Roland, that IS APOD quality. Amazing. I'm not sure I've ever seen this object in such detail. Wow. joel

Hello Astronuts, This is the first of several images that I was able to glean from my dark Hawaii site couple of weeks ago. This is one night's work during testing of the 1600 encoder mount modeling.

If your C14 is not an EdgeHD without mirror locks, then it may be mirror flop flexure. Peter

Roland was correct (no surprise there)! After regreasing my AP1200 mount It lost the ability to know where it was pointing. The answer was to match the computer location and time with the keypad even

No rush at this point.  It'll probably be a few days before I get the rig up and running again :) -Wade

Thanks for the suggestions to build the pier now. The issue is that I have the temporary site near the house.  The observatory is going to be further out in the property.  Right now, I can control

I don't have anything fresher than that video at the moment, but I have been working on this Advanced Sequencer plugin quite a bit lately. It has turned into a project between Ray and myself, with

I vote for building the pier now, then build the observatory around it next year. I've built two observatories, and the concrete pier was the first thing constructed. Here's our latest observatory

If you know where you'll site your observatory, put your pier in now and then build the obsy around it when the time comes for that. Once you nail down what you want for pier height, it's never too

That's kind of my assumption. I'm actually thinking now about what to do for wind mitigation. I would either put up a very sturdy fence around the mount or set up a concrete pier set

The mount will survive a fall. Rolando

😲 In contention for bummer of the week, Wade! Karen AP

I've been keeping my AP1600-AE set up outdoors under a cover almost since I got it in 2012. I lived in Western Washington most of that time. Our property was surrounded by forest and we never got the

Good point, Michael. I did use the extension to connect the CP4 to the mount so it clears the tripod as well. Luca

Do you have any links to an alternative description of how this works? The video on the first link is, as you say, in potato mode.  The YouTube link has legible video, but both videos are missing

For the 1600 nothing beats an ATS for rigidity. I have found that wood tripods like the Berlebach will twist slightly with variable moisture in the atmosphere, and thus change the polar alignment. Not

I have been hoping to put my 1600GTO mount, due in February, on a pedestal in my side yard. This is looking like it may not be feasible, and I’m thinking again of the idea of tripod mounting. I have

Linda, I use the AP Q6280KIT bracket that attaches the control box adapter with the Mach1. I would suggest calling them and speak with George, he is a wealth of information and loves sharing his

Hi Linda, Congratulations on the new telescope! I have used the Mach 1 with an Avalon T-Pod 110 and you will not even need the flat surface adapter. The bolt pattern on the T-Pod is compatible with

I recently bought a new-to-me but pristine TOA-130. I hadn’t planned to buy a larger telescope until I upgraded my mount from the current EQ6-r I’ve been using but this was too good an opportunity