adjustments she discusses.
You might get lucky.... enjoy. ian
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 22:52:06 GMT
I will need luck Ian. A job for this weekend. I have been having trouble with the HEQ5 for a while now. I thought a lot of it was just balancing problems as even the goto was off last week with the 6" newt,but last night with the 8" sct ,goto was pretty much spot on. Even the 30 second single shot looked pretty good so I went and aligned the EQ6 with the Rasa and came back to see that the stacked shots looked terrible.
Howie suggested last week that I look into the Rowan Astronomy Belt upgrade, but that looks like the too hard basket for someone with my mechanical skills.
cheers Paul
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iannz
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home town/country: Tarurutangi, NZ
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Post by iannz on May 15, 2020 1:37:23 GMT
Hm, the belt thing looks good but to me that would suggest drift that over time you're not keeping up with the star movement/tracking. Yours looks (to my basic understanding) like the mount jumped. Maybe you kicked it.....? haha. Anyway, the completed list of fiddles from Astro-baby wouldn't be much different from the belt change. The belt thing appears to be work in the motors compartment, changing the gears on the motor shafts to belt-suitable ones plus changing the mounting plates for the motors to set them at the correct height relative to the worm/drive shafts. Thats my take on the web pix anyhoo. I thought your symptom could be easily explained with the drive gears moving slightly on the worm shafts and all this due to the gear's set screws being a tad less than truely snug to the shaft to eliminate any movement. This could easily work in over time.... And this would be a very easy/quick check/fix rather than fiddling with the worm-shaft's engagement with their respective drive gears (spur?) which the first of her instructions refers to I'm guessing; they also court endless iterations to get it right as she states in the text. Anyway, on the off-chance you might not be comfortably confident diving in to the guts of it, I thought I'd offer an opinion! Free too! Ha Ha. all the best ian
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 3:35:32 GMT
Not a kicking problem Ian.I changed cameras. The 294 added vignetting to all the backlash. The first single 30 second image looked ok. It took the stacking to really demonstrate the problem. 29sec x 11stack zwo 294 on night owl fr. The night owl is meant for sensors up to about 16mm , so the 294 sensor is too big. cheers Paul
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Post by howie1 on May 15, 2020 4:49:45 GMT
Some other quick and easy to do checks Paul.
First onces which you should do now ... as they do not need you to be setup outside.
1. Check the grub screws which hold the DEC head / dovetail bar as that bit is held to the actual physical mount via three small grub screws. If they are loose then the entire OTA held by the dovetail will be loose and so wobble about.
2. Check the clutches are actually still holding firm - as my DEC clutch wore out to the point that when you turned it hard pressed against its stop ... it was not actually holding well with a small tap on the OTA moving the OTA overcoming the friction. If it is no longer holding via the friction, undo the clutch knob centre screw and rotate the knob around a bit so when you retighten it all, the knob is starting "further around" so it makes the clutch plate friction tighter. If you undo the screw holding the knob you will understand what I mean.
Next a few to do at night ...
1. do a test at night by turning on the sharpcap reticule and line up a star smack bang in the centre of the crosshair reticule and just watch and wait. See how much and how fast it drifts away from the reticule crosshairs.
2. After the check #2 above, check the hand control Utilities menu and in that menu select Show Information and in there Power Voltage - it will display on the hand control the voltage it is getting from your battery. Perhaps your battery has one or two dropped cells ... they only last 2 years maximum. Even less if smaller old chemistry and plate tech. The HEQ5 needs a good solid 2 amps (I think it is).
3. Insert the camera and start a stack and when you do ... check that the "Align frames" checkbox in the sharpcap stacking window is actually checked! If unchecked then it wont align the frames and you'll get weird stars.
Chers Howie
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Post by davy on May 15, 2020 7:52:58 GMT
I will need luck Ian. A job for this weekend. I have been having trouble with the HEQ5 for a while now. I thought a lot of it was just balancing problems as even the goto was off last week with the 6" newt,but last night with the 8" sct ,goto was pretty much spot on. Even the 30 second single shot looked pretty good so I went and aligned the EQ6 with the Rasa and came back to see that the stacked shots looked terrible. Howie suggested last week that I look into the Rowan Astronomy Belt upgrade, but that looks like the too hard basket for someone with my mechanical skills. cheers Paul I done the rowan belt mod couple of weeks ago,, I had it sitting for a couple of years,, the instructions are good,, parts are great,, watch utube video on how to do it as well. Buy the gear puller tool from them,, Only problem I had was getting motor plugs out of mother board,, thick fingers
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2020 2:40:18 GMT
Thanks Guys.I did the Astrobaby approach without fully understanding what I was doing and in addition tightened the screws according to Thespyk on youtube. There was a screw loose on the dec system which I tightened up but otherwise everything seemed to me to be pretty secure. Didnt get a chance to test it last night. First night at friends for dinner for 8 weeks, and the night was crystal clear. That is the way the weather seems to work. Hopefully it is clear tonight so I can try it out.If it is still no good ,I will have to consider the Rowan mod.
Howie, I run the system from power at home.I always check the align frames. In fact sometimes I have to uncheck it when sharpcap starts dropping too many frames. But that wasnt the problem the other night. cheers Paul
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2020 12:42:55 GMT
Another clear night. This is m83 ,Rasa ,imx 432,14s x 13 M83, sct 8" on HEQ5,zwo 183 with night owl fr, 19s x 10 The backlash problem seems to have improved.It must have been the loose screw on the dec. I have surprised myself . I really thought fiddling with the mechanics would end in tears. cheers Paul
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