Please SUBSCRIBE to this KZread Channel for all things related to deep sky exploration and imaging, thanks!

@victordelpalaciosr

4 жыл бұрын

It is May how is it going with your setup?? is it working? have pictures? great honest video contrata post another one as a follow up

Thanks for the humor and for being honest in your live set-up. I needed that. Our hobby has "out-takes" every day if we would just admit it.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Travl - glad you enjoyed it. I don't rehearse anything and just leave the camera running - so whatever happens, I just go with it. Sometimes it can be very entertaining :-)

@NFNDAIBO

4 жыл бұрын

I LOVE it! And because of that, I sub’d. I have seen a couple other of Chuck’s videos, but he got a sub based on this one. Keep up the good, HONEST work and keep those videos coming!

Thanks for showing the human side of new equipment set up. I found it entertaining and real world. I hope this will encourage people that are interested in wedge mounts to use the proper wedge. I've seen a few celestron alt az mounts damaged and sometimes ruined with home made wedge designs.

Thanks Chuck! Your presentation is of a real guy (like me) just trying to figure things out. Seems like the astrophotography hobby has far too many snobs who are not willing to help out the beginner but rather get as fancy as possible with their fancy terms and big $$$. Thank you for being a real guy and meeting me where I am at as a beginner.

Thank you! I've never seen someones GOTO fail badly on a youtube video, they always edit that part out. Debugging why your rig wont align right is a critical skill.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks. I almost did cut it out because the video was getting too long.

"I tested it already, and it works." Famous last words. Thanks Chuck!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

I was asking for trouble when I said that, LOL. Thanks Rick!

Chuck, rotate the whole rig 180 degrees. I was yelling! Lol

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

LOL, my intuition was telling me to do that from the very beginning, but I kept seeing pictures online that were mixing me up.

@elmikol2443

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography so easy to get mixed up! There are alot of details in this hobby!

@elmikol2443

4 жыл бұрын

You got that right. I knew you would figure it out! You're the master!

@darkwood777

4 жыл бұрын

I laughed as soon as he said north is that way and he set the RA axis pointed south. Also Chuck should have put the free screw into the motor drive base first so he could hang the base onto the wedge and the other two screws would self-align. Oh well, it all worked out.

@ruiferreira9193

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Chuck. Awesome video. Haven't seen a further video on how the wedge actually worked in action? I'm thinking of getting one. Would you recommend it or would you wait until the Equatorial mounts are available? Love the outakes.

So glad I bought the AVX mount for my 8SE OTA. I was real close to buying the wedge. Love the fast forward chipmunk voice!!! LOL

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Hi Tex, yes - I never gave the Wedge a chance and went straight to the AVX also, but I think it will serve a good purpose for planets. LOL, the video was getting way too long so that's why I sped up certain parts and deleted others.

@ChanceBreaks

3 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography Still talking $500 difference though, what would be the benefits?

@darkwood777

3 жыл бұрын

@@ChanceBreaks Several benefits to an equatorial mount including: 1) Much more precise and accurate tracking/guiding. 2) Ability to support more weight. 3) Ability to add balancing counterweights easily. 4) Ability to image north because an attached camera won't bump into the base of the fork drive.

That third bolt/screw that comes off. It’s meant to screw on your telescope first. It helps you align the other boats. That’s why that mount is open at the top.

Enjoyed this post thoroughly! You have a great sense of humor Chuck!

The first time I put my Nexstar 11 GPS on a wedge I had the same experience. I was watching this happen and waiting for the inevitable. The sped up video was outstanding! The semaphore hand signals are way too familiar to me.

"What did I do wrong?" I ask that myself too...

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

LOL, and I was hoping not to take too long to find a solution because I needed to finish the video.

@TimK-1971

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography It's not the scope that gets polar aligned, it's the mount. The base of the mount has to be pointing at Polaris. Basically, the arm holding the scope, that is perpendicular to the base should be pointing at Polaris. Rotate the whole mount about 180 degrees

@TheIronbark

4 жыл бұрын

@@TimK-1971 other videos show the same method to polar align. I am so confused.

You did an incredible job of describing and showing what a wedge mount is. Please post more instructional videos 🙂

Love your video. You sound like me my wedge has been in the box for almost 4 years too. Great good explaining I think I will take mine out of the box now!

It's ok to curse Chuck. Starting astrophotography increased my vocabulary of four letter words a whole damn lot.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

LOL, thanks John - I did get a lot of complaints about my language in the past though.

Kudos to your honesty and fast forwards through nonsense while showing what you did...great technique! I watched this to validate my setup of a DIY wedge and was amused and pleased to see that I am not the only one making poor first judgements! Thumbs up! Great example of the field rotation when using AltAz mounts. Thanks! Subscirbed!

@ChucksAstrophotography

3 жыл бұрын

I appreciate the comment, thanks!

The one loose attachment bolt should be loosely installed first so you can hang the mount and scope and not worry about trying to hold it all while you install the other two.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Oh that makes sense, thanks for the info. It would help if I read the instructions.

Very informative. It was useful to see the difference between the EQ and Alt-Az mount behavior with the Jupiter animation.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Chhuppa, glad you found it useful!

@Astro_Gyani

Жыл бұрын

i was reading you name with an accent, confused at wht type of name that was, when I saw the guy mention you as Chuppa and then it dawned on me that it is Chuppa Rustom... hahaha😂🤣 been laughing at myself for the past few minutes

It's always easy to tell when someone isn't familiar with a fork mount and how it mounts to a wedge. The third Bolt actually you screw into the base of your telescope a couple of threads that allows you to set the telescope on to the wedge and then you can use that as a pivot point to align the other bolts. As far as the wedge position on the tripod there should be a tangent arm that connect to the side of the tripod head and aligns between the Azimuth adjuster bolts. On your German equatorial mounts that's the pin that's on the top of the tripid head and for a Fork tripod it's located on the side of the mount and you usually have to attach it as part of the wedge kit.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, I figured there must be some purpose as to why that third bold was different from the others. Thx for the other info too. I'll be putting this to the test when planets come back around.

Happy new year Chuck! I have the same wedge bought for my PCP 800, 4 years ago like you, I never had good result with it so it is taking dust in my basement, you gave me motivation to retry it with 4 more years experience^^. In my memory, it was much complex to setup but with you, everything seems easier! Thanks to you, I could maybe have two rigs! Bigup from Belgium ( the worst country in the world to do astrophotography )

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Awesome, I really happy to hear I may have given you some motivation to put it back in action. Thanks Bigup!

Very cool! You sound like me the first time I tried to setup my new Celestron SE 6 telescope. I think I will try the wedge. 😊😊

Yeah I still have mine, no worries about for meridian flips, my next mount going to be Avalon M-Uno Single Fork EQ for features you demonstrated Oh the memories.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

lol, I thought of you Jeff - you are the only other person that I know of that has one.

@jefflucas_life

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography I watched your channel and purchased the wedge because of you! It ended because our CMOS gears was to heavy for the mount but wedge has lots of potential if Celestron would make a stronger neck and better clutch plate. Hold my beer - going to throw something at Garnett Leary!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@jefflucas_life LOL

@jefflucas_life

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography you also thank me for my Ed127, lol and everyone from your channel, lol!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@jefflucas_life Right, the ED 127 all starts with you - you had a big influence on that and probably made a few million for Explore Scientific.

Good visual on field rotation!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Glad you found it useful, it help me understand it better.

It's funny how some of the valuable stuff ends up being sped up for the sake of keeping the video short instead of speeding up the parts of him aligning the screws.

I only use this telescope with a hyperstar lens attached to it. So I have the perfect round stars from corner to corner. I used to take long exposures of up to 2 minutes even with this mount and Celestron wedge. But lately the PHD2 has been running like crazy with this mount, probably a mechanical problem and I have to put it on the VX mount for better guiding.I thought I could not buy another stand, but if I want to shoot in one night together with the two telescopes 8 SCT for wide angle shots and 8 HD for distant objects I may have to try AM3 or AM5 mount. As you said, this mount for shooting planets is a good solution. as well as for visual observation. Clear sky!

Hi Chuck I just love your vids. They are so funny and I am learning a lot. Keep them coming. From a complete novice You are the best

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Les!

It's not the scope that gets polar aligned, it's the mount. The base of the mount has to be pointing at Polaris. Basically, the arm holding the scope, that is perpendicular to the base should be pointing at Polaris.

@PaulHummerman

2 жыл бұрын

- but I'm still not clear how you can get the fork-arm to point exactly at Polaris (or, even better, at the NCP. Eyeballing it will not be good enough. And can one assume that the arm is exactly 90 degrees with respect to the base, and thus to the tilt-plate?

@TimK-1971

2 жыл бұрын

@@PaulHummerman That's true. My old Meade 2080 8" sct has setting circles that can help get it pointed exactly 90° perpendicular to the base. I was trying to give a general description of the orientation that a fork mount sct would be in for polar alignment. But yes your point is valid too.

New Years resolution for 2020, no more tirades. For me, that lasted about two days. Good luck Chuck.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

I know, it won't last, lol.

Ha, Chuck. Good fun. I had a wedge for the last few years on my CPC and got the hang of it eventually. It’s actually way more intuitive if you are starting w it than a GEM. Glad you’re finding something to do w your time waiting for clouds to go away haha!!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Dennis, these clouds are never breaking up even for few hours. But yes, at least I educated myself on the Wedge.

Chuck, thanks for sharing! Love your humour & honesty and really enjoy your channel!

How could we not be watching up until the end when we know that there are outtakes??? Very cool. I've never seen one of those utilized. Looking forward to Planet season coming back around and I'll be borrowing an SCT from my astronomy club so I can couch my refractor. Clear skies Chuck!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

lol, thanks Dustin - I'm glad you stuck it out all the way to the end :-) Awesome that you can borrow and SCT.

@aperturedriven88

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography definitely is a huge benefit for only $12 a year. Looking forward to what you're able to capture with that setup. On another random note, but RASA related. I'm going to try a tri-band one shot color filter in my RASA by removing the optical window glass retainer and putting the filter glass in the optical window frame so that I can leave it in the RASA. Nick from Altair Astro was saying that the tri-band has been tested with the RASA and being in bortle 8 it was the best option betweentri and quad. But anyway. Just thought I'd share a little ingenuitive curiosity. Have a good one sir.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@aperturedriven88 That's interesting, I'd like to know what kind of results you get with the tri-band. I wonder what kind of transmission it allows in on an f/2 scope.

@aperturedriven88

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography I figure even if it does essentially slow the scope down and I have to gather data for a longer period of time maybe that will be offset by the fact that if I want to get to dark skies from where I live I have to drive two hours one way.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@aperturedriven88 Right, nothing to worry about there.

I think after all this time we need a GoFundMe page to get Chuck a new base for his Telrad!!!! Keep up the good work Chuck :D

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks REDDY71! My tape job on the Telrad is so embarrassing. After I uploaded the video I was thinking maybe I should have temporarily removed the Telrad, lol.

great job on the video Mr Chuck ...first time viewer

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, welcome aboard!

Hilarious and informative at the same time. Thanks. Sincerely!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Richard!

Nice that you demonstrated this. I had same issue with older version of SCT 8E, flipping the position of way the telescope gets oriented on wedge fixed the issue.

Nice one Chuck! Just love the quick fix gaff tape on the telrad!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks peeb, my tape job is so embarrassing, but it works.

I know that I'm my lx200 classic we point both the optical tube and the mount to Polaris but on the newer lx200 GPS we point the mount this newer way. All it is is setting up a basic home position anyways whether you put it at the celestial equator for the optical tube or at the celestial Pole. It's just a different way to write the algorithm for pointing.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Good point. As long as it tracks in the correct direction, then I don't care where the telescope is pointed at the beginning.

That exhale at the end....been there brother. Great video, appreciate the down to earth tutorial.

nice video ,time to take the wedge out and have a go at it again ,great motivation ,maybe i was doing it all wrong, thanks Chuck

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Glad you found the video useful, thanks Nelson.

LOL...(if there is larger expression for LOL, please replace) - Oh my Ghosh! Love it Chuck! That's where you started, so you are good at it! Love the Video!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

lol, thanks Ray! Back to the basics.

@RaysAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography It helps ourselves big time, forget people watching! Trust me on this!

Happy New Year Chuck. Funny, I could hear chipmunks 🐿 helping you install the wedge but I couldn’t see them 🤣.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Hi Logan, Happy New Year! lol, the video was stretching too long so I had to speed it up a bit.

A friend of mine has one of these toy too, he uses it with the new nexstar evolution base though, aligns it with sharpcap and guides it via the handcontroller and pulse guiding, in his words: nice to have around, wouldn't replace a true GEQ mount but at least it doesn't have to do a meridian flip

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Cool, no meridian flips is a very nice advantage. I wonder how it would perform with guiding.

I really liked seeing the animation with the field rotation. I'm gonna show it to a friend later to help him to better understand why I use an EQ mount. We had a debate about this one night. When I bought my C8 with its fork mount (sand-casted dual arm) I was thinking about getting an EQ wedge and a tripod. Haven't looked back after getting the EQ6-R but I recently had one issue come to mind. When I buy my next OTA which will likely be a wider field refractor or a newt that has a shorter focal length than a C8/8SE. With a focal reducer it is 1280mm. The problem being that if i get another scope and dont want to get another mount is that I could only use one scope at a time. Switching gear would be a bit if a hassle as it would also necessitate rebalancing and probably redoing polar alignment. Come summer there will be days where I won't be able to see polaris. When the seeing is good, I always use Sharpcap and my guider to verify alignment. Redoing it isn't a hassle if it's already aligned. My outdoor cover protects the OTA mount and another cover protects the tripod where it counts. Getting back to the point, your post planted the idea to reconsider. Maybe down the road I could choose to dedicate my C8 to planetary and lunar duty with a wedged and alt-az config. Thanks for the demo and clear explanation. Also, I like that you chosen it to abbreviate alt-az. Good for educating newcomers or less experienced viewers.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the comment, it was interesting to read. Glad you found this video useful.

Ty for liking my photos on Instagram chuck i know they are garbage but doing baby steps for now, i am also using nexstar evolution on a wedge, on good nights i can reach 3minutes exposure with good guiding but most of the time time i cant, i also face problems polar aligning the telescope because its not pointing north like Gem so polemaster wont work and sharpcap wont work, allstarpolar alignment gives me a different reading each time, so i went with a phd drift alignment method. Also telescope or camera running into the mount is common but i am learning to use it. I bought a eq6-r now waiting for it to arrive excited as hell

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

3 min exposures sounds good.

Great video Chuck, thanks for sharing

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks CSA!

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO VERY HELPFUL

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Glad you found it useful.

Also by the way. I really enjoy your videos. Very entertaining.

Nice job Chuck, very interesting and informational!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Kurt!

I also use my nexstar mount with wedge for timelapses or widefield astrophotography. You can just get a supercheap L bracket mount for a dslr and with 105mm lenses and with an average polar alignment you can get decent wide 3min exposures of constellations and even some deep space objects. Other option I would recommend especially because you are a vlogger, you can just setup your nextar without a wedge and shoot a timelapse of a weather outside and use it as a B-roll of your vlog especially nice to see the timelapse of your telescopes moving in time.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Lubo, those are interesting ideas.

Hey Chuck, tried this same thing a couple of years ago. When your scope is set to it's home position ( arrows aligned) it should be facing north, pointing toward the ground. If everything is correct and you point the scope straight up with the mount it will be pointing toward Polaris. Think as if you were at the north pole, your base would be flat and Polaris would be straight overhead. If you really want it to work well, replace the 8SE with a 6SE or 4SE. Check to make sure there is little to no movement in your base, if so you need to tighten your drive gears. Hope this helps, you have been a big help and inspiration over the years.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info Kenneth - now I have a third way. I'll be testing this in the summer then the planets come back.

@kwm1952

4 жыл бұрын

Straight up would be 90* from it's home position, open end of the wedge facing south. Follow your manuals instructions for alignment procedure.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@kwm1952 Yes, I saw an auto-align option where the scope is pointing at the Zenith.

@kwm1952

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography If I remember correctly even with starsense autoalign you set the scope to the original alignment marks, make sure you set the hand controller to wedge align and follow the procedure. There are updates for you hand controller esp. StarSense AutoAlign. The original servo motors are not strong enough for the 8 in. scope, especially with a wedge, no counterweight to relieve the load.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@kwm1952 My motors are not strong enough?

Yeah, alt-az Mounts in EQ-Mode always confuze me because I always forget that the actual RA-Axis is the Footprint of the Mount and therefore has to Point to the Celestial Pole. Not the Scope. Nice Video, I really apreaciate this "little" things! Regards, Marc

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks boetschge, the real test will be getting it out in the yard and capturing some planets. Glad you liked the video.

@boetschge

4 жыл бұрын

Im looking forward to the Video if you make one. Im sure the Mount will work fine since the Baseplate really looks sturdy plenty. Ah, and I dont mind a satisfiyng Burp in the right Moment :-)))

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@boetschge lol

i really enjoy your video's I'm a newbie at this so "pays to listen".

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mark, welcome aboard.

This reminds me of the first week with my new Scope, LOL! Thank you, sir!!!

Great video, thanks Chuck 👍

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Pigeon!

Appreciate your honest video with real life "what did i do wrong?" Because i would think the same thing haha

If you put a camera on that need to make sure it doesn't hit the tripod/wedge. It almost did when you went to Navi the second time.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, I saw that too. But there is room for the telescope to be scooted up more and since it will only be used for planets - the planets are at an altitude in my location that will be safe from having the telescope bang into the base of the mount for years to come. For deepsky, I will always use my other setups.

I did get the Celestron Equatorial Wedge for my NexStar 8SE, but I found it very heavy and clunky. I ended up selling it to buy a second-hand Advanced GT equatorial mount, and I made a profit. I use the Alt-Az for bright planets and the Moon, and the AGT for DSOs and faint planets

Very funny and informative at the same time. Thank you for sharing!

Good video Chuck but question about your Jupiter animation ... How did you get the moons and Jupiter without one over or under exposed ?? Thanks ,,,, keep videos coming

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Steve. Jupiter and its moons can be captured in the same exposure. Check out this video at my SharpCap session and you will see Jupiter and a moon clearly visible in the same shot. kzread.info/dash/bejne/f6dkzcSDmKXUlMo.html

@Steve_The_Ignorant_Astronomer

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography Yea I will watch. I use sharpcap already and got Good Jupiters but the moon where very dim

Funny! Things going wrong is sorta my “MO” so far in this hobby. 🙂

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

I hear ya', but I always like to test in my basement before I try it on a clear night - less pressure, lol.

haha i was laughing at the voice in the sped up parts! The Helium voice always makes me laugh! haha. and yes, i did last that long my friend! haha i always watch your vids beginning to end! Great vid Chuck! Best wishes for 2020!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

lol, thanks Wes!

Great channel Chuck, helpful and entertaining 👍

Hey Chuck, I found this entertaining and honest. I expect to go through the same stumbling blocks setting up my equipment when I upgrade. Thanks.

pure comedy at its best :0

Fun stuff Chuck!

Well, very nice video Chucks...!! you made me laugh for good, you made my day...!!!, hope if you can post a video showing some pics with that setup...clear skies...

You are very funny. I liked it very much. Your expressions make me laugh.

I really enjoyed the way you did this review :) I subscribed to your channel, keep up the good work! Cheers!

Love your videos. You are too mutch ! JM from France

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks JM, and hello to France from the USA :-)

love your videos! keep it up!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Dominik!

great video!!! Thanks for the info!!!!!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jimmy!

if your photographing an alt alz mount works fine, dont need an eq mount as unlike DSO not doing long exposures. I photo the plants fine on my EVO 9.25 no trouble

cool video - helped me out today. thanks.

Nice video chuck made me laugh 👍👽

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks William, sometimes I make myself laugh when I re-watch them. lol.

I have a 6SE with no wedge. I still think that I am going to hold out and get an EQ mount over the Wedge.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

For deep sky astrophotography, an equatorial mount that can handle a heavier payload may be a good idea.

There is a polar alightment feature in the HC so can aligh to pole even if you cannot see any pole star. Also EQ south is is southern hemisphere

Good Video. I am in a social media group based on the Celestron 8se and one of my questions was directly related to whether or not the wedge would be a good investment. Glad i found this.

Jeez this look like its gonna be a big challenge with a heavy CPC fork mount OTA.

Great vid. If interested, you can also easily digitally remove that field rotation issue.

The fast forwarding is distracting, better to either cut or let it run at regular speed …. just one opinion. Great content and very enjoyable to watch 👍

"i will try to stay more calm this year" I say that too but i still end up yelling at the moon and clouds

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

LOL, I know it won't last.

I don’t have a celestron mount or wedge, but am sure interested in planetary, and would love to shoot some animations. However, I think i need like a televue powermate to get out something good with my 8” newt. Nice video Chuck!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks AstroEd, I'm sure the Powermate would allow you get good images of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. Even Mars looks cool when animated.

First, U must setup the option of use Wedge in HC. The mount itself think in AZ mode yet.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Oh really? I did not know this, I will take a look at that. What happens if I don't.

@mycarolinaskies

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography when you set the mount for Equatorial it only drives the RA axis at sidereal rate. In ALT AZ the drive system moves both the RA and the DEC based on an algorithm of the optical tube diameter and change in position of of the target to keep it centered. This is why the target rotates in ALT AZ because those changes are respective of the earths rotation only. Equatorial motion is in respect TO the celestial pole and earths rotation. If you do not change the setting in the hand control the mount will not track properly mounted to the wedge because the AZ is no longer in respect TO the earth but to a tangent which causes a miscalculation.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@mycarolinaskies Go to know, thanks!

@PaulHummerman

2 жыл бұрын

well, although the celestron manual claims "wedge align" is available under "utilities" I do not see it there.

Awesome, Chuck! I just got a CGX, and am now entering a phase of wanting rapid upgrades as well. My wallet hates me Lol

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

LOL, we've all been there :-) Thanks Rob!

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

And congrats on your new CGX!

@robsbackyardastrophotograp8885

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography Thanks Chuck!

You can do some small galaxies with that scope and no meridian flip to worry about.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Right, I've thought about that lately.

We have some nice weather coming in tomorrow but it's super cold. We are going to set up the scope and run it remotely and do some EAA from inside. We did it last year with my 9.25 Evo and had a good time, but was thinking of getting an wedge for it at some point.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Good luck, I hope your good weather lasts.

@cmas-astronomy4715

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography Please post a video once you get some experience using it, i'm very curious about your experiences with it. Clear skies to you too!

Why did this accessory have to cost 300 on the more expensive ones (6SE and 8SE) and the cheaper ones (4SE and 5SE) already come with it! It should be the opposite and the more expensive ones should be the ones that have the wedge. I'm annoyed because I wanted to check out some galaxies and nebulae but the 5SE. specifically designed for long exposure astrophotography because of the wedge and the aperture still being able to see the full Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy is ironically back-ordered and we won't be able to get it within 2 - 4 weeks and I highly doubt that it will be in stock again by that time. I would be patient but my birthday is early November.

That was entertaining... :-D

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

I'm here to entertain, lol. Thanks UA

Great video Chuck! I might have to pull out my old 4SE and try the built in wedge. I was never able to get the EQ working properly on it, not that I use it for planetary only for a quick grab'n go visual mount. Thanks.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Gollond. Oh, the 4SE has a built in Wedge? I forgot about that - interesting.

@gollondblack6247

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography I just gave my 4SE a go with the wedge inside and it actually works!! Thanks again Chuck. Now I might give it a go tonight to see how accurate it is. :) It will be good to have a second EQ mount.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@gollondblack6247 That's awesome, I'd love to know how tonight goes for you.

@gollondblack6247

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography Had a few cloudy nights but tried it out tonight. it's a bit tough to align but I was able to get it slewing and tracking fairly well. No guiding possible with the 4SE so only 8sec without trailing. I still got a good image with Sharpcap live stacking and my Space Cat scope :) so for planetary it should be great.

This was really helpful I have 5se with the built in wedge and have no idea how equatorial alignments works with a wedge alt/az mount combination. 2 other youtube videos actually have the wedge facing the opposite way to yours with the wedge facing up towards polar north so that the telescope is vertical in relation to the arm which doesnt seem to make sense to me. Also I star sense which i use in the skyportal app on my phone so I do not use the hand controller at all. If anyone can give me direction on how to use these 2 things to EQ auto align i would be eternally greatful.

I cannot stop laughing at the fast forward parts....

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Glad you were entertained, lynx! lol

I've used this wedge lots of times and have pretty got tracking. I would recommend you to do one more step of calibration. After aligning to the stars, you should also polar align the mount. There is a function for this. After polar you could also update tracking of stars when you use it to calibrate it even more.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tip, Walter, and I'm glad to hear you have good tracking with it.

Actually in stitched when it slewed towards you!

I have a Nexstar 6 and I am considering getting the equatorial wedge. Is it worth it? In other words, did it improve your tracking accuracy significantly, or should I just replace and get an equatorial mount instead?

@anonymoususer1437

4 жыл бұрын

I have the same question. I dont understand what is the problem with the wedge and why everybody hate it?

@steppen57

4 жыл бұрын

​@@anonymoususer1437 Hi! Subsequent to this post, I listened to a detailed astro-photo presentation from my local astronomy club. It's very difficult to do precise polar alignment with this wedge. I decided against this option, and for now will continue to use the drive for easy go-to. It works for visual, and short exposures (less than 30 s). Hope this helps.

Could you tell me how to take picture of the celestial bodies at north using a wedge mount after polar alignment?It seems my camera always get stuck with the basement when the tube pointing at north.

Can someone please enlighten me. @9:30, if it slewed that way, wouldn't it be a disaster if you have a dslr or a barlow and an eyepice attached to the viewing end of the scop since the end is so close the wedge plate? Sorry, total noob here.

@PaulHummerman

2 жыл бұрын

nobody can enlighten you, probably because they did not survive that inevitable disaster.

At least talking to yourself you don't argue. Just walk away have a coffee then try something else. Besides, looking at your video, you was having a ball of a time. Oh. That was your seat. Cool seat. I enjoyed your video, thanks Chuck.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Melvin. When I'm playing with equipment, I always have fun, and sometimes I know getting it on video is funny.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Ok, I missed the pun on the ball seat, LOL.

@Mel-127

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography Hahaha. Ok, thanks Chuck. I was starting to think I've over stepped your humour limit. Clear sky's to you.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@Mel-127 Oh no you haven't. I'm quicker than I appear to be, but sometimes I am in too much of a hurry to reply to comments, LOL.

Try putting the 11” on the wedge.... better get you neighbor to help you! That’s why I de-forked the 11” and now use it on the CGX-L mount.

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Wow, now that sounds like a load!

@astronomylivestream

4 жыл бұрын

I need to buy a few boxes of Wheaties and a couple cans of spinach to be able to sling that 11” RASA onto the CGX-L mount. Being to cold I have a few months to workout me mussels... BTW, is that the HQ PRO wedge? Which is 40 pounds.

Hi! Thank you for the grat video and information. Was that amazing moving video from Jupiter (using the Alt-Az mount) done with the NexStar8SE? (or other 8" telescope?)

I faced the same Problem Chuck with my CPC :)

@ChucksAstrophotography

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, we'll see how well the Wedge works when planets come back.

@dabarbequeman

4 жыл бұрын

@@ChucksAstrophotography I use my CPC 925 for everything still :)