What Are Encoders Anyway? Skywatcher EQ8Rh-Pro First Impressions

[@td6935]

That delay at the beginning killed me XD

[@coffeecatto3375]

What the fuc-

[@PafMedic]

Where’s The Awesome Introduction...I Noticed,lol

[@AstroForumSpace]

Well...I care about your PHD2 graph, it's freaking awesome Dylan!

[@DylanODonnell]

Thx bud :)

[@PafMedic]

Im Just Learning What All This Is,lol

[@ianbirkett6542]

That mount is sick! My profession is industrial maintenance where we have high precision encoders so I can relate to the expectation! Sweet videos, keep it up!!!

[@DylanODonnell]

Thanks man :)

[@VictorLima1]

"The MOUNT knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation."

[@deonbrewis8876]

Love a good “The Missile Knows Where It Is” reference :)

[@endless-sky2777]

The only way I would get 0.23" total RMS with my current equip is if PHD2 was guiding on a dead pixel... ;-)

[@gregmckay666]

Haha! Me too!

[@viniciusceccon7755]

holy crap Dylan, I never know what kind of fun I'm gonna have with your videos. Comedy and good information, this is what good content looks like. Keep it up!

[@DylanODonnell]

Hey thanks Vin!

[@bryen379]

Great video! One of the big differences that I see between the guitar and mount is that the guitar gets direct feedback, i.e., string sound > microphone > encoder > tuning knob. As far as the mount goes, it uses the star alignment as a starting point and extrapolates all other points. I wonder if a plate solving algorithm can be used by integrating a small camera into the mount?

[@DylanODonnell]

Interesting idea! And yes the guitar "encoder" idea isn't strictly right.. the stepper motors likely have no idea where they are but use the audio frequency for relative adjustments. Still, you're right it's an intelligence I'd love to see built into in a mount that can self align even without a telescope on it.

[@spamcan9208]

It's amazing how far our technology has come. Your "testing" photos look fantastic. Can't wait to see what this new mount will enable you do to when you really start to push your equipment. Have you set yourself a challenging goal yet?

[@DylanODonnell]

At this point getting a single full night is a challenge !

[@stew_redman]

Glad to see the Bintel sponsorship. Their customer service goes above and beyond. Love those guys.

[@DylanODonnell]

It’s true !

[@andyleather3014]

I used to use renshaw encoders on ffei plate setters. Basically your correct it shines a light on a diffusion pattern on a strip and from the it knows where it is. Clever huh?

[@DylanODonnell]

Nice!

[@ChucksAstrophotography]

Now that guiding is impressive!

[@DylanODonnell]

Thanks Chuck! I’m shocked really.

[@birreboi]

Very smart mount by the looks. Yeah, so can't wait to see some of your fully processed images using this new mount. Thanks for showing off! (uhmm, showing new mount that is).

[@RaysAstrophotography]

Glad to hear about your town restrictions and dark sky! Congratulations on the new mount. Seem like the right choice for me!

[@DylanODonnell]

Thanks Ray, it's incredible :)

[@DavesAstrophotography]

Oh, and was watching your shutter opening....damn mine gets about a foot up and just skips on the chain, think the shim is too narrow behind the gear. Put additional washers in the roof rollers, and lubed all the surfaces with silicon spray, but still did it. Ran out of time to get things finished before I headed back to work for another 10 weeks.... Guess I'll be tweaking again next time home, still got the rotation kit to fit as well.

[@Theniccolo20slime]

That last part of the video was a total flex and, as always, I loved it

[@Taletad]

This is awesome, i love the idea of the mount perfectly aligning and matching the earth’s rotation. I am also very jealous of : -your sky -your telescope -your mount -your gibson -your grand piano... Gibsons les paul are so pretty

[@roland775]

I look forward to a video covering the polar alignment of the mount.

[@RaymondVolker]

I love to see fellow Aussie's on YT. I haven't got a telescope, but love astronomy/astrophotography so I'll keep watching to get my fix a laugh at you're great humour. Thanks

[@DylanODonnell]

Cheers mate :) 🍺

[@AndrewWhise]

That red finish on the guitar is gorgeous.

[@DylanODonnell]

Pretty huh!

[@mtnhorn2619]

Ahh, weather apps, and weather forecasters (i.e., predictors). What happened to the weather accomplishments of Back to the Future II? That was supposedly in 2015. I find that as soon as the "forecasters" go beyond "50% chance of", they get into trouble. At least at 50%, it either will or it won't. Enough said on weather. I love SKYWATCHER. I have a CGX-L for my 11" EdgeHD, and it has worked well for me. But when I purchased a Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro this past summer, I was blown away by the ease of s/u, and the absolute accuracy! I have spent multiple times with it in IDS sites (Death Valley NP, Great Basin NP) assisting park rangers with star parties. Always amazed at the accuracy of "go-to", and how ridiculously quiet the motors are. I can only imagine how much more fine the EQ8-R Pro must be. Please continue your review of your new mount. Most enjoyable, thank you.

[@DylanODonnell]

Man on the moon but nobody can tell me if it’s going to be clear in an hour. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@mellowhippo]

Definitely get the dev version of PHD and try out multi-star guiding. It was like it was made for encoder'd mounts. I found it improved guiding on my Mach2 significantly.

[@DylanODonnell]

Can't wait!

[@LikeOnATree]

Thanks for that great explanation of encoders!! Congrats on the new mount!!

[@randywicker4530]

Nice getting the observatory and mount/telescope synced up. Enjoy.

[@FR3EKELITE]

I cant wait for your SynScan video, I have the HEQ5 Pro from skywatcher and it would be great to know all the things about it.

[@jezrougan]

Im glad you like the mount I sent you... The skywatcher allview mount has duel encoders.... I got mine first 🤪... but doubt mine is as spangly as yours...

[@lilithgaither9603]

PHD graphs are something I can watch all day. Until they are my own. That's when I have this awkward painful grimace with every little bump-up in tot RMS. Great explanation on encoders! Learned a lot.

[@DylanODonnell]

Hah that feeling when you've been watching the PHD guide graph for too long.

[@lilithgaither9603]

@@DylanODonnell I believe that's called "pain"

[@jeffmarston8586]

It will be really interesting to see how well, the new, big, mount performs. Good luck with it!

[@sirmeowcelot]

Thanks for another great video. nice to see you riding your new mount, and for sure encoders open the doorway to a new level of achievement. love from California.

[@dinomonaco2665]

I said it before, & I’ll say it again . By far one of the most informative & entertaining Astro channels on this platform. Great job Dylan. Ps. Play some more kick a_ _ rock tunes. 🤓

[@DylanODonnell]

Hehe thanks mate :)

[@jimbundy8449]

Great video Dylan! So ready for mine to arrive 🤪 Awesome numbers on the guiding 👍🏼 and of course the guitar playing 🤘🏻🎸Rock on!!!!

[@ericvanhorn7986]

Always put a smile on my face, man. Thanks again!

[@Hellridermetal]

beautifull Gibson Man!!! Keep on rocking in the astroword!

[@DylanODonnell]

thanks..I love it so much!

[@elmikol2443]

Okay! I'll say it!! Great PHD2 graph!!

[@homecentral7570]

Nice work! Cant wait for a detailed Polar Alignment on Synscan for us southern peeps!

[@sjgonline]

Nice! I have a CEM60, could have gone with the encoder one, never saw the use.. after your video, a bit of regret settled in. Looking forward to ultra long exposures! Clear skies

[@derekregan6926]

Don't think they use the reimshaw ones... there's a few software glitches associated with them, both on the 60 and the 120... I use a standard 60 myself, awesome mount... are the encoders worth the extra money?? I'm not sure.. The eq8 r does look a serious bit of kit, up there with the mesu price range, so you pay your money and you take your choice

[@rodneyhendrickson5094]

I do love that mount All I have is an EQ6R Pro And your Getfiddle are Guitar is Awesome I've been playing mine for over 25 years now I have a Gibson Les Paul and a Kramer and an older Fender Strat I play the lead My brother-in-law and cousin both play in a band I've played a few gigs with them I've never had one self-tuning I love that I use my whammy bar a lot on my Kramer What would happen to the auto-tuning when you break a string? Thanks man

[@EODHammer]

Excellent Smithers! A Gibson Les Paul Rh! That's a killer mount Dylan. One day, One day...............

[@DylanODonnell]

Hehe thnx man

[@philkidd]

This is great Dylan! Stoked for you man! Oh, and that guitar riff... 😍

[@DSOImager]

Wait! Stars are round? WTF! ... grats on your new mount. Expectations are high now ;)

[@robertbrowning4888]

Great stuff Dylan. Like you I own the CGX mount (own CGX-L too) and even with PhD2 multi-star guiding I can't keep it under 1". I am looking at purchasing this mount as well so that I can use my CPC-1100, so I look forward to your next videos on setup, etc. Keep 'em coming. Clear skies brother.

[@martinsastrophotography]

Hey Dylan. Greetings from the other side of the planet (UK)! I am deliberating between the EQ8-R and the EQ8-Rh for my EdgeHD 11 setup. I have a question... I notice you had an OAG in your setup, despite having the Rh version. It was not clear if this was actively applying corrections or not when you achieved the incredible RMS error you showed. If you are well polar aligned and there is no differential movement in the optical train, why autoguide if you have the Rh? Thanks.

[@StarlancerAstro]

Well guess I got a good one, my new CEM70 was doing .3 to .5, how great of a feeling it was to not toss a single sub, nirvana!

[@DylanODonnell]

yes... it's quite unfamiliar to me to keep the entire run!

[@lmu6airy]

would love to see a review on that ZWO focuser and how you achieve focus on the edge scopes .. something ive been struggling with :(

[@DylanODonnell]

Honestly I struggle with it too. The sgp autofocus fails half the time but the focusser itself seems to be doing everything it’s told fine. Need to nail it first .)

[@lmu6airy]

@@DylanODonnell im using nina and struggled a bit, but thats mainly do to my bortle 9 so what i do now is keep autofocus on 8 second subs when doing L .. the real problem is doing NB with 3nm filters (oh and step size is 35)

[@markc7899]

Dylan I remember you set up a website where you could look at the latest activity in the Byron Bay observatory. Do you have the link? I don't see it in the description

[@DylanODonnell]

byronbayobservatory.com.au/obs/ :)

[@peterlaubscher3989]

Thanks for your excellent videos. Really looking forward to your presentation on using Synscan for polar alignment, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. I use an EQ 5 and find it difficult to see Octans through the Polar alignment scope, even thought the skies to the South of me are dark.

[@DylanODonnell]

Coming soon :)

[@HollomanUFOLanding]

See the little reptile (lizard?) in there at 2:40

[@damienf4581]

Hey Dylan - really looking forward to seeing images from your new setup! Be interested to see what targets you'll be going after what all that focal length. Cheers

[@elmikol2443]

Nice guitar and playing Dylan!

[@billlong7146]

Dylan if you want to see a dual axis encoder mount in action, I am online and imaging right now on the Mach 2. Let me know.

[@lucasmaguire7625]

Love the new Skywatcher Les Pole

[@DylanODonnell]

Slew and Soul.

[@johnadastra1754]

Wow! This looks like a great mount! I thought you were BSing about the guiding at first, or cherry picking some good data. I wonder if the mount compensates for atmospheric refraction as the target gets closer to the horizon...

[@DylanODonnell]

I imagine ill still need to guide that out!

[@russellmm]

Hey Dylan. Thanks for answering the encoder/guiding question I had in the comments from your last in more detail here! One thing I always found interesting was you were always using your hand controller on your last mount. From the day I got into AP/bought my Orion Mount (Aug 2020) I have not used the hand controller once, nor do I even know how to use it :). I learned via ASCOM and that's all I have ever known.

[@DylanODonnell]

Yeh the Celestron one forces you to run through a boot sequence in the hand controller before you connect to ascom - via the hand controller. I think they’ve recently changed this up a bit but attaching straight to ascom after power up is how it should be :)

[@77BlackKnight]

Legendary guidning. I just discoverd mulitstar guiding in PHD2 and it performed 30% bettet on my CGX. Around 0,8 arc second from my balcony in Stockholm. Great video and Cheers mate. 🍻

[@DylanODonnell]

Nice! I’m looking forward to multi star guiding !

[@77BlackKnight]

@@DylanODonnell its in still in dev 4 on PHD2 page but works great.

[@sPidX1]

Never stop making video's! ☝🏻🤓🔭🌌

[@jreichle59]

Looks like a great mount.

[@cjmenagh882]

Great video (as always), great mount, encoders, guiding, but... when does the guiding precision/pointing accuracy outstrip the seeing of your local atmosphere?

[@Max6785]

Have you tried PhD2's multi-star guide yet? Still in beta i think, but you might be able to shrink those numbers even further. It's still a little wonky, but mostly works.

[@DylanODonnell]

Keen :)

[@jamiboothe]

The encoder thingy on the guitar is interesting. Does it tune as you play, and can it adjust to off pitch frequencies?

[@DylanODonnell]

Not while you play, but yes it’s programable to alt tunings and microtonal frequencies.

[@enbi1352]

yup.. encoders are Absolutely necessary for precise movements. I have them installed on the Ions Implanters of the company I work with. On the optical type is important to set the right distance between the optical readers and the scale. I have been using a credit card for that :D

[@JoesAstrophoto]

Super jealous of your mount Dylan, who said mount envy isn’t a thing. Great explanation of encoders as well! I have an EQ6-R and after writing the PEC curve to the encoders, I’m getting about .6” so you’re about 3 times less error with your encoders. Great, now I have encoder envy lol

[@DylanODonnell]

It's pretty nuts huh! expensive.. but one less thing to worry about.

[@wesleydonnelly2141]

Thanks Dylan! I finally now know what a damn encoder is!! lol. I always wondered what the adverts meant when stating a mount had "special encoders" lol. Educational as well as entertaining! Perfect! Thanks mate! Wes, Liverpool, UK.

[@DylanODonnell]

Me too. To be honest even the manuals and marketing don’t really spell it out for you!

[@craiglowery4427]

Great video Dylan. Does the mount have Wi-Fi built in

[@TheAngryAstronomer]

Makes me wonder if you could get those guiding numbers even lower by switching off output in the RA axis.

[@DylanODonnell]

I haven’t had enough clear sky to want to try yet. With such good guiding I’ve just wanted get data .. maybe I’ll try on a full moon kinda night.

[@TheAngryAstronomer]

@@DylanODonnell Good ethos. Data first, play later.

[@AstroQuest1]

Awesome vid. Congrats on the mount. I did the polar alignment using the Synscan method a few times with my Atlas Pro and it worked great. However, since I am in the Northern Hemisphere I just use the polar scope and Polaris as it is quickest method. Cheers

[@DavesAstrophotography]

I'm sure you will produce some amazing results with that setup!

[@inquisitivesoul8978]

Great vid. I've wanted an explanation of what those encoders do.

[@DylanODonnell]

Thx!

[@paulcizdziel3769]

Thanks Dylan. I learned a lot. Been doing astrophotography for 6 months so I have a lot to learn. So pardon my basic questions. Do all mounts have some kind of encoder? Do you really need encoders if you are doing guiding and plate-solving to drive the go-to-function? FYI, I use the ASIAIR PRO with a AZ-GTi mount in EQ mode for a 60mm/360mm scope. I am thinking to upgrade, so I want to understand whether I should consider mounts with good encoders or whether it is overkill for my widefield set-up? My intuition tells me the latter.....

[@daniberkvens8167]

That setup looks sick, and why do you use the Zwo EAF instead of the Celestron Motor Focuser for your EdgeHD? No team Celestron anymore?

[@DylanODonnell]

I use both :) different scopes

[@daniberkvens8167]

@@DylanODonnell oh okay that figures! Is there one you like better? I have the Celestron one as well and thought maybe swapping for the eaf on my EdgeHD 8!

[@DylanODonnell]

The EAF works great :) I haven’t tried the latest Celestron versions though.. mines a prototype.

[@daniberkvens8167]

@@DylanODonnell I guess changing focuser won't give you better focus, so I'll think it's unnecessary to change mine.. 😂

[@Wolfie6020]

Drool!. Lucky bugger. I love that mount. Cool guitar too. Looking forward to more.

[@DylanODonnell]

Thanks mate! If the clouds go away I might be too busy to spend any more money.

[@roland775]

Do you use the USB3 ports on the mount? I've seen a few blog posts complaining that the ports were not powered.

[@DylanODonnell]

Not yet actually. The pier means I basically have no chance of cable snags and for speed I like having the camera direct to pc anyway. I have many cable management sins.

[@klaussfreire]

Haha... that new intro delay is a perfect description of the new equipment experience. My hat to you... if I wore a hat.

[@DylanODonnell]

Hah!

[@jimmythechicken4802]

Great video as always! Keep it up man, can't get enough of your content :)

[@HockeyHomeBrewski]

Thanks for sharing! Awesome and cool to learn about encoders.

[@DylanODonnell]

Glad you liked it!

[@HockeyHomeBrewski]

You’d make one hell of a professor. Congrats on the photo in Australian Sky and Telescope, too. I’m in the USA but saw it on my Kindle when I was flipping through a couple of days ago. I’ll buy my gear from High Point Scientific since they’re a supporter. Anyway, thanks again - your KZbins are kind of a highlight for me - like getting your National Geographic in the mail feeling. I know I’ll either have a good laugh, learn something or both.

[@DylanODonnell]

@@HockeyHomeBrewski Thanks mate .. I like my sponsors and not just because of the sponsorship, but when I get good comments from people that let me know they are a good choice. Tell them hi for me :) Are you talking about this months AS&T? I've been in it before but not for ages now. I haven't seen this months edition yet.

[@HockeyHomeBrewski]

Yep, page 61

[@DylanODonnell]

Off to the newsagent... THANKS!

[@augusto3645]

Awesome video, Dylan! Personally I really enjoy these scientific insights behind things and, if I may suggest, you could make a video of Pluto AP with its motion in the background stars. Also some cool photometry or spectroscopy. All of that in a such funny and interesting way that only you know how to make it on YT. Cheers mate!

[@afryhover]

Congrats on the new mount Dylan! I've been trying to get my club's observatory to sell our two CGE-Pro mounts and get an EQ8R-Pro

[@simon__g]

Discovered the syncscan polar alignement recently. It allow me to polar align from my balcony with a severe limited skyview. I use the 2 stars alignement. Do you recommend the 3 stars alignement ? And repeat the process 2 times (star alignement and polar) ? Looking forward for your video about the process! :D

[@DylanODonnell]

Yep, 3 stars repeated the PA and do that twice :)

[@montygiavelli8125]

I've been looking at the EQ8-RH for a permanent installation in an obervatory. With the permanent mount already polar aligned will I be able to just turn it on and slew to my imaging location and start imaging ?? I'm a little confused about the encoders... Currently I'm using an EQ6-R pro and on a night with low humidity and clear skies I'm getting about RMS 0.25(0.55") Your numbers are RMS 0.59(0.23"). Our numbers seem to be reversed !! On a humid night with less than ideal conditions the guiding might be RMS 0.35(0.85"). Am I reading your numbers wrong. I'm going to try the new PHD multi-star guiding and see if it helps (when I get a clear sky). thanks, Monty

[@catchingphotons]

Hey Dylan! Epic mount epic guiding graph and epic guitar riff. Question: what blink-software would you recommend on... Windows? I'm too lazy to code something. Clear skies mate!

[@DylanODonnell]

Thanks! Pixinsight works on windows :) I haven’t tried blinking on anything else.. I only use Windows for acquisition stuff.. all processing apart from some specific planetary things happens on a Mac :)

[@rulz492]

Does active guiding actually hamper the tracking in RA vs just having a great polar alignment and relying on the encoder?

[@DylanODonnell]

I couldn’t rightly say without more tests. At these numbers though it would just be a curiosity for me though, i can’t imagine seeing a much difference in image quality with even better tracking .. maybe if the atmosphere was perfectly still though? Not sure.

[@rulz492]

@@DylanODonnell yeah but... tracking error number go brrr 😂

[@legolator]

Finally got some clear skies and then my SA2i decided to act up. After a bit back and forth with Sky-Watcher they wanted me to open it up to see why the motor was spinning so fast, turns out there was a sh!t solder job on the connector going from the main board to the motorcontroller. So because they themselves said it would be roughly 6months before a replacement unit could be sent I decided to go on amazon and buy a bunch of soldering equipment and fix it myself. I don't think I've had such bad luck ever. The only comfort is that it's been sh!t weather ever since it broke completely.

[@DylanODonnell]

Ouch .. that sounds rough! Did you fix it ok?

[@legolator]

@@DylanODonnell Still waiting for the soldering iron and some other stuff to come. But It looks simple enough because the connector came clean off from the circuit board, so it's just a matter of cleaning up the old tin and attaching a new connector. Worst case scenario I can always just remove the male connector from the cables running from the motor and solder them onto the board. But yea just waiting for parts now. Funny enough this most have been dodgy from the start because the problem I was having was the mount would rotate way to fast, like I'd audibly hear the mount and see it spin away so it was not a PA or payload balance issue it was just going way to fast. And it kind of fixed itself as I was lifting the lid off the tracker, but then the error would come back again when putting it back on suggesting that the very same connector that came off was in fact a dodgy job from the start. But I'm staying positive I can fix it. Haven't had to solder in 20 years So i've been binging soldering videos on KZbin for 3 days now. :) One day I'll get a big mount, but I'm a noob still so taking it cool. Cheers mate, be safe. :)

[@leonronan7239]

Did you get the Gibson to explain encoders......now thats dedication 👏.

[@DylanODonnell]

That’s what I’m telling myself ;)

[@jamesneagle1330]

Underrated channel.

[@DylanODonnell]

Thx man :)

[@martynh5410]

We stole your weather. 6 clear nights in a row here in my backyard! Oh, and I was able to decode your excellent video, thanks!

[@Astrolavista]

Astronomy and guitars, the perfect symbiosis!

[@paulholdsworth2502]

It looks an amazing mount !! Great video mate. At some point in the future will you test the mount with unguided subs on a shorter focal length ?

[@DylanODonnell]

Sure!

[@AndyofAstro]

I tried multistar PHD2 the other night, seems great, wonder if your guiding would be even better with that?

[@DylanODonnell]

I can’t wait !

[@davejenkins8524]

I worked with encoders. They not only allow the movement of the motor in small increments. They also send confirmation pulses back to the system to confirm movement. You can tell it to move 15/11millionth, how do you know it moved that far. the encoder confirms the movement.

[@DylanODonnell]

Interesting!

[@davejenkins8524]

@@DylanODonnell Stepper motors are very accurate, but no feed back. how do you know it moved at all?

[@geert5811]

Hi Dylan, I'm surprised that synscan handcontroller still hasn't made it to your list of useless equipment. As a beginner, I think I used it 3 times with my EQ6-R, now it's gathering dust next to the st4 cable. g.

[@joeshmoe7967]

Curious if you will update on the Les Paul....the robo tuners do not review well...a big mis step for Gibson

[@DylanODonnell]

Apparently. I’m still trying to work out why. Seems great to me.

[@jamesvaid]

I'll save up for one of these mounts and use that link if it still works in a few years.

[@stevewilkins2669]

Hey Dylan, best explanation of encoders around! Now that you have the encoders, you mentioned you might turn guiding off - do you think guiding adds more accuracy on top of the encoders? How?

[@DylanODonnell]

There is an atmospheric distortion of the sky (a major one, not minor wobbles) depending on the direction you're facing and guiding can deal with that.

[@N4GW]

Great review. That mount is on my wishlist

[@mikemoralesKartRacer]

Good vids man wish I had some of that equipment

[@jamalcarlos9780]

Sorry to be so off topic but does someone know a trick to get back into an Instagram account..? I was dumb lost my login password. I appreciate any tips you can offer me

[@doriancrosby6850]

@Jamal Carlos Instablaster =)

[@jamalcarlos9780]

@Dorian Crosby Thanks for your reply. I found the site thru google and Im in the hacking process now. Takes quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@jamalcarlos9780]

@Dorian Crosby it worked and I finally got access to my account again. Im so happy! Thanks so much you really help me out!

[@doriancrosby6850]

@Jamal Carlos happy to help xD

[@kevinburke8608]

Jealous!!! I'm fighting my CGX at the moment. I had to throw away 3 out of 4 hours of images this weekend due to issues with the mount. I just got it back from Celestron due to an issue of the Dec impinging on a plastic flange that had warped with the internal wiring. Now it seems I have a backlash issue... (came that way last year, just got it fixed) I'm still hoping it's me, but I think I had the mount well aligned and there wasn't much wind... Looks like I'm trouble shooting the next session... Using AOG

[@DylanODonnell]

Oh bummer .. some of my recent videos about cgx maintenance and tuning may help otherwise yeh.. at the mercy of the vendor

[@kevinburke8608]

@@DylanODonnell OMG it was me... For some reason, the rate was set to lunar... I assumed it was the mount because I had just got it back from Celestron... All is good... lol thanks!

[@thomaspetersen5114]

Absolute encoders are a total gamechanger. Since I got the ASA mount I eventually stopped doing guiding and let the software do the magic for me. Is there an option for the skywatcher to utilize the encoders without having to guide?

[@andrewthedistiller]

Noice. Thanks for the vid I was on the fence about encoders. Glad I shelled out the extra cash for the encoder on the Ioptron I ordered. Says .25" on the listing. Hopefully it lives up to the promises 🤞

[@alanhat26]

Nice one man thanks for sharing

[@AlaskanAstro]

That's a beautiful guiding graph.

[@lukomatico]

What a beautiful mount Dylan, buy once, cry once, and then enjoy for years to come! (congrats on the Gibson too by the way!)

[@DylanODonnell]

Thanks!

[@book3100]

Dude, that's pretty good! Looks like you got a sweet mount. I'm after an EXOS2 with PMC8, from Explore Scientific. It'll be my first "robot" mount.

[@DylanODonnell]

Robot everything !

[@book3100]

@@DylanODonnell yea, it's going to take me some time. But I'll get there eventually. I've only been at this for a year and a half. I was happy to get a nice manual eq mount. Been learning the sky and all that. Have fun with that badass mount man!