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No probs mate. On another note, I advertised the NEQ6 on another forum as well and had 1 nibble already. Although he may balk at cost of shipping to Brisvegas, my guess is it wont exactly be cheap shipping it anywhere due to the weight. Shane
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Epic mate. Keep us posted, we like to share in other's excitement. Ray
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I have just put in an order for a new mount and the old one will no longer be needed. It has done me great service in the time that I have owned it, about 10 years, it also has had quite a few modifications which I will list below. All mods done by myself except custom 5m synscan hand controller lead. I am asking $1000 ONO + p/h for the entire kit. NEQ6PRO Main bearings replaced April 2019, both RA and Dec Rowan belt mod hyertune spare PTFE spacers and end cap tool and old gears counterweight bar extension usb eq6 cables(FTDI chip) x2(both work one never used) scope mounting puck head x2, 1 Vixen style, 1x Losmandy style. Easily interchangeable tripod pier plate if required synscan hand control standard curly lead and custom 5m lead cigarette style power lead Shane
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I can thank Tony for the info he provided for making me look at this mount. The other alternative, buying a premium mount, was extremely unlikely. I have only seen good reviews no matter how hard I try to find a bad one, except perhaps for the early days of the mount. Having said that, by all accounts Ioptron after sales service seems to be exceptional. Now I can't wait for it to arrive, it's possible that I will get 2 new arrivals very close together, as my eldest daughter is due to have a baby soon as well, number 3 grandchild . Shane
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Geesuz! Nice toy mate. Can't wait for you to get it. Ray
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Organised to have a pier plate made by my brother today. That way I wont have to wait when the mount arrives. It's very handy having a brother that owns an engineering business . Even handier when you can take a cad drawing to him so he doesn't have to draw one up himself. Shane
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couple of stock pics from Ioptron website.
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I pulled the trigger today on a new mount. Ioptron CEM60. There is a bit of a wait for production to catch up, but should be here in about 6 weeks. The minister of finance and war was none too pleased but so be it. AHHH bring on the cloud. Shane
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Astronomical view of Brexit
wingeing Pom replied to scorpius's topic in Off Topic - Funny Videos - Interesting Concepts
It would be funny if we were not living through it. Greg -
Astronomical view of Brexit
Radar replied to scorpius's topic in Off Topic - Funny Videos - Interesting Concepts
lol, nice. Ray -
Astronomical view of Brexit
scorpius posted a topic in Off Topic - Funny Videos - Interesting Concepts
PastedGraphic-4.pdf N-Joy Dave -
Noted Shane. Yeh, mine would be around that age. It has not not had a lot of use per se, but looking ahead and my age/activities/health does not really warrant any further expenditure in Astro Gear. I have picked up a couple of accessories for the Canon 750D, for which I will put together a note/pictures regarding focal length reducing rings I purchased. I feel my future in photography will probably orientate closer to the terrestrial vistas Such as heading North of Perth in the Wildflower season Could chuck the MAK90 on the back seat Cheers Dave
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Hi Dave, I changed my NEQ6 over to belts quite a while ago now. At the time it made all the difference, reducing backlash to virtually zero. I just can't seem to nail down the cause of the current issue and are leaning towards a new mount. I believe the NEQ6 is still a great performer for its price point, I have had mine for around 12-13 years. Mine is still fine for visual and perhaps planetary imaging, but I like deep sky imaging so I have grown tired of fighting it. Cheers Shane
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Then again ever considered a squadron of UFOs flying in formation? I note that the latest mounts have done away with gears and now use belts. My old EQ6pro is still chugging along OK. Dave.
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Okay. Try swapping the stepper motors if you haven't already. That's all I have left. Even swap the gears over if they can be swapped. The RA worm may have a tiny dent or something. Ray
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Hi Ray cheers for the reply. I hope you had some fun with the billy lids. I have run with and without PEC, also did a new PE curve for a complete new PPEC. The only other guide software I have tried I have never had any luck with.(Maxim DL4 and Prism10), I believe the issue there is more the lack of sensitivity of my guide cam which may well be replaced with a Lodestar X2 soon as well. I always run the mount with a slight imbalance to have a preload on any gear mesh. I have got the mount tuned so good there is almost zero backlash. When I did a backlash measurement with PHD2 the report noted only miniscule backlash and recommended no backlash compensation. With regards to the stepper motors, I am thinking that may be the issue. I wouldn't be complaining at all if I used the mount for visual only or perhaps widefield imaging, but as you are aware being up close and personal FL imaging is rather more demanding on equipment. Anyway I am starting to get over fighting the mount and missing imaging time. For a 12 to 13 year old NEQ6, I have had good service from it, and are currently waiting on emails with prices to get an Ioptron CEM60 (Thanks Tony ). Shane
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Also could be the stepper motor moving the mount too far then reverting to pull it back in, etc. I know I am preaching to the choir but try the smallest possible movements in RA only. Turn DEC and backlash off. Ray
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Sorry about the delay in replying, I've been away with the kidlets in Mandurah. Can you try another guide program to eliminate the possibility of software? And have you tried both with PEC on and off to ensure it is not using a default PEC file? I would also unbalance it the (only after you have tried the above two). Misbalance it so that the scope is travelling uphill. Test and then try it the opposite way. This also speaks volumes about the gear teeth. And try it with PEC on and then off. Ray
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High-Speed scrambled egg
wingeing Pom posted a topic in Off Topic - Funny Videos - Interesting Concepts
Not sure if I posted this one years ago - but I just came across it again. A 9-microsecond freeze of an air rifle pellet taking out 2 eggs. The air rifle pellet can be seen off to the far left. And the eggs were later eaten by the dog - so no waste. Greg -
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Ray, the Revolution RI2 (Analogue) up top is used as a super-widefield finderscope that goes to a small monitor separate from the computer monitors. It gives me approximately 10 degree FOV. The IMX224 in the Guidescope/finderscope is just used as a closer finderscope and also for guiding if I ever want to guide (which I rarely ever do). It is connected to a small laptop computer and runs in PHD2. The next IMX224 in the ED80 is for viewing/imaging/Live Video, and so is the IMX178 in the 6" Achromat. The IMX224's are used by some as guide cameras but they are excellent small light 1.2mp imaging cameras. That's their most popular use. They are quite good at imaging, and extremely sensitive for video work. The IMX178 is a lot slower than the 224's and is 6.4mp, so it is a great imaging camera. Both the 224 and the 178 are far more sensitive than usual astro imaging cameras. What normally takes minutes to capture takes only seconds in these cameras. They aren't really recommended for serious astrophotography. They are recommended for Live and Near-Live Video Astronomy or fast imaging. I use the 224 in the ED80 and the 178 in the 6" Achro as my main cameras. They are the ones I use for Viewing/Broadcasting/fast Imaging etc. In the software (RisingSky) I simply switch back and forth between the two cameras
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Nowhere near the limit Shane. Those huge 6" f/5 Achromats aren't as heavy as they look It is only 9kg. and ED80's are super light. The cameras weigh about the same as an eyepiece. The little ones weigh less than eyepieces!
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For a number of reasons I've decided to quit Facebook - so it's either here or www.newforestobservatory.com for my latest piccies Greg
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Ray, the only other guiding software I have tried is within Prism10, I have never had any luck with that but I believe that is due to my guide camera not being sensitive enough. PEC is taken care of in EQMOD, which I have been using for over a decade. Haven't tried if the mount guides with another scope, I only have the RC and a guide scope. I could try swapping cameras around but guiding at 1600mm FL for 400mm FL scope is a bit overkill IMO. Shane
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I wrote a post yesterday and half way through it got a call and forget to submit the reply, lol But you have answered some of my questions. Have you tried different guiding software to see if there are any differences? Have you tried a PEC program to remove the errors? Finally will the mount guide accurately without the primary imaging scope (a mission to unload and rebalance I know). Ray
