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  2. 1600GTO PA scope question

Re: 1600GTO PA scope question

Dale Ghent
 

Yeah, it's some pretty nice gear. Apparently it had some sort of imaging setup back when it was originally installed, but everything imaging-related got destroyed by rain or is otherwise unusable, so the faculty member who is doing all the effort to put this resource back into use would like to learn how to do it using what they have. If their 1600 can accept it, I'll let them borrow my RAPAS for a while until they either get their own or get an imaging setup that they can use software tools to do any ongoing PA maintenance with.

On Nov 30, 2021, at 14:49, Arvind <base16@...> wrote:

That's quite some gear for visual use!

Just another option that comes to mind: drop a small camera (guide camera like asi290, asi174, or any camera with a 1.25" or 2" nosepiece) into the diagonal and do a SharpCap-like routine for PA using a laptop.


On Tue, Nov 30, 2021 at 11:28 AM Dale Ghent <daleg@...> wrote:

I was contacted by a local school asking for help in getting their 1600GTO balanced and PA'd. It's being put back into commission for visual use by faculty after sitting unused for quite a long time, and it was recently sent back to A-P to get restored and serviced before being installed back into the rehabbed dome they have. More kids using some quality gear in the furtherance of STEM education. Great!

My contact at the school isn't aware of any PA scope in their possession, so I figure that I'll bring my own RAPAS with me. This thought made me pause, though. Were all 1600s shipped equipped to use the RAPAS, or is there a chance that this presumably older 1600 could be fitted for the PASILL? I didn't spot any PASILL -> RAPAS upgrade parts on the 1600's upgrades page on the A-P store, but an older version of the manual mentions both the RAPAS and PASILL. If worse comes to worse and the RAPAS can't be used, I'll eyeball it and then hone it in using the meridian drift method.
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