Re: Mach 2 basic operation
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Jeffc
If you are mainly imaging… and portable…. I suggest getting a polemaster for polar alignment, and use it with SharpCap.
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The pole master + sharp cap does polar alignment in about 5 minutes with some simple tweaking the alt and az on the mount. Alternatively a guide scope can be used with sharpcap… but on the mach2 I didn’t bother with the guidescope. I’ve not compared this approach to the (iirc) NINA three star approach. The other alternative for polar alignment is the RAPAS, which I use with other mounts when doing visual. (I do some outreach work at the local observatory). I do have a keypad, but never use it when imaging… I do use it for visual tho. There’s a couple options to creating the sky model when “portable”: - I’ve done a 52 point model which takes about 30 minutes to run.. and is appropriate for portable operation. - NINA has a plugin (the author is on this list), which will do a “Dec Arc” model and (I think) is more precise, but only covers the portion of the sky you are imaging for a specific object (RA / Dec) Anyhow.. the mach2 is great. Initially I didn’t use APCC/APPM and stuck with my “old workflow”… but then when I spent the time to learn APCC/APPM and realized it is a big plus. One of my configurations is a 12” Meade ACF with a Lumicon GEG / Reducer for about 1500mm focal length, and a fairly heavy camera + focuser… I think I might be at about the weight limit cuz there isn’t much room for more counterweights. This setup seems to work just fine. -Jeff
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