Hacktastic autoguider

I said I'd write up my current adventures in trying to autoguide my EQ-3...

it seems a little off-topic for here, so I'll post the link over at the "equipment talk" list.

Best Regards
Duncan

update...

I ran another test earlier this evening. Conditions are somewhat frustrating right now - it has been completely obscured for several straight weeks with only the occasional break. The clouds partially cleared today for long enough for me to try some more testing.

I finally have some kind of declination guiding working, but it isn't fully functional yet. It will now guide on both axes for a few minutes, but then suddenly the mount starts to drift much more radically in the declination direction, and the guiding can't keep up. I suspect I have some flexure issues in my Rube Goldberg-esque guidescope mount. Description here:

http://www.duncankitchin.com/jump.htm?page=astrophotography/articles/autoguiding/guidescope.htm

There are some things I can do to fix this (assuming it is the problem). I'll try that and see what happens...

complete description so far is here:

http://www.duncankitchin.com/jump.htm?page=astrophotography/articles/autoguiding/index.htm

any suggestions, comments or corrections much appreciated.

Best Regards
Duncan