Equipment

Go to GEM28 – Latest Update Part IV Luckily I was able to continue my tests… finally clear sky for at least a week. I started with a serie of guided 10 minutes exposures. Guide speed this time 0.25x for DEC (before: 0.90x). Adjusted gear mesh for this test: RA -1/2 turn, DEC -3/4 turn […]

Go to GEM28 – Latest Update Part III Update Sept. 25, 2021 After analysis of the guided material, at least one positive thing resulted: I never reached that good eccentricity values before. This is very sursprising because the MGEN values doesn’t look very well, once again… The best sub exposures are IMG_1453 and IMG_1455, since […]

Go to GEM28 – Latest Update Part II UPDATE Sept. 22, 2021 It’s really an adventure with my GEM28. Differential Flexure is likely not responsible for my guiding errors, but at least I learned something new 🙂 The Differential Flexure hint was given on this German forum thread:https://forum.astronomie.de/threads/staradventurer-2i-vs-eq5pro-vs-eqm35-vs-ioptron-gem28.312432/post-1610995 2 months ago I started this thread […]

I’ve used the GoTo system of the iOptron GEM28 for a few weeks now and I’m really impressed about the accuracy 🙂 The traditional 2 or 3 star alignment is ok, but the real precision comes from the Sync. to Target function. It enhances significant the GoTo accuracy. Enhance GoTo accuracy Before I start the […]

Yesterday afternoon I aligned the polar scope reticle in vertical and horizontal direction towards a distant buidling because the night before I suspected that it’s not aligned well anymore. I was right! I’m not sure if this is my mistake. Before that all started, I transported the mount with attached counter weights from my balcony […]

Update Sept. 25, 2021 Since the last gear meshing adjustment degraded the performance of my GEM28, especially for RA, I adjusted it again and recorded the whole process: iOptron GEM28 manual (Appendix C, page 36): https://www.ioptron.com/v/Manuals/G28_GEM28_Manual.pdf I’m still not sure what to read out from the MGEN curves… On the MGEN graph it’s visible that […]

I purchased my first 17Ah SkyWatcher PowerTank right after my first telescope in 2015. Because I didn’t care much about it (I didn’t reloaded it after every use!) the battery died very quickly. So I buyed a second one in 2016. The second power tank I use until today (huge difference in lifespan, if you […]

Recently I expanded my ultra-small filter collection (so far only the CLS-CCD filter) with the Astronomik UV-IR block L-2 and L-3 filter. The CLS-CCD (City Light Suppression) filter blocks light pollution wavelengths and consequently also colors in that range. The CLS-CCD filter blocks up to 450 nm, between 520 and 620 nm and from 690 […]

Finally clear sky for the next few days… still small clouds but the conditions yesterday were good enough to test my new iOptron GEM28 mount. I know the dovetail solution with the EOS 70D, EF 400mm and guidescope side-by-side is not ideal regarding balance… Unfortunately I’ve no other possibility to attach my equipment right now. […]

After almost 2 weeks with the iOptron GEM28 I want to share my first impressions, even if I still were not able to test the mount in the field due to bad weather… So far, I found 2 issues: Saddle Locking Knob scratches on the DEC unit Polaris seems to be on a wrong position […]