|
Re: 92FF Backfocus
George
Stacey,
It is measured from the end of the threads. Adapters will thread on until they butt up against the end.
Regards,
George
George Whitney Astro-Physics, Inc. Phone: 815-282-1513 Email: george@...
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io]
On Behalf Of Stacey Mills
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2020 2:27 PM To: main@ap-gto.groups.io Subject: [ap-gto] 92FF Backfocus
I got my Stowaway yesterday. BEAUTIFUL! Thanks to Roland, Marj, and Karen! Stay safe. |
|
|
|
92FF Backfocus
I got my Stowaway yesterday. BEAUTIFUL! Thanks to Roland, Marj, and Karen! Stay safe.
I note that the 92FF flattener shows a required nominal backfocus of 64.1mm. Since the camera end of the flattener has male threads, is the backfocus measured from the end of the flattener or closer to the center at the other end of the male threads?? Usually in my experience it's the latter and female threads are measured from the end, but on the PreciseParts mockup it looks like the backfocus is measured from the end of the flattener. Just want to be sure before ordering. Thanks! |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1GTO case recommendations?
The Pelican and similar cases may work but they are expensive. I have always used large tool boxes which are available from Home Depot, Lowes, and similar. I have one for my 1100 and another for my 900 mounts and another for my Ioptron Mini Tower Pro and 8" SCT for public outreach. All of the major tool manufacturers make nice ones for not much money and since they are designed for hard field tool use they are very sturdy. The larger ones have wheels on one end which is great for moving them around. I would warn about trying to put too much stuff in one case....keep track of how much weight you are accumulating in each case or you may have a problem lifting it ;-) A friend has Scope Guard cases for his 900 mount (now out of business) that made really heavy duty cases that were very nice BUT with the gear inside they were really heavy and they didn't have wheels so had to use a dolly. For padding you can use the stock foam that the mounts came in trimmed as appropriate or get new high density foam from the many foam shops around.
|
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Roland Christen
Once again:
If you have a permanent setup where the mount and scope are never moved, then Unpark From Present Position.
If you are mobile and tear down your setup at the end of each session and set up fresh for the next one, then you can set your mount up to Unpark From Park X (choose 1 thru 5). It may not be as accurate as the permanent setup but it will get you started. Accuracy will depend on how well you level the mount, how well you polar align it, and how well you actually achieve the exact park position.
I don't normally do either of the above because I generally use a keypad for initialization. I just set it to Autoconnect YES and the keypad automatically resumes from present position. I don't change anything during the year, not even the daylight savings or set the clock back 1 hour. Every once in a while i might update the clock's minutes and seconds but never the hour. If the keypad clock is off by 1 minute the pointing will be off by 15 arc minutes. It would be off by 1 full degree if the time was off by 4 minutes in the keypad. I have never seen that much error in my keypad time in all the years that I have used it.
If you have a very small field of view then you will want to use a very accurate time base and initialize the mount via APCC. The keypad would then be set at EXT so that it does not interfere with the accurate time initialization of your computer. Of course if your computer's time drifts then all bets are off.
Rolando
-----Original Message-----
From: Cheng-Yang Tan via groups.io <cytan299@...> To: main <main@ap-gto.groups.io> Sent: Wed, Apr 1, 2020 11:53 am Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly Hi Rolando,
What is the difference between unparking from last park and unparking from a specified park position when I startup? FYI, I always start from park3.
My setup is mobile, but I don't usually loosen the clutches or unload the spring levers for balance when I setup and start from Park3. So which way is the recommended way for mobile setups?
cytan
On Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 11:44:56 AM CDT, uncarollo2 <chris1011@...> via groups.io <chris1011@...> wrote:
Unparking now from the last position I recommend to always do this for mounts that are never moved and have permanent scope setups.
Rolando
-----Original Message-----
From: Mikko Viljamaa <mikko.viljamaa@...> To: main <main@ap-gto.groups.io> Sent: Wed, Apr 1, 2020 11:41 am Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly Unparking now from the last position as instructed earlier. Mach finds it's home now nicely.
- Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Dale Ghent
It doesn't work that way, Joe. These auto-timezone settings use any location data that your computer can derive from its public IP address or any observed wifi networks, if visible (databases of wifi SSIDs exist, see wigle.net). Because auto-tz relies on these external cues, they can also be fooled. For example, if you use a VPN where the tunnel exits with a public IP that's SWIP'd to an ISP in Frankfurt, Germany, Windows might decide that's where you physically are.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
If it's not a computer that travels, there's really no need to have auto-tz on. Besides, time zone isn't a factor here because both Windows and the mount run in UTC. Timezone conversion in Windows is basically for presentation purposes. On Apr 1, 2020, at 12:39 PM, Joe Zeglinski <J.Zeglinski@...> wrote: |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Cheng-Yang Tan
Hi Rolando, What is the difference between unparking from last park and unparking from a specified park position when I startup? FYI, I always start from park3. My setup is mobile, but I don't usually loosen the clutches or unload the spring levers for balance when I setup and start from Park3. So which way is the recommended way for mobile setups? cytan
On Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 11:44:56 AM CDT, uncarollo2 <chris1011@...> via groups.io <chris1011@...> wrote:
Unparking now from the last position I recommend to always do this for mounts that are never moved and have permanent scope setups.
Rolando
-----Original Message-----
From: Mikko Viljamaa <mikko.viljamaa@...> To: main <main@ap-gto.groups.io> Sent: Wed, Apr 1, 2020 11:41 am Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly Unparking now from the last position as instructed earlier. Mach finds it's home now nicely.
- Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Roland Christen
Unparking now from the last position I recommend to always do this for mounts that are never moved and have permanent scope setups.
Rolando
-----Original Message-----
From: Mikko Viljamaa <mikko.viljamaa@...> To: main <main@ap-gto.groups.io> Sent: Wed, Apr 1, 2020 11:41 am Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly Unparking now from the last position as instructed earlier. Mach finds it's home now nicely.
- Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Mikko Viljamaa
Thanks Joe, I have never touched it but worth trying...
- Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Mikko Viljamaa
Unparking now from the last position as instructed earlier. Mach finds it's home now nicely.
- Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Joe Zeglinski
Mikko.
Why are you avoiding the button for Windows to set
Time Zone automatically?
It can sometimes be set to a convenient USA west coast one, by some USA
software installers, perhaps even during Microsoft major half-yearly
Updates.
I would check that box – couldn’t hurt. Might
explain why your time might be correct, but not for your time zone.
Otherwise, why would Microsoft have this option box?
Joe
From: Mikko Viljamaa
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2020 11:56 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position
Suddenly Where
else could there be time settings which would confuse the Mount or the program?
This one is spot on... - Mikko 
|
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Roland Christen
Are you unparking from previous position? Or are you forcing the mount to unpark from one of the 4 park positions?
Rolando
-----Original Message-----
From: Mikko Viljamaa <mikko.viljamaa@...> To: main <main@ap-gto.groups.io> Sent: Wed, Apr 1, 2020 11:26 am Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly Thanks Steve, all ideas are appreciated.
Sequence Generator Pro does everything for me so Mach1 is connected through the ASCOM. I used Platesolve2 previously for plate solving but recently changed to ASTAP it being faster. The last two nights I have tried both plate solves with same results meaning a blind solve is needed before a plate solve works and understands where the Mount is pointing to. - Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Mikko Viljamaa
Thanks Steve, all ideas are appreciated.
Sequence Generator Pro does everything for me so Mach1 is connected through the ASCOM. I used Platesolve2 previously for plate solving but recently changed to ASTAP it being faster. The last two nights I have tried both plate solves with same results meaning a blind solve is needed before a plate solve works and understands where the Mount is pointing to. - Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Steve Reilly
I understand but which programs are connected to the mount? For example I use ACP to image with and have APCC Pro so I have the ACP configured to connect to the ASCOM Driver, APCC to connect via the IP address (CP4), MaxIm has no need to be connected to the mount nor does FocusMax as all my focusing is done using ACP calling for FocusMax to focus to a star that ACP has picked, no connection to TheSkyX as I don’t have that active, and so on. But anything that might be connected otherwise is being connected via the virtual port on APCC.
Another question would be what program are you using to plate solve? ACP uses the catalog I have the path set for in ACP preferences and solves accordingly. If that fails it will do an offset slew, take another image and try again. If that fails then it tries a blind solve through Astrometry. Hope this makes some sense.
-Steve
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Mikko Viljamaa
Steve no hand controller. Never changed anything from what I have done from the day 1. Just suddenly having plate solve problems and trying to understand what's causing them. |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Mikko Viljamaa
Steve no hand controller. Never changed anything from what I have done from the day 1. Just suddenly having plate solve problems and trying to understand what's causing them.
- Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Mikko Viljamaa
Where else could there be time settings which would confuse the Mount or the program? This one is spot on...
- Mikko  |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Steve Reilly
I can’t offer much as I haven’t followed this carefully but how many programs are connected to the mount? Have you initialized with only the hand controller?
-Steve
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Mikko Viljamaa
OK, so no LST. Then I'm out of ideas what could cause this. I would like to think that daylight saving or something else would force this but as it again worked just fine a couple of times, I cannot believe time would be the cause. Unless something somewhere feeds the mount wrong time information even though all visible timepieces are correct. |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Mikko Viljamaa
OK, so no LST. Then I'm out of ideas what could cause this. I would like to think that daylight saving or something else would force this but as it again worked just fine a couple of times, I cannot believe time would be the cause. Unless something somewhere feeds the mount wrong time information even though all visible timepieces are correct.
Any other ideas of what to try? - Mikko |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Ray Gralak
Hi Mikko,
I'm still trying to understand the relationship between the LST and the RA. If the difference should be 6 hoursThe difference between LST and RA is called the "Hour Angle" and will vary depending on where the scope is pointing. Hour Angle is 0 at the meridian, which is the imaginary line running from the North celestial pole to the South celestial pole. -Ray Gralak Author of APCC (Astro-Physics Command Center): https://www.astro-physics.com/apcc-pro Author of PEMPro V3: https://www.ccdware.com Author of Astro-Physics V2 ASCOM Driver: https://www.siriusimaging.com/apdriver -----Original Message----- |
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Matthieu BUI
Did the computer go to summer time ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
|
|
|
|
Re: Mach1 Unable to Find Home Position Suddenly
Mikko Viljamaa
Well after two successful nights when I thought that my problems are behind me I now have two nights again when the plate solve won't work work. And when I say won't work I mean that the mount is so much off that a blind solve is needed before any target is found. The good news is that the mount finds it home position just fine.
I'm still trying to understand the relationship between the LST and the RA. If the difference should be 6 hours when initialized and then increase 15 arc sec per second, shouldn't the difference then be always more than 6 hours? If you look at the photo below, you'll see that this is not the case. Could this explain my issue again? Thanks, Mikko  |
|
|