I have coyotes in the cornfields nearby that howl up a storm whenever a distant police car sounds his siren. They also howl at the Moon when it rises over the treetops.

Rolando

-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Beyer <jcbeyer2001@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Wed, Sep 22, 2021 6:36 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] semi-OT: deterring critters in the obsy

It's a spooky sound.  Sitting out next to the telescope and hearing a deer being killed in the neighbor's yard leaves a person feeling a bit exposed.  I still prefer the four legged neighbors rather than the two legged variety!  

There have been a number guys in the local astronomy club using the darker regional parks who have had experiences with the local mountain lions.  For whatever reason a lion approached the groups after dark and let out a few big cat howls.  The call of the wild was followed by a rapid packing of vehicles and calling it a night.

--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics

Really nice!  I live in a suburban neighborhood not far from open space on the San Francisco peninsula and we've got a variety of critters around including lots of deer.  The other night I was pulling the car into the garage and close by heard one of the neighborhood deer getting attacked by "something".  Looked in the rearview mirror and saw a young mountain lion run right in back of the car and off down the street.  When I'm out imaging at night the 8 foot fence around the yard is constantly vibrating due to animals jumping on and off in other yards.  So far worst I've had is families of raccoons and opossums come down the fence line in back of me.  I'm just waiting for the night when it's a bobcat or bigger.   

For the wasps you can use decoy nests. It does not kill them, but you can basically decide where they will go. 

---

From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> on behalf of Joel Short <buckeyestargazer@...>
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2021 1:51 PM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io>
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] semi-OT: deterring critters in the obsy

 

I do two things.  
1.  Twice per year (early Spring and early Fall) I spray an insecticide called Tempo SC Ultra on the outside walls and perimeter of my roll off roof obs.  This stuff works great, for other areas of the house too.
2.  I put a little bit of peppermint extract in a small spray bottle and once a month I spray the inside of the obs, especially around any cracks.

I haven't seen a spider in years in my obs; wasps are a completely different story.  Nothing deters those buggers.

joel

Of course you can't "achieve" all the Park positions (1-4) simultaneously. You can only put a mount in one park position at a time.  Otherwise the mount would need to be in 4 places at once, which would violate Einstein's laws of relativity.

Let me ask you a more fundamental question. Do you have a fixed setup where you do not remove the scope from the mount after each session?

Roland

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Giannaccini <tgiann3@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Tue, Sep 21, 2021 9:32 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] #Keypad Park Positions: AP 1100 GTO with encoders

Mike,

I received an email from Roland telling me to use Park 3, 2 and 5. So I will try that. 

I think I generally only used “resume from park” on the initial startup. Initially that was Park 1, until George said to use Park 3. So, from that point forward I would resume from Park 3. 

I store the mount in Park 1 so it will fit in the shed. Perhaps I can try Park 4 or 5 to store it. I will first try resuming from Park 4 or 5 but if that doesn't work, I will just start from Park 3 by manually placing it there by hand if necessary  after slewing to Park 3.

In terms of waiting, I never timed it but I never went immediately to a target, I didn’t realize there was a time crunch. I did read the manual but I think it takes a few iterations for it to all sink in. 

What was confusing is that some Park attempts would end with the OTA in very odd positions. So it wasn’t a small margin of error as if the difference was based on movement from tracking; there were many times it wasn’t even in the ballpark. As to if the weights were pointed upwards, I did not notice them pointing up but if it was by a small amount I may not have seen it.

I am interested to try Roland’s suggestion. I think I may have to update my keypad to get Park 5. 

I try not to bog the forum with beginner questions, I only really ask when my attempted solutions don’t seem to work at all.

Thank you for your help,

Tom

On Tue, Sep 21, 2021 at 6:56 PM Mike Dodd <mike@...> wrote:

On 9/21/2021 8:37 PM, Thomas Giannaccini wrote:
> When I try to attain Park 4 by slewing to it then
> manually adjusting, it throws the other Park positions off.

After you manually adjust the mount in Park 4, what do you do next? Do
you "Resume From Last Parked?"

> ...when the mount is in Park 1 and slews to Park 4 which way
> is the main objective of the OTA supposed to swing? South or North?

In Park 1, the OTA is horizontal pointing north. In Park 4, the OTA is
horizontal pointing south.

The issue with Park 1, as pointed out by A-P, is that as soon as you
unpark, the mount is tracking, and after only a few seconds, it believes
the counterweight is up, which can be bad. From the keypad manual: "Park
1 is only seconds away from tracking into a counterweight-up status and
slews from Park 1 to western objects may cause the scope to point toward
the ground when beginning the slew."

How long do you wait after unparking from Park 1 before you slew to a
sky target? I usually do that immediately, as quickly as I can pick a
target. I have never had a problem unparking from Park 1 if I'm quick to
slew  to an east target. But, again, Park 4 where I level the mount and
OTA if necessary. (Actually, I will use Park 5 in the future because
that doesn't stretch my imaging cables as much as Park 4.)

--- Mike


--- Mike

--
CN: HasAnyoneSeenMyNeblua

--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics