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Alt-az on a wedge?

Aenima

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Aenima

Aenima

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I have an altaz mount but want to find a way to get it aligned better, preferably closer to polar aligned, and have heard of a 'Wedge'. Does anyone know how that works?

Can it be done DIY?

Thnx.

Any advice appreciated,

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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Here are some pics of the Scrap Ally Wedge I made for my CPC800...

PICT1462.JPG

PICT1467.JPG

I made the "prototype" out of 3/4" exterior ply - good Job as I had the angles the wrong way round...:)

There's some drawings for a Plywood 6SE wedge I drew up for Reggie to give you some ideas... Here...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8191904/Projects/Pier%20%26%20Wedge%20Drawings/Reggie%20wedge%20v3.pdf

Peter...

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Aenima

Aenima

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Thats excellent stuff, looks well put together. I'm doubting I have the technical skill for a project like these ones. To be honest I was picturing a chunk of cheese type wedge lol! but seriously thanks for the replies, I shall look into it.

Cheers.

btw mount and scope in signature. THNX

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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Sorry I have sigs turned off in Tapatalk... But I am on the PC now...

The Controller will need to have an EQ Alignment option before you can use a wedge... Celestron controllers have this but I dont think the Skywatcher Al/AZ ones allow for EQ mode using wedges :)

Peter...

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Aenima

Aenima

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Thanks Peter. That was the issue, really. If the mount was somehow tilted to polar alignment could I then use the handset to slew along just the one axis, but the hi-tec skills needed to DIY it all is beyond me.

Cheers to the above postees for the insight,

Regards,

Aenima

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Cornelius Varley

Cornelius Varley

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P.S. if I manage to get this 'wedged' will the synscan hand controller be able to cope with it? In my head I should just be able to align it as normal, but in reality is this true?

This is where things will probably go wrong. The AZ firmware expects the azimuth axis to be vertical and I'm not sure if the EQ firmware will work on an AZ mount on a wedge.

Peter

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Aenima

Aenima

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Hi there guys.

Its an interesting thread, I'm always impressed by the ingenuity that some stargazers have, using genius skillz to put all kinds of stuff to better use in astro-projects.

Btw

*Hightower - cheers for the advice the other day, I have an adapter for snapshot digital and a (cheap) webcam in the post. Seen the error of my ways regarding the Canon, just need to pull of the mod for the webcam ~(will practice the general idea with a 5 buck x-box live webcam first) and here is where the wedge for AZ goto gets both interesting and confusing for me.

I had breifly thought of tracking for taking pics but it'll have many uses. I was thinking that once it is polar aligned you would just use the handset as a motor drive along the one axis rather than use full goto alignment. But then again I dont fully understand goto OR eq mounts so if its cool i will follow this thread with a hope to gain insight and perhaps even get a DIY mod made with what to me is amazing resourcefulness, not something i could pull off in two lifetimes. I'm not sure if steelfixer was refering to my post or whether it can be done but Its a nice plan, and worth looking into.

Many thanks,

All the best,

:D

Aenima

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Cornelius Varley

Cornelius Varley

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If the hand controller won't work, will it be possible to control it properly using a laptop connection?

Possibly. You would need to use the Celestron Nexstar ascom driver and select EQ N for the mount track mode and it might work with the handset in PC mode. I don't know if it would work in Stellarium unless you used the ascom drivers rather than the internal drivers.

Peter

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Tribal-Wolf

Tribal-Wolf

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I have heard that there will be some updates to the synscan software making it more like the software the Celestrons use, whether the updates will apply to AZ scope I don't know but time will tell. As they become more moulded into one company I suppose it makes sense to only have to make one set of software. Might be interesting though.

Try tipping the scope a bit on the tripod legs then set the goto up and see how it copes.

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Aenima

Aenima

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I have heard that there will be some updates to the synscan software making it more like the software the Celestrons use, whether the updates will apply to AZ scope I don't know but time will tell. As they become more moulded into one company I suppose it makes sense to only have to make one set of software. Might be interesting though.

Try tipping the scope a bit on the tripod legs then set the goto up and see how it copes.

Sorry if this is daft question but if i tilt the tripod how do i work out how to tilt it? i have a view of polaris but otherwise know nothing about eq alignment. Is there anything i could use to help me work it out?

Thanks again,

J.

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sgazer

sgazer

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I have done this with the Celestron SLT ALT/AZ with a simple wooden wedge set to my latitude.

http://stargazerslounge.com/discussions-mounts/185516-celestron-slt-eq-mode.html

I reprogrammed the SLT with the SE EQ s/w and it worked fine, don't know if Skywatcher mount can be reprogrammed with something suitable though.

I also tried the tilted tripod idea to check how the mount worked. You just need to tilt it so the TOP of the tripod is pointing towards the north at an angle equal to your latitude (so pointing to polaris). You can do this indoors as it's easy to see if it's working. Once setup and aligned, do a few gotos. Choose something on the North and south horizons, if it's working correctly, the scope will be pointing north or south and will be horizontal, ie. pointing to the horizon.

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  • 2 years later...
GaryCH

GaryCH

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I'm in the process of making a wedge for my autostar alt/az mount, I have no choice to select an EQ mode though.

From what I've read, it would seem possible to set up the mount with a wedge and set my location to that of the North Pole - 90 degrees north and 0 degrees east. Thus eliminating the scope trying to move on its alt axis as I wouldn't need to in the North Pole.

I'm not sure the goto part would work very well but I'm hoping it would still track at the correct speed an follow the path of objects in space.

Any one had success using that setup? I'm stumped otherwise without an EQ mode to use!

Gary.

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