In my experience, certain hydrocarbon fumes (both pre and post combustion) will damage many plastics and rubbers, both natural and synthetic. The damaged hand controller cable is a hint. Fumes related

Balancing isn't that big of a deal. All it takes is a wooden pencil and a few pieces of blue painter's tape. On the floor, use the pencil to find the center of gravity for each OTA setup. Have your ca

The factory curve is a perfect fit when the mount comes from the factory. After a number of years, the gears will polish up a bit more and the curve should be re-done. -Christopher Erickson Observator

#APCC

At least Karen didn't ban me for my candidly-irreverent reply in the semi-recent "World's Greatest Secret" UFO conspiracy thread. I felt like I had really pegged the old Mirth-O-Meter with that one an

Maybe I should apply with AP to be an emergency-alternate backup tech support geek... ...if they would let me work from my astro-cave here in Hawaii. "My advice is always free and worth every penny!"

That was an attempted inoculation. LOL "My advice is always free and worth every penny!" -Christopher Erickson Observatory Engineer Summit Kinetics Waikoloa, Hawaii

At least nobody started talking about skin effect, nominal velocity of propagation, current NEC electrical code requirements, insulation dielectric characteristics, breakdown voltages, mutual inductan

Some of you people are REALLY over-thinking this... "My advice is always free and worth every penny!" -Christopher Erickson Observatory Engineer Summit Kinetics Waikoloa, Hawaii

I think that having a GPS hooked up to the scope PC and running for at least 20 minutes before using it to tune the PC internal clock will be critical for both satellite tracking as well as for occult

Only FWIW, SharpCap can access the GPS chip in my QHY174M-GPS cams and sync the PC clock to them. I always run GPS's for at least 20 minutes on-sky before I attempt to sync a PC to them before I captu

I think releasing the clutches and using a fish scale works pretty well too. -Christopher Erickson Observatory engineer Waikoloa, HI 96738 www.summitkinetics.com

I have the StarGPS module for AP CP2/CP3/CP4/CP5 controllers. Works precisely as advertised and Chris Carson is a pleasure to deal with. All-in-all, I am not sure it is a critical investment unless yo

#APCC

For whatever it's worth, AP did not do the mechanical design of the AP hand controller. It starts out life as a standard, heavy-duty, industrial, machine controller that is pretty commonly seen in hea

1. The old adapter is probably fine, except for a flaky USB connection. Try a new USB cable with the adapter, if possible. 2. FTDI Serial-to-USB chips all have an electronic serial number that the PC

Is this a brand-new AP hand controller or an older unit? If it is an older unit, possibly it's battery is getting low and the object database got corrupted? -Christopher Erickson Observatory engineer

Let me rephrase that. Is anything else connected to the mount besides the AP hand controller? -Christopher Erickson Observatory engineer Waikoloa, HI 96738 www.summitkinetics.com

The mount is never lost. What are you using to command the mount? That is where the problem is. -Christopher Erickson Observatory engineer Waikoloa, HI 96738 www.summitkinetics.com

I have had my C14 and 130 on my 1100 and also on my 900. However for a C14 and a 160, personally I would go for the 1600. -Christopher Erickson Observatory engineer Waikoloa, HI 96738 www.summitkineti

And I expect that both the 1100 and Mach2 are both machined within microns of perfection with no compromises. That's just how AP does things. Do it once, do it right. Don't have to do it over. -Christ

My G11 plus Gemini-II sits in a corner of my living room, holding up my first serious telescope from 50 years ago. A 10" f3.8 Newt. I won't admit how long it has been since it last gathered starlight.