Hi from Cornwall

[baggywrinkle]

Welcome to SGL....can you bring some good weather please.....

[John in Penzance]

4 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Hello and welcome to SGL. The camera will work as either a guide camera of an imaging device, but not both at the same time.

Thank you Cornelius, and thank you everyone else too for the welcome, it's very encouraging to think that there's this degree of support available to a newcomer.

The either-or for using an imaging device seems an extraordinary design decision since it doubles up on everything - a wired-up guide-scope camera as well as the main camera, intelligence on the motors instead of in the laptop, but yes having found the manual online I can see that it's so. That's one major misunderstanding cleared up already. I'm sure reading that book will at least make my questions more realistic. The idea of needing a guide camera is a puzzle in its own right. The earth moves in such a predictable way that I'd expected a simple algorithm would move a telescope, and if the motor movement's calibrated then the telescope ought to keep exactly on target all the while. The Swiss have done that with watches for centuries, after all. As far as telescopes go it should be a clockwork Newtonian universe out there, especially since stacking would cater for any slight drift left over. I know I'm wrong but I don't know why. The book will cure me.

[Cornelius Varley]

11 minutes ago, John in Penzance said:

Thank you Cornelius, and thank you everyone else too for the welcome, it's very encouraging to think that there's this degree of support available to a newcomer.

The either-or for using an imaging device seems an extraordinary design decision since it doubles up on everything - a wired-up guide-scope camera as well as the main camera, intelligence on the motors instead of in the laptop, but yes having found the manual online I can see that it's so. That's one major misunderstanding cleared up already. I'm sure reading that book will at least make my questions more realistic. The idea of needing a guide camera is a puzzle in its own right. The earth moves in such a predictable way that I'd expected a simple algorithm would move a telescope, and if the motor movement's calibrated then the telescope ought to keep exactly on target all the while. The Swiss have done that with watches for centuries, after all. As far as telescopes go it should be a clockwork Newtonian universe out there, especially since stacking would cater for any slight drift left over. I know I'm wrong but I don't know why. The book will cure me.

The requirements for guiding and DSO imaging are very different so it is difficult to do both at the same time. Guiding requires short exposures to monitor drift and DSO imaging requires longer exposures. Guiding is required because equatorial mounts are not perfect, even the big observatory telescopes require guiding. Unless you have 100% accurate polar alignment and have a mount that has precise tracking there will be drift. More expensive mounts will have more precise tracking but for the majority of users guiding will be needed. Due to the tolerances in the machining of the mount drive mechanisms (it is virtually impossible to accurately machine a worm drive) the mounts cannot track at a constant rate and this will cause periodic error (the mount will slow down or speed up slightly over a defined time) . To some extent the periodic error can be cancelled out by recording the periodic error in the handset which can then be played back.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Hi John,

Welcome to the Lounge, wishing you clear skies..

[Charon]

Welcome John.

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire :-)

[triton1]

Hi there and welcome to SGL 

[John in Penzance]

On 6/16/2016 at 20:02, swag72 said:

Hi John and welcome to SGL - Good to have you on board, there's a few of us imagers knocking about

Look forward to seeing you around

I'm a little slow on the uptake, it's taken me this long to realize it was your website I'd spent hours browsing about a week ago, before I joined. It's an inspiring read and the step by step explanation of your careful changes have made an impression.

[swag72]

46 minutes ago, John in Penzance said:

I'm a little slow on the uptake, it's taken me this long to realize it was your website I'd spent hours browsing about a week ago, before I joined. It's an inspiring read and the step by step explanation of your careful changes have made an impression.

Cheers John - It's good to have some feedback on the website as It do spend quite a bit of time on it adding bits and pieces....hopefully to help folks along the way

[Furious pez]

Hi everyone im new to this today im from cheshire bough my first scope the other day the orion fun scope it will keep me going till a more expensive approach next year happy gazing john and all very excited to watch the skys in more deph 

[cpittman35]

Hello and welcome to the forumJohn.  I am also here to learn.

As everyone has stated, you are indeed in the right place to learn.  The wealth of knowledge here is amazing.