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Re: AP600E GOTO unguided accuracy

RCK <rkuberek@...>
 

At that focal length I get 2 min. unguided about 50% of the time with the
AP600, so your performance sounds consistent with my experience.

However, if I use the autoguider to train the PEC, I can get better.

Bob Kuberek


Chris Spratt wrote:

Just out of curiousity I'm wondering how long others have managed a
typical unguided CCD exposure. I've managed 4 minutes once at F/5.0
but most of the time despite good "drift aligning" I can only get 2
minutes most nights. 90 seconds being the norm. Am I expecting too
AP600E GOTO unguided accuracy

Chris Spratt
 

Just out of curiousity I'm wondering how long others have managed a
typical unguided CCD exposure. I've managed 4 minutes once at F/5.0
but most of the time despite good "drift aligning" I can only get 2
minutes most nights. 90 seconds being the norm. Am I expecting too
much for a portable tripod setup which I take down each night?
The old AP 400 QMD was just as accurate when trying to do CCD work. I
was hoping the 600E would be an improvment.

Training the PEC dosen't seem to help.

I'm using an old C8 and was wondering if "mirror shift" may be the
main culprit.

Comments anyone?
Re: problem with mount resetting...

Paul Gustafson <drgus@...>
 

The box they put my old parts in says "Anderson Power Products, Div. of
Anderson Interconnect, Inc., 13 Pratts Junction Road, Sterling, MA 01564,
SB-50A Conn #10 Gray, made with V0 material, part 6319G1."
See:

http://www.andersonpower.com/products/multipoles/sbmain.html

It has pictures, heat rise curves, specs, etc. A high-tech little connector.

Gus
Re: problem with mount resetting...

Chris Spratt
 

I would check the cigarette "plugin" end as the AP power cord is a bit weak in
this point. The spring-loaded "button" on this end on two of my Ap400 cords went
in and wouldn't come back out. I lost the connection as a result. I took the
cord to a local electronic firm and they installed a more "robust" fused piece
and it even has a small light.

This DC cord in my opinion is the weakest part of the AP mounts. (I had a
similar problem with the DC power cord on my SBIG CCD. Ive gone through 2 in a
year and I'm very, very careful!)

Whatever you do just watch the polarity.

Todd Gross wrote:


My mount is still resetting (A/P 600 GTO) Out of nowhere it just
resets and keeps running, but loses it's whereabouts. I am now using
a different battery (suspecting fluctuating voltage in the old) and
am going to swtich to a new cable tonight. If it keeps happening, is
there a cure short of sending it to a/p ?

thanks

Todd

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Re: problem with mount resetting...

Terry R. Friedrichsen <terry@...>
 

Nice pix. Do the connectors have a tradename?
The box they put my old parts in says "Anderson Power Products, Div. of
Anderson Interconnect, Inc., 13 Pratts Junction Road, Sterling, MA 01564,
These folks are at www.andersonpower.com - searching for "6319" will lead
you to the right catalog page. 6319G1s come in gray or red. The gray ones
are for 10/12 AWG wire, and the red ones are for 6-gauge.

Interestingly, I just ran across these connectors myself (or at least their
twins - they look identical). They are used to connect the battery in the
UPSes I use for my Unix machines.


Terry R. Friedrichsen

terry@...
Re: problem with mount resetting...

Paul Gustafson <drgus@...>
 

Nice pix. Do the connectors have a tradename?
Thanks. New digital camera. :-)

The box they put my old parts in says "Anderson Power Products, Div. of
Anderson Interconnect, Inc., 13 Pratts Junction Road, Sterling, MA 01564,
SB-50A Conn #10 Gray, made with V0 material, part 6319G1."

I am assuming it's the box one of the connectors came in, as it's the right
size.

Gus
Re: problem with mount resetting...

John J. Kasianowicz <surpher@...>
 

Hi Paul,

Nice pix. Do the connectors have a tradename?

Best,
John
Re: problem with mount resetting...

Paul Gustafson <drgus@...>
 

Todd,

My description isn't very clear. I don't have a web page (yet) so I loaded a
few pictures of it into Photopoint. Go to
http://www.photopoint.com/
Visit albums, use my e-mail address ( drgus@... ) and go to the album
"Battery."

Gus

--- In ap-gto@..., "Paul Gustafson" <drgus@e...> wrote:
Another possible problem is the cigarette lighter adapter
connection. Every
alligator clip-to-female-cig-adapter I have seen was very cheaply
made and
doesn't give a positive connection. I took my 32 amp hour battery
to a
custom stereo store and explained the problem. For a reasonable
price, they
ran very heavy gauge wire from the battery terminals to special
snap-lock
connectors, and wired the mating connectors to the ends of my AP
power
cable, Kendrick controller, power inverter. There's absolutely no
way to
screw up, and each connection locks solidly with a positive
audible "snap."

The low quality cig adapter fried my Daystar filter (egads!) and
prompted my
search for a better setup.

Paul..
this may be my problem, I'm not sure, but I have now had too many
glitches using this stupid alligator clips on too many DC items to
ignore it or rule it out. I can't picture exactly what you did, but
I'm wondering if there is an off the shelf solution?

Todd
Re: problem with mount resetting...

Todd Gross <toddg@...>
 

--- In ap-gto@..., "Paul Gustafson" <drgus@e...> wrote:
Another possible problem is the cigarette lighter adapter
connection. Every
alligator clip-to-female-cig-adapter I have seen was very cheaply
made and
doesn't give a positive connection. I took my 32 amp hour battery
to a
custom stereo store and explained the problem. For a reasonable
price, they
ran very heavy gauge wire from the battery terminals to special
snap-lock
connectors, and wired the mating connectors to the ends of my AP
power
cable, Kendrick controller, power inverter. There's absolutely no
way to
screw up, and each connection locks solidly with a positive
audible "snap."

The low quality cig adapter fried my Daystar filter (egads!) and
prompted my
search for a better setup.

Paul..
this may be my problem, I'm not sure, but I have now had too many
glitches using this stupid alligator clips on too many DC items to
ignore it or rule it out. I can't picture exactly what you did, but
I'm wondering if there is an off the shelf solution?

Todd
Re: problem with mount resetting...

Paul Gustafson <drgus@...>
 

Another possible problem is the cigarette lighter adapter connection. Every
alligator clip-to-female-cig-adapter I have seen was very cheaply made and
doesn't give a positive connection. I took my 32 amp hour battery to a
custom stereo store and explained the problem. For a reasonable price, they
ran very heavy gauge wire from the battery terminals to special snap-lock
connectors, and wired the mating connectors to the ends of my AP power
cable, Kendrick controller, power inverter. There's absolutely no way to
screw up, and each connection locks solidly with a positive audible "snap."

The low quality cig adapter fried my Daystar filter (egads!) and prompted my
search for a better setup.

Gus

Todd Wrote:

My mount is still resetting (A/P 600 GTO) Out of nowhere it just
resets and keeps running, but loses it's whereabouts. I am now using
a different battery (suspecting fluctuating voltage in the old) and
am going to swtich to a new cable tonight. If it keeps happening, is
there a cure short of sending it to a/p ?
problem with mount resetting...

Todd Gross <toddg@...>
 

My mount is still resetting (A/P 600 GTO) Out of nowhere it just
resets and keeps running, but loses it's whereabouts. I am now using
a different battery (suspecting fluctuating voltage in the old) and
am going to swtich to a new cable tonight. If it keeps happening, is
there a cure short of sending it to a/p ?

thanks

Todd
Re: Recalibrating object position

Chuck Hancock
 

The only consumer software product that does what Chris is talking about
is The Sky, as far as I know. The software models the mount/scope
combination, in a way, and compensates for the differences with the
ideal.

Todd Gross wrote:


At 01:19 AM 5/14/00 -0000, you wrote:
Suppose I set the scope on M3 and hit the "Recal" button and then
move
on to the next object and "tweak" that position with another "Recal".
Does the keypad "remember" each correction and thus improve the
scope's pointing accuracy as each "Recal" is done? Eventually the
scope should be right on if the mount can remember each calibration.
no, it remembers only the last..

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Recommended telescope position on powerup

Mike Mah
 

On AP GTO, does the declination axis position on powerup matter?

I know the RA axis should be visually aligned to Polaris and the
mount should be fairly horizontal. Is there an optimal position for
the declination axis (e.g. vertical or horizontal) that might affect
pointing or ease of setup? On other Gotos, there are recommendations
for the position of the Dec axis on powerup.

When I powerup with the dec axis vertical and after alignment using
the Polaris routine, I find that the dec axis is oblique between
vertical and horizontal when pointing at Polaris. Is this of any
consequence?

I am trying to chase down my source of ponting error of up to one
degree.

Mike Mah
Re: Recalibrating object position

Todd Gross <toddg@...>
 

At 01:19 AM 5/14/00 -0000, you wrote:
Suppose I set the scope on M3 and hit the "Recal" button and then
move
on to the next object and "tweak" that position with another "Recal".
Does the keypad "remember" each correction and thus improve the
scope's pointing accuracy as each "Recal" is done? Eventually the
scope should be right on if the mount can remember each calibration.
no, it remembers only the last..
Recalibrating object position

Chris Spratt
 

Suppose I set the scope on M3 and hit the "Recal" button and then
move
on to the next object and "tweak" that position with another "Recal".
Does the keypad "remember" each correction and thus improve the
scope's pointing accuracy as each "Recal" is done? Eventually the
scope should be right on if the mount can remember each calibration.
Playback PEM corrections

Chris Spratt
 

If you "train" the PEM at 1x or .5x what speed should you set the
keypad at when playing back the PEM? I usually have my speed set at
12x and leave it there for the observing once set. Does this setting
compromise the PEM playback?
Re: AP600 RA Backlash

Ron Wodaski <ronw@...>
 

I've had the same thing happen. On some nights, it seems that backlash
compensation needs to be adjusted depending on what side of the meridian I'm
on.

Ron W

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Spratt [mailto:cspratt@...]
Sent: Saturday, May 13, 2000 4:28 PM
To: ap-gto@...
Subject: [ap-gto] AP600 RA Backlash


I've noticed that when I "train" my RA backlash that the number I
chose one night isn't good the next. I thought that once calibrated
the RA backlash number would be retained for each session. Now I have
to reset it each observing session. I'm using version 2.6 of the
software (mount came end of March 2000).

On my mount the range at 12x runs from 4-6 with 5 the median most
nights.

The balance of the 8" OTA and attachments I'm using appears to be
good.


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AP600 RA Backlash

Chris Spratt
 

I've noticed that when I "train" my RA backlash that the number I
chose one night isn't good the next. I thought that once calibrated
the RA backlash number would be retained for each session. Now I have
to reset it each observing session. I'm using version 2.6 of the
software (mount came end of March 2000).

On my mount the range at 12x runs from 4-6 with 5 the median most
nights.

The balance of the 8" OTA and attachments I'm using appears to be
good.
Question - tracking rates on AP mounts

Tim Khan
 

This past weekend in the Everglades, A question was
posed to me "does your AP1200 mount have the King
tracking rate." I checked the menu to find only the
Lunar, Solar, and Sidereal tracking rates.

The question is: does the software taken into account
the position and adujust the tracking rate due to the
atmospheric refrction effects.

Is it possible to model a tracking rate as a function
of the pointed position. I do understand that this is
complex due to the nature of the atmospheric
refraction calculations.

What is the exact difference between the two tracking
rates in arcsecs/hour?

Tim




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Re: Tripod for 400 GTO

Chuck Hancock
 

I have a 400GTO mount on order right now, and have received an item for
adapting the mount to the Celestron Celestar 8 Deluxe tripod. I think
mountong ring is the same thing Steve is taking about. ADATRI is the
Part No. for this item.

All I had to do was go to the hardware store for the right length bolts
and some nuts.

Chuck Hancock

Steve Leikind wrote:


Marc,

One other suggstion is to use the 400 GTO mount with a Meade field
tripod. This is an especially good options if you happen already to
have Meade tripod. In order for this to work, you must first obtain
the special plate that Astro-Physics provides as standard equipment
with the Davis and Sanford tripod. I believe they sell this
separately for about $50. I found that this plate adapts the 400
Mount to my Meade tripod in the same way that works with the Davis
and Sanford. The holes in the plate and bolts provided with it line
up exactly with corresonding holes in my Meade tripood.

The Meade tripod is very sturdy and much more robust than the Davis
and Sanford. It weighs about 20 pounds and is designed to support 8
- 12" SCT's and their fork mounts having weights between 40-95
pounds. Note: it is possible that you could use the Celestron field
tripod in the same way though I do not have first hand experience
with this.

-Steve

--- In ap-gto@..., "Marc Zukoff" <yooody@a...> wrote:
I am anxiously awaiting my mount, but am wondering about the Davis
and Sanford aluminum tripod.Is it a good choice or is the wood
tripod
a better one, or any other suggestions. i am planning on using a 4
inch refractor for now, but hope to also obtain a 5 inch refractor
in
the next year.
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Chuck Hancock

c d h 5 9 at b e l l s o u t h d o t n e t
86241 - 86260 of 86841