Doubled stars in unguided 10Micron GM1000 tracking

Guiding
6 replies•111 views
Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar

Might someone know what's causing this error? I am tracking (no guiding) with the 10Micron GM1000 mount, controlling everything remotely with N.I.N.A. Occasionally, I get a sub that looks like this:

📷 LIGHT_Sh2 119_Red_180.00_-10.00_2026-06-21_23-19-40_0012_1.jpgLIGHT_Sh2 119_Red_180.00_-10.00_2026-06-21_23-19-40_0012_1.jpgAs you can see, especially if you zoom in, every star is doubled. This was happening infrequently a number of months ago, then the issue disappeared completely for about 4 months, and now it's back again, but luckily only one sub out of 100 or so. Anybody know what's causing this and, if possible, how I can prevent it? I've run a good model and the scope is polar aligned very well.

Thanks!

Jerry

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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar

What were the winds doing during the session?

Alex Nicholas avatar
Alex Nicholas avatar

Tony Gondola · Jun 22, 2026, 04:20 AM

What were the winds doing during the session?

I dont think wind is having a significant impact on a 10Micron gm1000… could be wrong, but unlikely unless its seriously overloaded.

Stephen Guberski avatar
Stephen Guberski avatar

Confirm your clutches are all tight and that you are very well balanced. The way the slipper clutch works on that mount if an axis is slipping as it tracks it will be too much for the encoders.

Are you in one axis or two axis guiding?

Are the stars always oriented in the same direction?

Stellar Nomads avatar
Stellar Nomads avatar

wind can absolutely cost you an exposure, the mount will, in fact, recover back to the exact tick it needs to be in. However, the camera records the motion the whole time.

If you have wind data available to you, it would be very beneficial.

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Jerry Gerber avatar
Jerry Gerber avatar

I can’t say for sure about wind, as my telescope is over 900 miles away. But all indicators from weather data show no wind.

Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar

Being such a low frequency event I’d just delete the sub and push on down the road. There are a lot of things that can cause this that has nothing to do with the rig. A sudden out of nowhere wind gust (it’s NM remember), A large beetle hitting the rig (again, remember it’s NM), a pier scaling pack rat (NM). I think Sky Story even had an Owl land on his SCT. Honestly, I would just keep an eye on things and wait and see if it becomes much more frequent.

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