bilgebay

I can't believe this! No way! Per and death can't come together.... he is such a lively character... looking perfectly fit and healthy.... I heard the news last night and crushed... I am one of his guinea pigs for the Remote Control USB hub... we were working on a bug I came across... he told me he wouldn't have time to tackle it until this week... last email I received from him is on July 26th.... Still having a hard time to grasp the news.... the only good thing that comes to my mind is that Per, now, has the best environment for astro imaging... no clouds, no atmoshpere, perfect seeing... and probably the best imaging equipment... Sad.... very sad... Rest in peace my friend.

Oh, I forgot to thank you for the tip Per. But it is not working on my keyboard. This is a Macbook Pro, running Windows 7 on Bootcamp. I knew the code you gave but for some reason it is not producing the degree symbol. Under Mac OS it is Alt+K but this is not good under Bootcamp either.

Thank you Ian and Per! When hit from the sides, it is wobbling a bit, as I expected. My people at my workshop didn't follow my original recipe and went with thinner steel plates. Also the connectors are made of thin walled pipes. For some reason they decided I needed a light pier Under normal conditions, it is OK but better suited for a lighter mount/telescope setup. We are currently designing a second version and they promised to use the thicknesses I specify this time:) For me, the heavier the better. While designing this new version, we will get rid of the Mesu base to create more clearance for the long tube scopes.

Here is a first light with this pier + C8 Edge. The stars are a bit bloated but the target was very low (Alt 37*) when I took this image:

Testing the 8"

Thank you Michael. Mesu Extreme --- it can continue further but there is no need for that My 8" Newtonian

Here is a video, showing the no-flip operation with C8 Edge. Sorry about the quality of the video.

Here is Mesu Mantis In the second iteration, I will get rid of the original Mesu structure. This will allow me to lower the RA assy relative to the pier arm which in turn, create more clearance for the 12" Newtonian to go under the pier.

Here is a timelapse video of the assembly - early Saturday morning last weekend -->

I know, with SGP + PlateSolve or a similar setup, flipping is not a big deal these days. However, it can be very irritating to watch the operation remotely with a slow internet connection. This is one of the reasons I've started this project. The other reason is; I'm planning to start using my 12" Newt for imaging and it is a real pain to operate with a regular tripod or pier; plus, the spider spikes will not overlap when flipped unless I spend considerable time to fine tune several elements in the system to be square etc. After spending some time with the available options, I came up with a different design of my own and last week had a chance to test it.

I think this will nail it for you --> http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=44,437,0,0,1,0

Should be around 40 pounds. I have a Vixen New Atlux and it has 44 pound pay load capacity. Yours should be similar.

It's me! I had a busy day at the office today and didn't have time to properly study the table Stephen shared with us. The errors are listed in dd:mm:ss format in that table. I'm used to see the errors in terms of arcseconds (please see the cal point sheet I shared above and I believe it's the same as what you are seeing with the new version) so, I must have thought the values to be within the range of 1 to 4 arcseconds max... sorry for the confusion. " the star names / designations are not shown in my cal points table " Same with me. I believed, the script was just picking a coordinate rather than a specific star. I didn't pay attention whether there was a bright star in the center of the frame. After giving this some thought, I think you are right. Otherwise, a visual user cannot use PXP, a bright star must be the reference point for each cal point. Sedat