Jeff, that's the beauty of what we can do with our hobby.  What we are able to produce to suit our own tastes is far and above what I, and countless others, were able to do in the 1980s and 1990s with hypered 35mm film and manual guiding.

There really is no "wrong" palette.

A couple of people whom I greatly respect pointed out the excess "purple" in my original version.

I agreed.

The following is my revision that portrays a more "natural" color palette, if one could consider NB natural.

Comments are certainly welcome.

No matter what, my 2017 Mach1GTO has produced better results than any mount I've owned in the past 35 years.

https://www.astrobin.com/qbk1bc/

On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 02:17 AM, rtlangland wrote:

Hello,

 

Hopefully I can provide some useful information. My first suggestion would be to contact George at Astro Physics. See what he says. I have an AP 1100 mount and am using it with a Stellarvue SV102T. It comes with a Vixen mounting rail and I suspect that your Stellarvue SVR90T also uses a Vixon mounting rail. I used to have a Stellarvue SVR90T but never used it on the AP1100 but it had a Vixen mounting rail.  If my information is correct, neither of the Dovetail Saddle Plates you have referred to in your email will accommodate a Vixen mounting rail. 

 

Thanks for the info. My SVR90T was the 'Raptor' version, and I don't believe it came with any rail, just the clamshell. I used to just mount it on a photo tripod using a Markins plate.

On further investigation, and some measurements, I think the 16" Dovetail Saddle Plate (DOVELM162) would be ok. Then I should be able to mount the clamshell straight to a 12 inch dovetail plate (SBD12) as it has built in clearance. The SBD16 would not have worked as it didn't provide any clearance and was far too long.

Does George hang out here? Confirmation of my expectations would be great.

Hi Rolando, 

Is this pier flip based on meridian delay? Or is it an instantaneous dedicated flip feature? And is the hand controller path inside an AP instruction manual somewhere? I want to check it before purchasing the CP4 that I'm told I need, thanks again. 
--
Raymond D Palmer
Astronomer
Western Australia
www.MyAstroSpace.com
www.TheCosmicArtGallery.com

Hello,

Hi
Just a follow up to this thread in case someone else runs into this.  Ray logged in to my computer and immediately saw where the issue was.  I was accessing the  CP4 directly instead of going through the ASCOM drivers.  The ASCOM driver manages the display of the emergency stop.
As to the mount not showing up, not resolved, but appears to be related somehow to a bug in Windows 10 related to broadcasts.
Thanks Ray!!

Hi Gentlemen, 

Before I purchase the CP4 controller (that you have indicated above will give me simple press button pier flip functionality), could you tell me what the hand-controller path for it is please? I downloaded the CP4 manual but I couldn't find any instruction for performing a simple press button pier flip. Thank you again.  
--
Raymond D Palmer
Astronomer
Western Australia
www.MyAstroSpace.com
www.TheCosmicArtGallery.com

I have a couple of other suggestions/problems with APCC.
I cannot view the error logs or close the errors even if I select the error log window.

The error log window does not open if you try to open it from the Tools menu in APCC? ("Open Error Log Window...")

It is difficult to partially minimize the screen to use it to
move the mount while seeing the effect in another application.
You cannot unminimize SGP or PHD2 from the
tray if the APCC screen is up.

Do you mean APCC always hides SGP and PHD2? That sounds like you have "Keep APCC on Top" enabled in the "Program Operation" group box. If you uncheck that option then other applications will not be hidden by APCC.

Also, when APCC's main window is not full screen, you can resize it. The fonts and controls will resize themselves the best they can to try to fit the size of APCC's window.

-Ray Gralak
Author of PEMPro
Author of APCC (Astro-Physics Command Center): https://www.astro-physics.com/apcc-pro
Author of Astro-Physics V2 ASCOM Driver: https://www.siriusimaging.com/apdriver

-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Peter Bresler via groups.io
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2021 9:20 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mount keeps going to zero tracking

The issue must have been triggered by SGP...it really disrupted the evening. As I said, it resolved with a new
sequence.....had to re-enter all the parameters.

I have a couple of other suggestions/problems with APCC. I cannot view the error logs or close the errors even if
I select the error log window. The only way to clear the errors is to restart APCC. It would be nice to be able to
unconditionally close the program without having to close SGP and PHD2 first. It gives a warning, but you still
cannot close APCC unless the other apps. are closed first. It is difficult to partially minimize the screen to use it to
move the mount while seeing the effect in another application. You cannot unminimize SGP or PHD2 from the
tray if the APCC screen is up. Other than that it is a great program, especially compared to what some other
manufacturers have!

The issue must have been triggered by SGP...it really disrupted the evening. As I said, it resolved with a new sequence.....had to re-enter all the parameters.

I have a couple of other suggestions/problems with APCC. I cannot view the error logs or close the errors even if I select the error log window. The only way to clear the errors is to restart APCC. It would be nice to be able to unconditionally close the program without having to close SGP and PHD2 first. It gives a warning, but you still cannot close APCC unless the other apps. are closed first. It is difficult to partially minimize the screen to use it to move the mount while seeing the effect in another application. You cannot unminimize SGP or PHD2 from the tray if the APCC screen is up. Other than that it is a great program, especially compared to what some other manufacturers have!

Peter,

I had this problem a couple of nights. I set tracking to zero to focus on a terrestrial object. I set the mount back to
sidereal and entered a target in SGP; when I attempted to center in SGP APCC kept going back to zero rate
after I repeatedly set it to sidereal. I finally seemed to solve the problem by starting a new sequence. Here is the
log:

I looked at your logs, and APCC stopped the mount under these conditions:

1) When the mount reached a meridian limit.
2) After unparking because you have the option set to stop tracking after unparking.
3) After parking, because that's normal.
4) After an Alt/Az slew, as that is an ASCOM requirement.
5) When a command came in through a virtual port to stop tracking.

There were no unexpected cases where APCC stopped tracking.

-Ray Gralak
Author of PEMPro
Author of APCC (Astro-Physics Command Center): https://www.astro-physics.com/apcc-pro
Author of Astro-Physics V2 ASCOM Driver: https://www.siriusimaging.com/apdriver

-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf Of Peter Bresler via groups.io
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2021 12:34 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: [ap-gto] Mount keeps going to zero tracking

I had this problem a couple of nights. I set tracking to zero to focus on a terrestrial object. I set the mount back to
sidereal and entered a target in SGP; when I attempted to center in SGP APCC kept going back to zero rate
after I repeatedly set it to sidereal. I finally seemed to solve the problem by starting a new sequence. Here is the
log:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qhop2gyc59eo3om/ApccZip-Peter_Bresler-2021-01-30-204841.zip?dl=0