Meridian Flip Early?

[iksose7]

Now that i'm using a scope, the thing i have been worried about doing all this time has finally come! The meridian flip!

I have been using the EF200L up until now so have got away with not doing it but now its a must. Turns out its not a big deal at all as i preformed my first flip a couple nights ago with ease.

But last night, in order to try and get a bigger 'chunk' of sleep, i went up to the mount about 20 minutes before the object i was imaging crossed the meridian intending to do the flip early. I thought seeing as it was approaching the meridian i would be able to click the object in Cartes Du Ciel, hit 'slew' and the mount would preform the flip. It didnt obviously which led to me playing about with lots of stuff, slewing here and there, looking on Google for answers and eventually causing my laptop to freeze and me to have to set everything up again.

So how do i preform the flip early? Im sure its possible right? I'm using a NEQ6 with CdC, EQMOD and APT if it helps to know.

Thanks

[swag72]

In EQMOD there's a 'force flip' box that you can tick. So you click that and then goto on CDC - Hey presto!

[iksose7]

Hi Sara, is it the one below the green and red RA/DEC circles? Because if it is then i tried that last night. It may not have worked because of the laptop messing about before it crashed though.

I guess i'll just have to try it again tonight, hopefully i'll have better luck! Thanks.

[swag72]

Yes that's the one.

[iksose7]

You were right, thats the one! Turns out i had mount limits enabled. Bit of a pain that you have to check force flip everytime you slew but at least i know how its done now, thanks again.

[wuthton]

You were right, thats the one! Turns out i had mount limits enabled. Bit of a pain that you have to check force flip everytime you slew but at least i know how its done now, thanks again.

It is generally best to put the mount limits back on.

Last night I intended to flip at about 1.30 but woke up in the chair with the laptop and everything beeping at 4am. Luckily limits were on.

[PhotoGav]

On this subject...

If you do a forced meridian flip, then use Astrotortilla to centre up your target, it goes back to the 'unforced' side of the meridian when making the correction... Doh! Does anybody know of a way to make AT stay on the forced side of the meridian?

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[chrisshillito]

Astrotortilla isn't the thing forcing the mount to work the wrong way up - so it really isn't something it controls.

The only way to force EQMOD to do the un-natural thing and move with counterweights upright is to tick the flipped goto box prior to any goto.  The box automatically unticks itself on goto completion out of safety (moving the mount the wrong way up is likely to result in collisions). You could try editing the EQMOD.ini file to change the line reading DISABLE_FLIPGOTO_RESET=0 to DISABLE_FLIPGOTO_RESET=1 and that may just keep the box from being automatically unchecked (I can't remember if this has ever been tested properly). However you do this entirely at your own risk and its up to you to manually prevent your mount, scope and camera running into the tripod/pier.

By far the best approach is to avoid fighting the natural operation of an EQ mount altogether and chose targets that don't require preflips at all - i.e. wait until the object has crossed the meridian or work out your mount limits and track through the meridian - there is after all plenty up there to look at,you don' have to make life difficult for yourself.

Chris.

[PhotoGav]

Thank you for that reply Chris (I acknowledge the small print!). Yes, probably the best solution is not to flip before flip time!

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[ollypenrice]

I wouldn't want to wait to be post-meridian to image. Alas, the optimal time is just either side of the meridian and image quality insists that you use it!

Olly

[chrisshillito]

I wouldn't want to wait to be post-meridian to image. Alas, the optimal time is just either side of the meridian and image quality insists that you use it!

Olly

Then pick a target that you can image either side of the meridian by tracking through it rather than pre-flipping (or flipping at the meridian). Of course to do this may need a bit of preparation beforehand to set up limits etc. but if you can do it that way then, from an EQMOD perspective, that is the way to go.

Chris.

[ollypenrice]

Then pick a target that you can image either side of the meridian by tracking through it rather than pre-flipping (or flipping at the meridian). Of course to do this may need a bit of preparation beforehand to set up limits etc. but if you can do it that way then, from an EQMOD perspective, that is the way to go.

Chris.

Indeed. This usually means picking the right time of year for the high targets.

Olly