That sure is TRUE. Christine bailed me out of a jam last new moon weekend. My hand controller kept rebooting. I was *sure* that my PS was fine, but alas... she was right! AP (phone) support ROCKS.

cheers & beers,
Chris

Hmm, I guess we could make accurate little 'wedges' for various locations
to get the inclinometer into it's more accurate range.

-Mark

_____

From: ap-gto@... [mailto:ap-gto@...] On Behalf Of
Howard
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 11:17 AM
To: ap-gto@...
Subject: RE: [ap-gto] Daytime Polar alignment





The name depends on who is selling it. One common name is
"inclinometer." Sears calls the cheap one that I have a "universal
protractor" (Craftsman # 939840). I rate it merely OK. Many of the
more expensive digital levels will also measure angle or inclination.
Be aware though: some that I've looked at in the past are only highly
accurate when near level or plumb. For example, in large bold print it
says: Accurate to within 0.05 degrees! Then in fine print it says
something like: when measuring within 1 degree of vertical or
horizontal only. Intermediate angles accurate to within +/- 1 degree.
Some digital levels, however, are quite excellent, but $$$$$.

Mag. 7 skies!

Howard Hedlund

Astro-Physics, Inc.

815-282-1513

________________________________

From: ap-gto@yahoogroups. <mailto:ap-gto%40yahoogroups.com> com
[mailto:ap-gto@yahoogroups. <mailto:ap-gto%40yahoogroups.com> com] On Behalf
Of Christopher Go
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 3:53 AM
To: ap-gto@yahoogroups. <mailto:ap-gto%40yahoogroups.com> com
Subject: [ap-gto] Daytime Polar alignment

Hi,

I was wondering, what was the name of the instrument that measure the
inclination angle for day time polar alignment?

Thanks,
Chris

Christopher and Vicky Go
Christone Industries
Manufacturer and Exporter of Furniture and Home Decor
Cebu, Philippines
http://www.christon <http://www.christone.net> e.net <http://www.christon
<http://www.christone.net> e.net>
astropage: http://astro. <http://astro.cstoneind.com> cstoneind.com
<http://astro. <http://astro.cstoneind.com> cstoneind.com>
HST Collaboration: http://www.redspotj <http://www.redspotjr.com> r.com
<http://www.redspotj <http://www.redspotjr.com> r.com>







No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.53/2154 - Release Date: 06/05/09
06:24:00

I agree...he has better things to do! You must admit, however, his customer service is SECOND TO NONE!!!!!!!!!!

Norm

It seems more like once a week! :) Every time this comes up I think "why
doesn't Rolando write this up and post it at the AP website"? With all
the time our fearless leader spends on this topic, he could have made a
few dozen APO's - getting me a few steps closer to that 155 I signed up
for many, many moons ago. :)

cheers & beers,
Chris

--- In ap-gto@..., "Rick K" <JunkMailGoesHere@> wrote:

This sounds like an excellent plan! It might simplify things in that

some of these 'user generated' problems will be reduced. I know that
this will not end the misuse of the SYNC command but it may minimize it
significantly. It seems this is one of THE most misunderstood aspects of
the AP mount and is brought up at least once a month and occasionally
more often.

Rick.

I would like to ask one follow up question... Will a better polar alignment
result in better goto's after your sync or is 'close',close enough?
Thanks,
Chuck/divenuts

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick K" <JunkMailGoesHere@...>
To: <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:35 PM
Subject: [ap-gto] Re: 1200GTO: East is West and West is East


This explanation paints a very pretty picture! Excellent and easy (for me at
least) to visualize.

Rick.

--- In ap-gto@..., "Norm" <wskystalker@> wrote:

I always find it interesting how many times Roland explains the TIME issue
and the AP mounts. I would like to throw in my 2 cents worth and maybe it
might sink in.

If you think about the sky and all the stars contained, you will come to
the conclusion the stars are actually FIXED (not really, but the stars
move so slowly as to be essentially non-moving). The mount therefore only
needs 2 reference points to know WHERE it is. One of the reference points
is the north pole (found during polar alignment). The second reference
point is ANY star the mount is synced on initially. Once the 2 reference
points are established, time is totally irrelevant! The PATTERN of the
sky in total NEVER changes with TIME.

As far as Sync vs Recal. Think of it like this. When you look at a star
with a GEM the star you view should always be on the opposite side of the
mount as the scope. If you are looking at Vega as it rises in the east,
Vega is in the east and you and the scope are on the west side of the
mount. The only difference between Sync and Recal is that a Sync will
define that relationship (star east, scope west or vise versa). If you
should happen to Sync when the star has crossed the meridian you have just
told the mount information that makes it think it is 180 degrees away from
where it actaully IS (if Vega is now west of the meridian and the scope is
west of the meridian and you Sync, you just told the mount you are on the
east side even though you are NOT). The Sync defines a geometry of
scope/mount. Recal only confirms that what you are looking at is what you
are looking at. If you are looking at M108 and center it in the eyepiece
and hit Recal, you have only confirmed that M108 is where the scope is
centered.

I hope this helps. I just know when I think of it this way I can sleep
better at night!

Norm

--- In ap-gto@..., chris1011@ wrote:

In a message dated 6/3/2009 6:29:36 PM Central Daylight Time,
daffyddsant@ writes:

I do
not know why the mount can do accurate GoTo's if the local time in the
mount is off by one hour-

The reason the mount can always slew to stars and deep sky objects
correctly is because it does not use time to calculate where the stars
are. It uses
time/date/location/etc only to calculate the meridian line and the
horizons.
Why does it need to do this? Because it is a German equatorial, which
means
it has to know when to flip the scope to the other side (when the object
is
on the other side of the meridian). There is no other reason to know the
time or the date for stars. Time/date/location is used to calculate the
position of the sun, moon and planets but not the stars and deep sky
objects.

The reason to do accurate data entry of time/date and location is so
that
the mount does not flip at the wrong point in the sky, either too early
or
too late. This is to prevent the scope from hitting the pier. I hope
that you
understand now.

Rolando


**************
We found the real â?~Hotel Californiaâ?T and the â?~Seinfeld
â?T diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.
(http://www.whereitsat.com/#/music/all-spots/355/47.796964/-66.374711/2/Youve-Found-Where-Its-At?nc
id=emlcntnew00000007)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

------------------------------------

To UNSUBSCRIBE, or for general information on the ap-gto list
see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ap-gtoYahoo! Groups Links

I always find it interesting how many times Roland explains the TIME issue and the AP mounts. I would like to throw in my 2 cents worth and maybe it might sink in.

If you think about the sky and all the stars contained, you will come to the conclusion the stars are actually FIXED (not really, but the stars move so slowly as to be essentially non-moving). The mount therefore only needs 2 reference points to know WHERE it is. One of the reference points is the north pole (found during polar alignment). The second reference point is ANY star the mount is synced on initially. Once the 2 reference points are established, time is totally irrelevant! The PATTERN of the sky in total NEVER changes with TIME.

As far as Sync vs Recal. Think of it like this. When you look at a star with a GEM the star you view should always be on the opposite side of the mount as the scope. If you are looking at Vega as it rises in the east, Vega is in the east and you and the scope are on the west side of the mount. The only difference between Sync and Recal is that a Sync will define that relationship (star east, scope west or vise versa). If you should happen to Sync when the star has crossed the meridian you have just told the mount information that makes it think it is 180 degrees away from where it actaully IS (if Vega is now west of the meridian and the scope is west of the meridian and you Sync, you just told the mount you are on the east side even though you are NOT). The Sync defines a geometry of scope/mount. Recal only confirms that what you are looking at is what you are looking at. If you are looking at M108 and center it in the eyepiece and hit Recal, you have only confirmed that M108 is where the scope is centered.

I hope this helps. I just know when I think of it this way I can sleep better at night!

Norm

--- In ap-gto@..., chris1011@ wrote:

In a message dated 6/3/2009 6:29:36 PM Central Daylight Time,
daffyddsant@ writes:

I do
not know why the mount can do accurate GoTo's if the local time in the
mount is off by one hour-

The reason the mount can always slew to stars and deep sky objects
correctly is because it does not use time to calculate where the stars are. It uses
time/date/location/etc only to calculate the meridian line and the horizons.
Why does it need to do this? Because it is a German equatorial, which means
it has to know when to flip the scope to the other side (when the object is
on the other side of the meridian). There is no other reason to know the
time or the date for stars. Time/date/location is used to calculate the
position of the sun, moon and planets but not the stars and deep sky objects.

The reason to do accurate data entry of time/date and location is so that
the mount does not flip at the wrong point in the sky, either too early or
too late. This is to prevent the scope from hitting the pier. I hope that you
understand now.

Rolando


**************
We found the real ?~Hotel California?T and the ?~Seinfeld
?T diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.
(http://www.whereitsat.com/#/music/all-spots/355/47.796964/-66.374711/2/Youve-Found-Where-Its-At?nc
id=emlcntnew00000007)

I always find it interesting how many times Roland explains the TIME issue and the AP mounts. I would like to throw in my 2 cents worth and maybe it might sink in.

If you think about the sky and all the stars contained, you will come to the conclusion the stars are actually FIXED (not really, but the stars move so slowly as to be essentially non-moving). The mount therefore only needs 2 reference points to know WHERE it is. One of the reference points is the north pole (found during polar alignment). The second reference point is ANY star the mount is synced on initially. Once the 2 reference points are established, time is totally irrelevant! The PATTERN of the sky in total NEVER changes with TIME.

As far as Sync vs Recal. Think of it like this. When you look at a star with a GEM the star you view should always be on the opposite side of the mount as the scope. If you are looking at Vega as it rises in the east, Vega is in the east and you and the scope are on the west side of the mount. The only difference between Sync and Recal is that a Sync will define that relationship (star east, scope west or vise versa). If you should happen to Sync when the star has crossed the meridian you have just told the mount information that makes it think it is 180 degrees away from where it actaully IS (if Vega is now west of the meridian and the scope is west of the meridian and you Sync, you just told the mount you are on the east side even though you are NOT). The Sync defines a geometry of scope/mount. Recal only confirms that what you are looking at is what you are looking at. If you are looking at M108 and center it in the eyepiece and hit Recal, you have only confirmed that M108 is where the scope is centered.

I hope this helps. I just know when I think of it this way I can sleep better at night!

Norm

--- In ap-gto@..., chris1011@ wrote:

In a message dated 6/3/2009 6:29:36 PM Central Daylight Time,
daffyddsant@ writes:

I do
not know why the mount can do accurate GoTo's if the local time in the
mount is off by one hour-

The reason the mount can always slew to stars and deep sky objects
correctly is because it does not use time to calculate where the stars are. It uses
time/date/location/etc only to calculate the meridian line and the horizons.
Why does it need to do this? Because it is a German equatorial, which means
it has to know when to flip the scope to the other side (when the object is
on the other side of the meridian). There is no other reason to know the
time or the date for stars. Time/date/location is used to calculate the
position of the sun, moon and planets but not the stars and deep sky objects.

The reason to do accurate data entry of time/date and location is so that
the mount does not flip at the wrong point in the sky, either too early or
too late. This is to prevent the scope from hitting the pier. I hope that you
understand now.

Rolando


**************
We found the real ‘Hotel California’ and the ‘Seinfeld
’ diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.
(http://www.whereitsat.com/#/music/all-spots/355/47.796964/-66.374711/2/Youve-Found-Where-Its-At?nc
id=emlcntnew00000007)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Rick,
The next version of the keypad will have sync buried deeper. It is too readily available now. We are also considering a warning message so that it is less likely to be misused.


Clear Skies!

Marj Christen
Vice President
Astro-Physics, Inc
11250 Forest Hills Road
Machesney Park, IL 61115
Phone: 815-282-1513
Fax: 815-282-9847
www.astro-physics.com
Please include this e-mail with your response.



________________________________

From: ap-gto@... [mailto:ap-gto@...] On Behalf Of Rick K
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 5:22 PM
To: ap-gto@...
Subject: [ap-gto] Re: 1200GTO: East is West and West is East





I know it is impossible to determine how a person uses a mount but the SYNC feature could be made more difficult to use, moved deeper into the menu structure while RCAL should be more prominent. The other option might be to switch the functionality of the two commands. SYNC would then "synchronize the pointing" and RCAL would "re-calibrate the mount".

--- In ap-gto@... <mailto:ap-gto%40yahoogroups.com> , chris1011@ wrote:

In a message dated 6/2/2009 9:42:33 AM Central Daylight Time,
JunkMailGoesHere@ writes:

Use of the SYNC on these mounts should be associated with a 25 digit
password that has to be entered correctly within 10 seconds to proceed or it
becomes a RE-CAL by default.

Maybe we should disable the sync function after the first correct slew and
turn every sync request into a Rcal. But then it would limit people who
really know how GEMs work. So maybe we need to have a sobriety test before being
allowed to use sync?

Rolando


**************
We found the real ‘Hotel California’ and the ‘Seinfeld
’ diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.
(http://www.whereitsat.com/#/music/all-spots/355/47.796964/-66.374711/2/Youve-Found-Where-Its-At?nc <http://www.whereitsat.com/#/music/all-spots/355/47.796964/-66.374711/2/Youve-Found-Where-Its-At?nc>
id=emlcntnew00000007)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 6/4/09 8:14:21 PM, kcoker@... writes:

So what I'm asking is step by step what I should do the next time this
happens.

Better yet....determine why this happens in the first place.
This is almost always a power supply problem and in this case, the problem
is where the power cord screws into the CPO block. The contacts inside are
making intermittant contact causing your run away situations. Carefully
spreading the contacts will solve the problem.

Kent Kirkley


**************
Limited Time Offers: Save big on popular laptops
at Dell
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221354145x1201369495/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B215221161%3B37268813%3By)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I would manually go to a bright star, not near the meridian, pull it up in
the object data base, and synch on it. If you have not physically moved the
mount then you are back where you started.

Dean


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kyle Coker" <kcoker@...>
To: <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:13 PM
Subject: [ap-gto] Electrical glitches

Has anyone ever had the mount take off to points unknown following an
accidental bump to the power cord? I have had this happen a few times
causing panic and a quick application of the stop button. Following these
episodes, the mount is lost and needs to be re-taught where it is. I
never seem to be able to get this right until I've reset everything
several times.

My question is: what is the quickest way to get everything back in order.
Options include: slew to a star and recalc (which as I recall didn't seem
to work), restart and slew to a star and resync , or start over from Park
position 1 and re-level and restart which I ultimately had to do. The
problem with the last option is that it didn't know there I had parked it
when I turned it off so park position 1 was also off.

So what I'm asking is step by step what I should do the next time this
happens.

Kyle




------------------------------------

To UNSUBSCRIBE, or for general information on the ap-gto list
see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ap-gtoYahoo! Groups Links

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.53/2155 - Release Date: 06/04/09
17:55:00

Has anyone ever had the mount take off to points unknown following an accidental bump to the power cord? I have had this happen a few times causing panic and a quick application of the stop button. Following these episodes, the mount is lost and needs to be re-taught where it is. I never seem to be able to get this right until I've reset everything several times.

My question is: what is the quickest way to get everything back in order. Options include: slew to a star and recalc (which as I recall didn't seem to work), restart and slew to a star and resync , or start over from Park position 1 and re-level and restart which I ultimately had to do. The problem with the last option is that it didn't know there I had parked it when I turned it off so park position 1 was also off.

So what I'm asking is step by step what I should do the next time this happens.

Kyle




------------------------------------

To UNSUBSCRIBE, or for general information on the ap-gto list
see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ap-gtoYahoo! Groups Links