Go back a blog post or two and you will see that I have inherited the above mount, for free, from a very generous gentleman who was getting out of the hobby. You can read about my initial first efforts using it and the problems I encountered.
Three sessions on, I managed to get it all working last night. Guiding below 1.0. GOTO functioning spot on. Two minute images of M13 - thirty of them, just as a test case; along with calibration frames.
So, my initial mistakes. Guess who had both an ST-4 cable AND an EQMOD cable plugged in? Only need the one and I opted for the latter.
Latitude and Longitude inputs in the ASIair slightly out and now corrected!
Problems with guiding? Down to several factors - too low a gain setting. Wrong aggressiveness inputs in DEC and RA. Had it on auto rather than either north or south (north proved better for me).
Polar alignment went better last night. I polar aligned using the little illuminator and the reticle - without the equipment load on. Then after adding the load and counterweight, I did it using the ASIair mini and it was pretty accurate. I managed to plate solve accurately on Vega and from that point onwards, it would slew to any target accurately and pretty much place it in the centre of my DSLR LED rear view screen.
Simple things to put right - every night is a learning night if you are a beginner. Good job I'm a 'wing it life-long learner' type 😁
Now all that remains is cable management and also working out how to illuminate the reticule better. The polar illuminator is pathetic. And also how to look through the polarscope without cracking my neck, dislocating my shoulder or wrecking my knees!
Updates:
In the post today arrived the skywatcher right angled polar scope viewer. Game changer! No more wrecked neck and knees.
And here is my first ever image of M13 and the first one taken on this new to me mount.
