Makes me so glad I plate solve.  = )

On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 12:44 PM, chris1011@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

Assuming the RAPAS is accurate, what do you do next?

If you are starting out for the first time then pick "New Setup". Manually place your scope in the Park3 position (does not have to be perfect), and press "Start From Park Position 3". This initializes the mount and tells it that your scope is pointed to the North Pole (also known as Park3).

Now go to the Objects Menu, pick a star from the star's list and press GoTo. The mount will slew to that star, but it will probably not be in the center of your scope at this point. You may see it in your finder scope. Now you simply bring the star to the center of your eyepiece via the 4 buttons and press the bottom right hand button to bring up the Recal menu. then press 9 = Recal. Your mount is now pointing accurately in the sky and you can now go to any object that you wish.

If you are permanently mounted, you will not have to do any of this again. Just simply put your keypad in Autostart = YES and every time that you turn on the power the mount will always know exactly where it is pointed. Your keypad will start up automatically and you can simply go to any object in the sky without going thru any startup procedure.

Rolando

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Donzanti donza2735@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...>
To: ap-gto <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Sun, Dec 10, 2017 11:01 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: GOTO issue with Mach1GTO

No, Have Polaris in my sights.

Frankly, I am really lost now.  I am balanced and leveled and coordinates and date and time are all entered as location 1.  I did a rough polar align followed by the RAPAS.  Assuming the RAPAS is accurate, what do you do next?  The keypad gives you the choices: 1)Star Sync 2) Polar Alignment 3) Resume last position 4)new setup.  I thought was Star Sync based on the manual.  

On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 4:31 PM, marfig1970@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

Is it possible that you performed polar alignment on the wrong star?

I live in the southern hemisphere and Sigma Octantis is difficult to identify, especially in an area of high light pollution. When I first received my Mach1 it took a little while to make the polar alignment and I was using the wrong star, so my GOTOs were quite wrong and the tracking horrible.

But once I identified Sigma Octantis correctly and performed the polar alignment (and later Sync), it was like magic, the GOTOs were accurate and the tracking perfect.

And if you use SGP and Plate Solving is more "magic", incredibly accurate. SGP and Mach1 seem to be made for each other.

(By the way, I wasn't using RAPAS, I already had a PoleMaster and I used this one).

 

Assuming the RAPAS is accurate, what do you do next?

If you are starting out for the first time then pick "New Setup". Manually place your scope in the Park3 position (does not have to be perfect), and press "Start From Park Position 3". This initializes the mount and tells it that your scope is pointed to the North Pole (also known as Park3).

Now go to the Objects Menu, pick a star from the star's list and press GoTo. The mount will slew to that star, but it will probably not be in the center of your scope at this point. You may see it in your finder scope. Now you simply bring the star to the center of your eyepiece via the 4 buttons and press the bottom right hand button to bring up the Recal menu. then press 9 = Recal. Your mount is now pointing accurately in the sky and you can now go to any object that you wish.

If you are permanently mounted, you will not have to do any of this again. Just simply put your keypad in Autostart = YES and every time that you turn on the power the mount will always know exactly where it is pointed. Your keypad will start up automatically and you can simply go to any object in the sky without going thru any startup procedure.

Rolando

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Donzanti donza2735@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...>
To: ap-gto <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Sun, Dec 10, 2017 11:01 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: GOTO issue with Mach1GTO

No, Have Polaris in my sights.

Frankly, I am really lost now.  I am balanced and leveled and coordinates and date and time are all entered as location 1.  I did a rough polar align followed by the RAPAS.  Assuming the RAPAS is accurate, what do you do next?  The keypad gives you the choices: 1)Star Sync 2) Polar Alignment 3) Resume last position 4)new setup.  I thought was Star Sync based on the manual.  

On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 4:31 PM, marfig1970@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

Is it possible that you performed polar alignment on the wrong star?

I live in the southern hemisphere and Sigma Octantis is difficult to identify, especially in an area of high light pollution. When I first received my Mach1 it took a little while to make the polar alignment and I was using the wrong star, so my GOTOs were quite wrong and the tracking horrible.

But once I identified Sigma Octantis correctly and performed the polar alignment (and later Sync), it was like magic, the GOTOs were accurate and the tracking perfect.

And if you use SGP and Plate Solving is more "magic", incredibly accurate. SGP and Mach1 seem to be made for each other.

(By the way, I wasn't using RAPAS, I already had a PoleMaster and I used this one).

 

Assuming the RAPAS is accurate, what do you do next?

If you are starting out for the first time then pick "New Setup". Manually place your scope in the Park3 position (does not have to be perfect), and press "Start From Park Position 3". This initializes the mount and tells it that your scope is pointed to the North Pole (also known as Park3).

Now go to the Objects Menu, pick a star from the star's list and press GoTo. The mount will slew to that star, but it will probably not be in the center of your scope at this point. You may see it in your finder scope. Now you simply bring the star to the center of your eyepiece via the 4 buttons and press the bottom right hand button to bring up the Recal menu. then press 9 = Recal. Your mount is now pointing accurately in the sky and you can now go to any object that you wish.

If you are permanently mounted, you will not have to do any of this again. Just simply put your keypad in Autostart = YES and every time that you turn on the power the mount will always know exactly where it is pointed. Your keypad will start up automatically and you can simply go to any object in the sky without going thru any startup procedure.

Rolando

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Donzanti donza2735@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...>
To: ap-gto <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Sun, Dec 10, 2017 11:01 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: GOTO issue with Mach1GTO

No, Have Polaris in my sights.

Frankly, I am really lost now.  I am balanced and leveled and coordinates and date and time are all entered as location 1.  I did a rough polar align followed by the RAPAS.  Assuming the RAPAS is accurate, what do you do next?  The keypad gives you the choices: 1)Star Sync 2) Polar Alignment 3) Resume last position 4)new setup.  I thought was Star Sync based on the manual.  

On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 4:31 PM, marfig1970@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

Is it possible that you performed polar alignment on the wrong star?

I live in the southern hemisphere and Sigma Octantis is difficult to identify, especially in an area of high light pollution. When I first received my Mach1 it took a little while to make the polar alignment and I was using the wrong star, so my GOTOs were quite wrong and the tracking horrible.

But once I identified Sigma Octantis correctly and performed the polar alignment (and later Sync), it was like magic, the GOTOs were accurate and the tracking perfect.

And if you use SGP and Plate Solving is more "magic", incredibly accurate. SGP and Mach1 seem to be made for each other.

(By the way, I wasn't using RAPAS, I already had a PoleMaster and I used this one).

 

Better to set the hand controller startup Auto-Connect mode to YES instead of NO or EXT.  Then simply do a GOTO to a known star and then a 9=Re-Calibrate, which will be a function you will see when you press the [RA/DEC/REV] button.  In fact if the mount has not been disturbed since it was last used then the 9=Re-Calibrate probably won't be needed.

 

AP mounts don't need star alignment every time they are turned on.  They remember where they last were when power was cut.

 

 

-Christopher Erickson
Observatory engineer
Summit Kinetics

Waikoloa, HI 96738
www.summitkinetics.com

 

---

From: ap-gto@... [mailto:ap-gto@...]
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2017 7:01 PM
To: ap-gto@...
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: GOTO issue with Mach1GTO

No, Have Polaris in my sights.

Frankly, I am really lost now.  I am balanced and leveled and coordinates and date and time are all entered as location 1.  I did a rough polar align followed by the RAPAS.  Assuming the RAPAS is accurate, what do you do next?  The keypad gives you the choices: 1)Star Sync 2) Polar Alignment 3) Resume last position 4)new setup.  I thought was Star Sync based on the manual.  

On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 4:31 PM, marfig1970@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

Is it possible that you performed polar alignment on the wrong star?

I live in the southern hemisphere and Sigma Octantis is difficult to identify, especially in an area of high light pollution. When I first received my Mach1 it took a little while to make the polar alignment and I was using the wrong star, so my GOTOs were quite wrong and the tracking horrible.

But once I identified Sigma Octantis correctly and performed the polar alignment (and later Sync), it was like magic, the GOTOs were accurate and the tracking perfect.

And if you use SGP and Plate Solving is more "magic", incredibly accurate. SGP and Mach1 seem to be made for each other.

(By the way, I wasn't using RAPAS, I already had a PoleMaster and I used this one).

Virus-free. www.avg.com

 

I assume you are upgrading from another mount?

 

I wrote the following post on Cloudy Nights to help people a bit who are migrating from Celestron (or Meade) mounts to Astro-Physics.  It covers some of the important differences that might trip up people who are familiar with the other GOTO systems.  Not sure if it will help you or not.  I hope it does.

 

 https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/599027-a-p-mach1-first-use-in-10-years-concerns/?p=8223328

 

 

-Christopher Erickson
Observatory engineer
Summit Kinetics

Waikoloa, HI 96738
www.summitkinetics.com

 

---

From: ap-gto@... [mailto:ap-gto@...]
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2017 7:52 AM
To: ap-gto@...
Subject: [ap-gto] GOTO issue with Mach1GTO

Tired my new Mach1GTO for the first time last night.  Mount was leveled E/W and balanced per instructions.  I used the RASPA right out of the box to do PA following initial rough polar alignment.  I then did a SYNC to a bright star in the east and I thought I had the scope aligned on the west side as they say instruct in the KeyPad manual.  When I started to slew, I was able to see objects on my computer screen using a CCD camera in the east and southeast but nothing in the FoV west and north.  I also did drifting testing and the star low in the east did start to drift after 5 minutes.  So, I am thinking I have 2 problems: 1) I did not SYNC correctly for the GOTOS and/or 2) the RASPA needs to be aligned following drift alignment due to the slight drifting occurring.    Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Virus-free. www.avg.com