When I use the mount for visual [not often] I use Sky Safari on my iPad. The iPad is connected to the mount with something they called "Sky Wire". It works beautifully. No computer required. I

Robert, thank you for the response.. just seeing it now. I currently have ski safari pro on my macbook and my IOS devices (IPAD and iphone) so will likely not purchase another platform license.

Rolando, I was going to get some of those foam, colored swimming pool noogles to place around the shaft. I am also going to re-order the weights on the shaft to see if I can eliminate the shaft

I'm also excited ...keypad routines ... then modeling with APPM.

Really looking forward to trying that modeling out

I have a 1600 mount with a 1200mm fl 175EDF refractor in Hawaii. I just spent 2 weeks testing keypad software using this setup. The 1600 has encoders and is a sweet mount that is dead nuts accurate.

I think people misunderstand what is a tracking error coming from a mount and an atmospheric seeing error caused by random motions of a star. Certainly a star will bounce around more when it is low

On my observatory mounts both here and in Hawaii I have wrapped the counterweights in heavy foam shipping material. It has saved my noggin many times. Rolando

I just updated APCC Pro to version 1.8.0.5 and now when I go to the "Move Scope" box the slowest speed offered is 12x sidereal. If I use the APv2 driver I can still get to 1 x, 0.5 x, and 0.25 x

Besides the clouds I hope the pollen subsidesa little bit. I just got home from a several week long trip and found avery heavy layer of yellow pine pollen on everything outside. From whatI could

Marj, good advice... but can you do something about the rain around here? :-) I'm willing but the weather won't cooperate. Rain and snow up at the observatory for the last week and more forecast

Here we are, in France, in general confinement. Fortunately we still have, to us, astram, if our domicile and the weather allows it, to travel in the sky, but without sharing this pleasure with our

Cheng-Yang, Thank you for agreeing with my feedback, I am pretty pleased with the results on the Mach2 operation so far.. I think some others are questioning the results and I'm providing the best

Hi Terry, FYI, although I don't have a Mach2, I have an AP1100 with absolute encoders. For me, the PHD2 rms guide errors are *strongly* dependent on seeing conditions. Last week on 06 March, when the

That is why we pay the big bucks for a premium mount. :-) Now you can stop worrying about the mount. It fades into the background and reliably does its thing. -- Dean

Allen, The atmosphere creates significant star movement in my less exotic locale (at 155M in Vermont under the jet stream). And what I'm reporting is guiding (i'm actively guiding), not tracking.

Periodic error is completely corrected by the encoders but there are other sources of tracking error that must be minimized. The level of tracking error will depend on the amount of uncorrected

Terry, I am surprised to see the tracking you report as being .5 arc Sec. 35° above the Southern Horizon and .8 seconds of arc at 23° above the Horizon. It would seem to me that if the Mach II

Hello everyone, While we have an appreciation for reasoned debate, this topic has strayed. I haven't cut it off, but will be moderating every post on this thread. If your post is not about enjoying

On the topic of distancing, this is a great article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/