Thank you man. This was super useful. 🎉

The issue with those phone-based polar alignment apps is that the metal saddle of the mount throws it off considerably. I bought a 3d printed gadget that’s basically a long vixen dovetail with a cradle for your smartphone at the end. I used it getting prepared for the eclipse last spring.

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZSUaGVngKaUedEsi=y0p3Kat9fAq_KM5i Astronomy tools website video for sample size. Match sensor with ota. Clear skies

Lola Expressway

Joe, what concrete mix did you use?

Bergstrom Station

Awesome Joe!

so yes i do the formula ..and it say 2.88 and then wat.. 2.88 sec .. 2.88 hours ..2.88 days ..2.88 ???????? WAT 🫣

I am not understanding where the other side of both switches goes. For a second there just after @9:39 it looked like two wires were twisted together then there was a cut in the recording and you were inserting a single wire into ground... Did you twist a single wire in with the other two, making it 3 wires, so the wire would be thin enough to fit into ground? That would make sense I suppose. I saw a drawing online that didn't have any ground connected. Nevermind, I see that you mentioned it @11:48 Got it now. Thanks

Just finished rebuilding my EQ-G with the help from your video. It was a great help! When adjusting the worm gear to eliminate backlash, I used this trick. Back out the adjusting set screws quite a bit. Set the mount so the worm gear is close to vertical and turn the shaft so the worm gear carrier is on top. Loosen the carrier bolts just until the carrier moves easily. At this point you have gravity pushing the worm gear drive together. "Tighten the set screw on the worm gear side until it just touches the stop. Snug the carrier bolts so you have some friction between the carrier and the mount body. Now snug the bottom set screw against its stop. Now you are VERY close to where you want to be to eliminate all backlash. You may still need to make some final adjustments, but you easily get to an excellent starting point. Don't forget the all important test for binding (360+ degrees in both directions), then the final tightening of the carrier bolts and then testing again.

Excellent! I am doing this right now. Ordered stuff and things.

Nice video. I am an amature astronomer looking for the best telescope within the budget of 7000 (including stand, camera, and barlow) and this helped a lot. do you have any recomendations?

Nice work. I just got the EdgeHD 9.25 with the .7 reducer and ASI2600Mc. A learning curve for me. Thanks for the vid. Clear skies!

Those screws though on the saddle, i wished they were compression pads rather than 3 screws digging into your optical tube Losmandy plate

Hi Joe am I able to send you email re help with roof motor

Which IR sensor(for scope) did you use and how did you wire them to the relay? Thanks!

Nice images!

It’s too easy to keep chasing perfection and waste so much observing time, in my humble experience. Mind you, I use a vintage C5 and C8, so I collimate manually, without your technology, jumping back and forth between the corrector and the ocular-not too much much fun. Should that make it easier or harder?

Impossible to accurately balance my AVX due to stiction and bearings and lack of bearings in DEC. Considering a CEM40. Thanks

Great job !! They however advise against putting the tube underground for several reasons: They rot and that means it gives your pier a chance to move by about half and inch and the fresh compact, undisturbed earth on the sides of the hole will hold it tight and upright if and only if the cement is contacting that earth. Notice your frostline data probably specifies 'undisturbed earth" or "compact earth".

Greetings from Costa Rica, great video and thanks for sharing. Question, you mention that the pier base plate is made out of some chevy rear break drums, can you provide more details so i can get the same? thanks

Great vid Joe. It's good to watch someone working through their issues. I'm right there with you. Nice setup, not there yet. A gun seems to work well against bear. The noise almost always makes them turn tale and run. It's your yard not his. Keep the vids coming.

I realize this is an old video but can you tell me what the point is of that first 3/16 steel plate? Couldn't you just bolt the brake drum to the J-bolts coming out of the pier?

Looks like Pleiades in the middle haha

Amazing. Just a question : where can i find the arduino's setting file ?

Music drove me away - sorry

Way to many adds for a 10 minute video

Nice tips.

Joe, this is a really great video for learners attempting to take down the EQ-6 mount. Really well done. I have a question though. Aren't there some little brass buttons down in the bottom of the axis lock clamp/lock screw holes--that are really easy to lose? Just wondering. Because I have an EQ-5 (Orion EQ-G) and this mount has those little buttons that will fall out without you knowing it and disappear..... Also, if you could include some detail on working with that encoder, that would be great! And, why did only one axis have and encoder???

The ZWO ASI 2400MC has 5.9um pixels which is a better match for that setup at 0.69" per pixel. Still going to be hard mode I think at that focal length. The 2400MC costs 3k which is ouch. Better to image at like 1300mm with a C8 and 0.63 reducer. With that 2400MC pixel scale would be .96" per pixel with is about perfect. Another setup you see a lot is like an f8 RC with a CCD camera hardware binned 2x2 that's a good galaxy setup but you still lose the resolution and end up with smallish images. My solution is the Orion/Skywatcher 190mm mak newt at 1000mm f/5 paired with a 294MC Pro. pixel scale is .96" per pixel and reasonably fast, with a flat field, no diffraction spikes. Stock focuser is not up to snuff on the Mak Newt but that's easily resolved. Moonlite has a specific mounting plate for it. I guess I have thoughts because I have been trying to solve the same puzzle.

Ciao, Ho provato con un amico il Dwarf II credo sia più pratico, tu lo conosci? Voglio regalarlo a mio figlio che studia Fisica all'università e lo userebbe per EAA .....PS. Ho guardato di nuovo il tuo video e verso la fine il gatto che insegue il cane nel deserto è esilarante.😂😂.

I'm stealing your method!

Everything was great untill i saw final image🫣🫣🫣🫣

Thank you Joe for sharing.

I had the same weight problem with my back-heavy 6" RC and I decided not to put on more weight. Instead I drew a sketch of the dovetail with the necessary holes, made it a bit longer than the original one and got it CNC machined from an aluminium bar. Now I can push the scope forward until it is in balance.

Nice. Thank you. By the way the button came out stuck to the bottom of the bolt on one of mine. So if you're looking down the hole and can't find it, it might be there or on the ground.

I'm new to this hobby and your video was very helpful in helping me test out Meridian Flip with NINA and my C8 SCT and my Celestron AVX. I had an issue a few nights ago where the flip occurred and it looked like the USB cable from the miniPC to the AVX hand controller came out the bottom of the hand controller. The cable snagged on something I suppose. Trying to salvage my image session the mount slewed to much and the camera (ASI071MC Pro) contacts the tripod leg but luckily everything seems OK. Using your video I have run a couple of simulations to verify even at high altitudes the Meridian Flip works with my settings in NINA and my cables now don't snag. Hope you find the time to start updating this channel. Thanks.

Very helpful - I was able to sort out the problem between NINA and CPWI settings that caused meridian flip issues.

Allah

Joe, good explanation but I've found much better results with two things: 1 - Using much smaller adjustments (I can see you tightening loosening by 1/4 or more turns at a time), and 2 - Always doing a three process adjustment, ie. when I tighten one I ALWAYs loosen the other two or vice versa. Usually only takes about 2-3 minutes once a year or so. just my 2cents

Please buy a microphone for your camera

All Askar telescopes have a defect - pinched optics at temperatures below zero degrees. The telescope cannot be used in winter - artifacts appear in the image of the stars. Askar refuses to replace the telescope under warranty, they offer to do the repairs himself. Proof:drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_WxrxrsKWtRvexhY7NCHdsrtP82VDGI9

whats the process to put stars back but doing it in photoshop ?

I realize this video is 3 years old, and you've probably long stopped reading comments here. However, I can't wait to try this during the day today. My meridian flip in NINA seemed to work fine last night...but when it began to plate solve the target for framing, then it went crazy and slewed the wrong way right into the tripod! I powered everything down and tried again. Same result. It was as if the scope didn't know which side of the mount it was now on.

Hi Joe. I know how you felt! I’ve been deep sky imaging for over 10 years but thought I’d give Lunar imaging a try. I started with just visual observing through a 10mm eyepiece on my Edge 8 and couldn’t believe how much the image moved in and out of being sharp. It was like those heat image things you see on roads on hot days. I found the best solution was to shoot at least 10,000 frames and select just the best 5% in Autostackert. Even then you need to hit lucky for good seeing. I’m sure you’ll get something you’re happy with eventually but it may take a few nights and some luck. Clear skies .

Great tutorial Joe 👍I’m still achieving 0.3 with my EQR6-pro but will perform this tune up if it degrades. A question for you - Once you finished tweaking the RA, was there any backlash movement remaining? Or was there no movement at all? I also previously watched Glenn Clouder’s (Astrobloke) tutorial which is also excellent. I have met Glenn a couple of times. He was good enough to drive for two hours to present at my local Astrophotography group, followed by great conversation over a beer at the aptly named pub local pub called ‘The Star’. A great evening! Clear skies, Kevan

Polar Align Pro works fine but its relies on the compass in the phone and this is affected by the metal in the mount. I borrowed someone else's idea and made a bracket that holds the phone about 30cm away from the mount and this helps a lot. Its good enough for wide field milky way stuff etc. Its not going to work for high mag planetary though. Thanks for the video. Those bears sound scary!

I have just spent three days trying to turn on PERMANENT Periodic Error Correction on my Sky-Watcher HEQ5 mount to no avail. I won’t bore you with the details but in the end I turned to my Sky-Watcher instruction manual for clarity on mount compatibility, here’s what I found out. The hand book for Sky-Watcher mounts states that there are two types of PEC depending on the mount model. Sky watcher mount models EQ3 / EQ5 / HEQ5 / EQ6 pro are software based and use Periodic Error Correction - PEC. (The mount hand set needs to be connected to utilise the PEC function and will not work or be turned on if it is disconnected.) The only Sky watcher mounts capable of using PERMANENT Periodic Error Correction - PPEC are models: AZ-EQ6GT and EQ8. Hope this help shed a little light on PERMANENT Periodic Error Correction mount compatibility.

Thank you for this. Does this improve guiding at all? Or is it just better stability ? Many Thanks

Currently outside right now and trying to get the dang buttons out and they just will not tip over or come lose.. ugh!! Lol