How does Backlash look like?

Backlash can be an ugly problem in astrophotography. How does it look like and how to get rid of it?

How does backlash look like and how to get rid of it?

Backlash looks like a little arm which comes out of every star on the whole frame and points everywhere into the same direction.

Here a complete APS-C picture with backlash. Just zoom in:

Backlash in complete frame — A full APS-C picture. The backlash arms are all over the frame. Zoom in!

Depending on your exposure time, you can see backlash (if you got any) on every few or even every single frame. If so, you should google a bit to find a way to get backlash eleminated on your mount.

Get rid of backlash on the HEQ5-Pro

I own the Skywatcher HEQ5-Pro mount and had some backlash in spring 2022. While looking for a solution I found 2 awesome how-to videos on the video-blog page of “FROSTH ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY” where Marten explains how to eleminate the problem on the HEQ5-Pro:

I did exactly what he explained and my backlash was gone!

There are other how-to videos out there for other mounts.