Thankyou.. I tried for along time to do it the "correct" way.... Then surrendered to what works..... After much research I found that there's alot of good science of why it works and have enjoyed having more than one "method" of guiding up my sleeve...

Glad to be of help. All my videos are specific to the avx. Join the Celestron avx group on Facebook if you get a chance!

Congratulations on the new mount! Join the Facebook group Celestron avx users group if you get a chance. Lots of good info there and lots of help too if need be.

Thankyou!

Congratulations on your mount. Join the Celestron avx group on Facebook if you've not already. Lots of seasoned avx users there to help as well. Search for some of my posts in the group if you get a chance. Ofcourse I'm here as well. All my videos are avx specific. Some of what I say will go directly against forum posts and common teachings that apply to other mounts. Before you begin the imaging journey a must watch is my beginner mistakes video. Good hunting!

Thankyou!

Thanks for commenting! Check out my other videos as well.. Join the avx users group on Facebook if you haven't.

Excellent! Yea this is just the basics. Don't even need to be very well polar aligned to when your platesolving. Starsense does just that. Pole master sure makes life easy. I use sharpcap and it's a pretty straight forward affair much like pole master. Then sequence generator pro does everything else. Clear skies!

I had 2 perfect nights, one partly cloudy, and one with soft skies last week at Cherry Springs. Now thinking camper! Everything hurts! Lol

As a general rule yes, but for an avx the sweet spot will be extremely small and difficult to hit. So I generally recommend to keep the gears meshed good and then alter balance after the flip.The heavier the load, the easier it is to find the sweet spot on an avx. A secondary issue arrives when the asi air is mentioned as it is an inferior method of guiding compared to its non Indi full fledged phd2. There are parameters that you cannot change that are fundamental to guiding. While many have made it work and do fine. Be aware that many do not do fine with an air. So in short... If you can reliably hit the sweet spot neutral balance "can" work (takes me a full night on a pier to nail it with my load). But most folks will not hit it most of the time. When the flip happens 2 things will occur nearly immediately. 1. The worm gear will be riding on the leading edge/back of the tooth of the ring gear (bad jumpy guiding), and 2. Dec will now have to clear it's backlash and a long session of Dec corrections will happen until it clears. (Why we always load it tail or nose heavy in Dec to keep the gear meshed on one side). While in its portable state, my avx never sees neutral balance. I just readjust after a flip. Check out my guiding video for more details. Understand that much of what I say will go directly against what forums and common teachings say. All my videos are very specific to the avx. Join the Facebook group Celestron avx if you get a chance. There's a large active group there and you'll find plenty of helpful knowledge at the ready.

It depends on your latitude really. If the mount is balanced it won't make any significant difference unless your having clearance issues with the counterweights. I know most folks say to rearrange them but if the mount is properly balanced it doesn't make any measurable difference.

It may need to be a bit heavier.... It's done to keep the backlash to a minimum... You'll know it's right when Dec corrects the other way into the backlash and it clears in just a few corrections, or less than a couple of seconds.. if that makes sense. When Dec corrects into the backlash if your seeing a steady stream of corrections for 5 or 10 secs then more bias is needed.

@@astro-farmer Perfect! thanks, that makes perfect sense. Will check on corrections. Just an update, from our last FB conversation the mount is much better thanks to all of you videos and tips. Still running between 0.62-1.20 in good days, but I think after Mods now is more about balance and keeping everything tight. Still sometimes on PHD2 DEC does some excursions and takes 20+ seconds to recover. One thing I've noticed is that both RA and DEC are dependent on each other... When one does an excursion the other one tends to do the same at a lesser degree but you can notice the influence. I might be wrong, but I believe that has to do with the balance of the mount (PA is always right on spot). Any thoughts? Thanks for your help that has been absolutely invaluable this past year since I started with the AVX. G.

@@jacko116 it does seem common... I've noticed the "assume Dec orthoganol" box being checked or unchecked effects the movement of both axis... You may want to experiment with that some... Honestly I think the machine tolerance on these often times leaves the Dec not perfectly orthoganol... Some are, some aren't. Balance is and will always play a critical role on most import mounts. Even my cem120 is pretty dependant on good balance..

I teach survival skills to high schoolers. Yes I'm very well aware of how to utilize a compass. The truth is, most people don't care. The dollar store compass's sold generally will get you in the ball park of north. This is a basics video so I try to keep it basic and to the point. Ive been asked many times to do survival videos and go in detail on subjects from ham radio, firearms training, small and large scale farming practices, off grid systems and self sustaining households. Perhaps some day I'll get around to it. This set of videos was created for a very small niche group of individuals who wish to make the most of their avx. While much of what is taught goes against traditional teachings, my methods have been proven time and again. Join the Celestron avx users group on Facebook if you haven't. Enjoy the videos and good hunting!

@@astro-farmer Heck, I use manual mounts and a star atlas with an angle finder on my AZ Twilight One mount and setting circles on my EQ mount CG-4.

@@MountainFisher I can appreciate those skills and really encourage folks to learn the fundamentals in person. With modern technology much of that knowledge goes by the wayside. The avx brings to bear much of said technology. With starsense one basically just needs to know which way north is and about what latitude they're at. I enjoy setting circles on my dob and can get pretty darn close to objects but I won't lie, the green laser pointer mounted to my imaging rig leads the dobs to the target most of the time. A great hobby with many outlets to enjoy. Spectroscopy has been mine of late.

See my build video... This one has more done to it, but the video shows a cheap easy way to relube/tune/overhaul an avx.

I have! There's a few in the Avx group on Facebook that are currently using it... It's still pretty new but so far I think they've had pretty good luck.

Plug the 120 into the back of the 294 would be my vote

@@astro-farmer could I use a powered multi USB then one to the computer? Would it work if I guide via PHD2. Also, I was thinking to buy the wifi dongle from celestron and eliminate that cable ad well. I'm totally newbie to this so just asking at this moment.

@@astro-farmer if I plug my guide camera to my main camera, would the computer and the softwares, sharpcap and PHD2 differentiate between the two?

@@antoniocortez1892 yes it acts as a hub and is designed for just such thing.

@astro-farmer OK one more question. So I would connect the cameras using only the st4 connection? The USB plug on the asi120mm would not be used or would I need a special cable? My 294mc camera is not a pro which those have additional USB ports.

If I recall correctly it means its already had everything in the build video done to it. Upgraded ra bearings, added Dec bearing, new lube, new worm bearings, oringed worm block, servo motors shimmed and relubed. Basically the mount has already been upgraded as at the time this was my test dummy mount and ran nearly every clear night... I went though about 10 different configurations before settling on this one as I pretty carefully documented my guiding (compared fwhm/eccentricity not just graphs that can lie).... this build largely remains the same today... even vendors have taken to doing pretty much the same thing - the oring for a fee...there is a new rear Ra bearing that has been found to work very well. It can be found in the Facebook avx users group. Search Phil Han for the rear Ra bearing upgrade. The Dec bearing upgrade still needs a " lower Dec bearing to truly be completed and that mod is optional but does work and offers a little more smooth ess to Dec... it's pretty well been sorted what works and what don't work as far as modding an avx... there's quite a lot of improvement to be had anywhere from a simple relube and adjustment of worms to a full on modded avx that will compete with the next class of mount up. Go check out my build video.... all of my videos are very avx specific..... also join the avx Facebook group if you haven't.

Absolutely. Like it's predecessor it's a staple in astrophotography at this price point. Make no mistake, an avx in capable hands is a force to be reckoned with. Are there better mounts? Absolutely... But if a person on a budget needs a solid mount, the avx can and will deliver so long as you don't push the focal length/sampling. If modded and tuned, they'll compete with the next class of mount. Join the Celestron avx users group on Facebook and ask a community of avx users.

@@astro-farmer ok, thanks for the reply.

yes, its very accurate even with a basic point north alignment . i do solar alignment for the sun and 1 star for planets or whatever . no issues. tracked the sun for three hours yesterday.

My apologies. There's alot of things that I didn't cover. The main thing was to show how to properly "Imbalance" or bias the weight for optimal performance (particularly for imaging). Folks needed a visual representation of east heavy and tail (or nose) heavy. All my videos are avx specific... So some of the fundamental things that are taught in the forums that apply to other mounts, don't apply at all to the avx. Beginner mistakes and the guiding videos are worth a look if your diving into astro imaging. Join us on Facebook (Celestron avx users group) if you haven't. Most basic questions are caught there and there's plenty of helpful folks.

It would be the opposite of the northern hemisphere

Everything is made to a price point. The heq5 is no exception. They are both synta mounts (same company owns both). They both have pros and cons. I have a cem120 and I think it's a better mount. Ofcourse it costs more... If you watch my other videos that are very specific to an avx you will see that I mention all the pros and cons of each of the synta mounts.