Alt-az on a wedge?

[ronin]

What exactly is the Autostar ?

Autostar is a Meade term and every Meade I have met has an EQ mode option ?

Usually under Select Item; Setup; Telescope; Mount.

It toggles between Alt/Az and EQ.

[carastro]

I used to own an ETX105 with autostar, and you could lift up one side to put it in a wedge mode.  On the handset you had a choice of AltAz or polar mode.  Polar mode being the EQ mode, but the tracking was only in RA.  

HTH

Carole 

[GaryCH]

I've tried reading up on the subject lately and I just don't seem to have that option in my menu.

If I go into the telescope section of the menu, all I can do is change the model of telescope but I have no option to select mount and change to eq or polar mode. In the alignment section, I can only do easy, one star or two star align.

That is why I thought that if I select my co-ords to that of the North Pole, it would effectively disable one of the motors and only track in RA (I think I'm right that that would be the case in the North Pole?!).

The other thing I might need to do is update the firmware or patch it so that it gives me the option to select a scope that is EQ which might then unlock the option in my menu? Idk, but I'd really like to crack this so I can keep this mount a while longer and put more cash towards a better scope! [emoji1]

Thanks,

Gary.

[carastro]

 I just don't seem to have that option in my menu. 

Maybe it's only available with handsets supplied for mounts capable of being put on a wedge.

Might be worth speaking to a Meade retailer.

Carole 

[ronin]

I'm in the process of making a wedge for my autostar alt/az mount,

Going to need more information, an Autostar is not really enough.

Which Autostar model/number is it?

What scope is it on?

[GaryCH]

I have an autostar 497 handset on a ds 2000 mount, currently using a ds 2090 scope.

I made a crude prototype of the wedge to test the theory and it does work. I managed to track Jupiter for 2 hrs + and it stayed in the 25 mm ep - not centered, but hopefully will allow me to do 1-2 minute exposures.

I'll need to make another wedge now I know it can work but I need to improve the design so it doesn't hit the mount when it looks up (didn't foresee that problem!).

The main issue with this setup is the power in the motors and the quality of the gears. When slewing, it really struggled at one point until I adjusted the centre of gravity, then it worked ok. I'm yet to try it with a dslr attached to it and I'm not sure quite how that will go! It's been so cloudy since I made the wedge so I haven't had the chance to play with it much yet.

I still have another hurdle, I'm not sure how to mount the ed80 to my mount as its 102mm (I think) and my current scope is 90mm maximum and only one person sells replacement clamps on eBay and they appear to be too big, or too small!

I'd like to think I could make a new bracket for the mount and utilise the dovetail system of the ed80 but I don't know what size the dovetail is, so I don't know what fixing to buy to fit on any bracket I make for the mount. If I can work that out then at least I'd be able to use the scope in the same capacity that I use my ds 2090.

Any idea on the dovetail fitting I would need? Or a supplier of ds2000 clamps??

Thanks,

Gary. [emoji3]

[Lonestar70]

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

Hi Aenima,

I appear to be missing something somewhere... you are asking about a wedge for an Alt/Az mount and you state that the mount is as shown in your Signature.

I can only see an EQ5 Goto mount listed... which is a GEM and does not need a wedge... so what is the Alt/Az mount?

I am confused

Best regards.

Sandy.

[Davide Simonetti]

Hello, I just came across this thread while searching for a solution to the same problem. I have a Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT with an Alt AZ mount which I use with a homemade wedge, and this does help get slightly  longer exposures but I'm still having to throw away half the subs at 30 seconds. I have tried using my Orion 50mm Mini Guide Scope with my ZWO ASI120MC camera  attached to the auxiliary port on the mount but have not been able to get it all to work. I have tried various drivers in the PHD2 software and also in Metaguide but I cant get the mount to respond to the camera. I frequently get the message that there was not enough movement in the star to calibrate (in PHD). Unfortunately my scope isnt listed with the celestron section of the ASCOM driver. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong and would really appreciate some advice as I have heard that it's possible to get guiding to work using a wedge.

[jimbo747]

I have the same mount and had thought about doing something similar but I doubt the motors are good enough to move a refractor, guidescope, guidecam and DSLR accurately enough to get exposures longer than I can manage in alt az mode. Its difficult enough getting 1 minute sub's with just a travel scope and DSLR when just slightly tail heavy.