Best Mount for Imaging (£5k-£6k Budget)

[ribuck]

Hi Jeff,

No worries. Was just keen to see a complete setup from scratch using all the software involved as I believe there are several programs that need to be used

Rich

[perfrej]

Jesper,

It doesn't have encoders, so declutching moves the park position while handset movement doesn't If you want to see an NEQ6 park upside down to the normal park position, that can be arranged.

Also, on a final note for reference, when I do a three star on the 10Micron, nothing is compensated until the three stars are in. I believe all compensations (models) use spherical triginometry triangles to calculate what is wrong. Offsets simply do not do the job.

Anyway, being an avid Champagne collector as well as a becoming a frequent visitor in Provence, we should settle on said beverage instead of beer

/per

[ribuck]

How the other half live, eh folks.....

[perfrej]

Ah, come on... That's so 1968!

[ribuck]

Several expensive mounts, lots of expensive OTA's and other nice gear, collects Champagne................yup definitely not your average joe blogs

[perfrej]

You forgot flies helicopters and comes from a poor family

On a side note, I spent four weeks in a place called Whitley Bay in 1972. I seem to recall it is near Newcastle upon Tyne! Four weeks of learning english at the age of 14.

/per

[ribuck]

Ha ha that crazy as that's where I live, in Whitley bay. Did they have the small theme park back in 1972 when you were in Whitley bay ?

[perfrej]

Yep, I remember the theme park very well. Spent a good deal of time there ;9

[ribuck]

how small the world really is.............Anyway apologies for digressing people, just filling time until per gets his GM1000HPS.

P.S. Per how about that video request when you get it ?

[Jessun]

I don't mind the switch, but I should admit that I never quite managed to collect any... They tend to end up as recycled bottles.

We'll pick up where we left down Provence one eve

/Jesper

[ollypenrice]

Back to the straps (not sure what they are made of) holding the Meade onto the Mesu No1; don't underestimate the joys of tension. The bottom cradle does nearly all the work. Remember the trajectory of a fork mount isn't that of a GEM. The soft strap (maybe alloy) will find the form of the OTA and likely deform it less than a rigid clamp which imposes its own small scale form on the tube. Some of Lucas Mesu's thinking is counter intuitive but he's a very very rigorous engineer.

Tension; it's 1916 and some guys are standing in Marin County looking across two miles af fast flowing deep water towards San Francisco. Joseph Strauss say, 'Hey guys, we build a couple of towers, one at each side, and we sling cables between them. Then we hang cables from these cables and hang two miles of road on them. Whaddayasay???' I bet some of them said, 'Yeah, Joe, sure we do.' Meet the Golden Gate Bridge.

Or the bicycle wheel; if you'd never seen one would you believe that 32 thin spokes pulling against each other would make a wheel that will go round the world without breaking? You can even make a bicycle wheel with string-like cabon thread for spokes.

Olly

[perfrej]

Ah, Tacoma Narrows, I say (Google that)

/per

[ollypenrice]

Ah, Tacoma Narrows, I say (Google that)

/per

Heh heh, brilliant video in the Google list. I've never seen it before though I knew the story about the engineer and his car.

Probably stable enough for planetary imaging but no good for DS, eh??

Olly

[perfrej]

Yep, no DSO

/per

[ribuck]

I rest my case on using straps, wire or any other similar methods...... Me man, me like solid metal only

[Zakalwe]

Using nylon straps would only be a problem if the OTA was smaller than the semi-circular cradles. If that was the case, then there would be a single point of contact between the OTA and the cradle. The straps would deform the OTA in this case.

If the OTA fits snugly into the cradle, then the straps, especially if they are ratchet straps, could exert huge clamping pressure and nothing would move.

In this photo, that seems to be the case (on the larger OTA)

Where the OTA is smaller than the cradle, then ordinary tube rings appear to be in use:

[jjongmans]

No worries. Was just keen to see a complete setup from scratch using all the software involved as I believe there are several programs that need to be used

Hi Rich, this is what it takes to setup the mount, mobile or permanent (sofware in red):

1) Setup your pier or tripod.

2) Put on the mount.

3) Turn on the built in green laser and point it at Polaris.

4) Put on the counterweightbar, counterweights and telescope.

5) Balance the setup (Autoslew balancing tool).

6) Tune the PID settings of the motors (Autoslew autotuning tool).

7) Setup location and time (Autoslew).

8) Create 3-star pointingfile to improve polar alignment. This can be done manually (Autoslew) or automated with your CCD (Autoslew, Sequence, Maxim DL, PinPoint).

9) Improve polaralignment with polar align routine.

10) Create n-star pointingfile to model the sky. This can be done manually (Autoslew) or automated with your CCD (Autoslew, Sequence, Maxim DL, PinPoint).

11) Calculate model (Autoslew).

12) Sync on a star and set the home position (Autoslew).

All this is done only once in a permanent setup. In a mobile setup you only need to redo the polar alignment of course.

All sebsequent times you only need to do a home find routine and you're ready to go.

[ribuck]

Thanks Jeff,

I guess i would need pinpoint then if i was creating a full sky model as i wouldn't like to do a 100 star model manually. It's a shame it can't just use the free GSC catalogs for the automated pointing file creation.

[jjongmans]

PinPoint uses the free catalogs like GSC, USNO A2.0, USNO UCAC3 or Tycho, but you need to pay for the engine; the solver. I think it's overpriced, but there's no alternative...

[ribuck]

yeah adding yet more costs to the mount. At very least they should do a deal with pinpoint and provide it free.

[jjongmans]

That woud be nice. You'll need PinPoint with any mount (also with the 10Micron, don't know if it supports automated pointingfiles?), unless you want to do a manual pointing file of course.

[ribuck]

I believe per wrote his own software interface to automate the process which he has since supplied to 10Micron. I haven't seen it working but it looks a very nice clean looking interface and sounds very easy to use, and i dont recall it needing the full version of pinpoint.

[perfrej]

Yes, I wrote it myself and it is to be released to the public domain as donorware, which means it's free and you can pay if you like but you don't have to. It works by exposing, solving and syncing the telscope in real time according to a user-supplied model.

/per

[ollypenrice]

Yes, I wrote it myself and it is to be released to the public domain as donorware, which means it's free and you can pay if you like but you don't have to. It works by exposing, solving and syncing the telscope in real time according to a user-supplied model.

/per

'If he needs a third eye he just grows it...'

Bob Dylan.

Olly

[ribuck]

Per, what do you mean by user supplied model ? I thought your software assisted in the automation of building the pointing model for large numbers of points for all sky.