Unattended meridian flip

[rubecula]

If you get software (e.g. SGPro) to perform a meridian flip, surely you still have to manually re-position the counterweights to remain east-side heavy, with the associated risk of knocking the scope off-target. Or am I missing something?

Thanks,

[StarryEyed]

Robin

Your right of course on th weights but best avoid it your not going to be at hand use a remote camera to observer the whole telescope flip so you can see if something goes wrong.

Kevin.

[ollypenrice]

Yes, there is no way to remotely rebalance, at least 'off the shelf.' People doing fully remote imaging tend to be using mounts which don't really need the preload of being slightly off balance. You'd need to experiment with which worked best, a preload one way or perfect balance.

Olly

[rubecula]

Thanks guys, that's answered my question.  With the quality of my mount I'm going to have to re-balance.  Now I know that I'll have to plan to be there when a flip is due.

[spillage]

Reading this has caused a question top pop up in my head. How can you rebalance without releasing the clutches or do you have to run a realignment again.

I guess you can have some form of markers on the weight arm???

[ChrisLX200]

4 hours ago, spillage said:

Reading this has caused a question top pop up in my head. How can you rebalance without releasing the clutches or do you have to run a realignment again.

I guess you can have some form of markers on the weight arm???

If you really need to do this - bias the mount in one direction - it's better to balance the mount accurately neutral and use a length of elastic band/rope (1/4" shock cord is good) to apply the necessary torque. Attach one end to the DEC housing (or directly to the end of the RA shaft if you have access to it) and wrap several times around the RA housing whilst stretching the cord to apply rotational tension. This kind of 'spring loads' the bias rather than using weight, and it doesn't matter which side of the mount the scope is operating. It also maintains similar bias torque across the whole range of movement if you use enough turns (3-4) which would otherwise change with the position of the weight. Don't go overboard with the torque - you just want to close the clearance in the gears!

ChrisH

[rubecula]

Oh what a brilliant idea!! Thanks Chris.

Even though I have the weight arm marked with tape its very easy to upset the PA and tracking when moving the weights (maybe I'm just clumsy) but this means I don't have to go anywhere near it.

AND it will cure the problem of the scope sloshing around when I'm trying to image overhead. Win, win.

[ChrisLX200]

18 minutes ago, rubecula said:

Oh what a brilliant idea!! Thanks Chris.

Even though I have the weight arm marked with tape its very easy to upset the PA and tracking when moving the weights (maybe I'm just clumsy) but this means I don't have to go anywhere near it.

AND it will cure the problem of the scope sloshing around when I'm trying to image overhead. Win, win.

Not my idea, it's an old trick

ChrisH