Those are some serious star trails.
A couple more questions:?
Are those star trails north-south, or east-west? ?That is, is it trailing in declination or in RA?
How good is the DEC balance? ?With the clutch loose, and the counterweight bar ~horizontal, will the scope stay in whatever position you put? Not just horizontal, but vertical or at an angle ¡ª if not, can you rotate the tube so that it will stay put? ?If it is well balanced, then the mount won¡¯t know what declination you have it aimed at and the problem must be on the scope itself.
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Here is a run down on the problem.
1. It occurred after changing out the Ra axis thrust bearings.
2. Polar alignment is via Sharpcap and was bang on at CDW. Just installed the NINA 3-point polar alignment plugin and at Michaels suggestion I will be able to double check polar alignment after slew to target to see if something has moved.
3. Target is 25 degrees altitude due south. Not a region of the shy I typically shoot, so problem could have existed before the Ra upgrade work and I would not know. My location is NJ.
4. As a test I decided to shoot the cave nebula which follows the typical trajectory of object I shoot. The first image shows the result of slewing to the target and taking a 400s image.
5. I slewed to the 2nd target due? south at 25 degrees lat and got terrible guiding results and could not get any data even at 60s exposure, so I slewed back to the cave nebula and resumed imaging. The second image shows what I got. I do not thing this is differential flexure??
6. I've taken the following steps to run down this problem. A. Cleaned the Ra clutch disc? with lacquer thinner. These are Michaels clutch disc not Losmandy.? At Michaels suggestion I will install my OAG setup and retest.
Peter