If I can't find a CP3 I guess I will end up cannibalizing the CP4 off of my Mach1 or 1100. I really don't want to do that because I'll probably end up off-line myself for months and months before they

Always appreciated! However I am trying to get them back on-sky quickly. Trying to avoid the delay of shipping from/to Hawaii and whatever additional time needed on the bench. I opened up the unit and

One of the smaller UofH observatories I shepherd over here in Hawaii is using a 1200 and the existing CP3 has died. The budget for this particular research project is currently frozen so they can't si

NEVER mark messages from Groups.io as SPAM. That creates massive headaches for many other users, for many group moderators and also for Groups.io in general. MUCH better to seek Groups.io customer sup

The Meade LX200 16" OTA is 65 Lbs dry. 75 with dovetail bars, etc. I have one. It will work on an 1100GTO. I have one of those too. But it will work a LOT better on a 1600GTO. "My advice is always fre

I am guessing the difference would be if tracking was stopped or not. "My advice is always free and worth every penny!" -Christopher Erickson Observatory Engineer Summit Kinetics Waikoloa, Hawaii Viru

Strange. Wouldn't "Park at current position" and "Disconnect without parking" be exactly the same thing with an AP CP2/3/4/5 controller? "My advice is always free and worth every penny!" -Christopher

ABOUT TIME SKY SAFARI GOT PARK 3! YAY!!! I can FINALLY start recommending Sky Safari to people again. It only took YEARS for them to get this fixed. "My advice is always free and worth every penny!" -

The somewhat mysterious and mostly undocumented meridian safety limits in the CP4 firmware will turn the CP4 light amber, but so will a motor stall, low power situation, a motor cable problem, a motor

That is one thing I neglected to mention. A safety stop on the upper-end of the dovetail bar. Thanks for the reminder Joe. I like to use the Losmandy DVA D-style ring bases (or an ADM DPA-D + "Rosette

Here are some rambling musings of an equipment addict and observatory engineer. FWIW. All of my OTA's have permanent dovetail bars on them. Additionally, all of them also have handles or bars on top o

Virtually all soils, locations and environments are unique. Earthquakes, frost heaves, settling, moisture saturation, slope erosion, water table level, etc. all happen. Here in Hawaii, the younger vol

My G11 + Gemini-II happens to be set up inside my house right now and I don't see a manual meridian flip button or command in the menu tree. I guess it's time to triple-check it and find what I have o

It is a straight-through run that is fully isolated from the mount frame, as it should be. It has no internal fusing. That wouldn't be a bad thing to add. My memory is a bit faded but IIRC, it is 14 g

#Mach2GTO

Good grief. I have all of the following non-AP GOTO GEM mounts and NOT ONE of them has a "pier flip" button or menu command in the hand controller. Rainbow Astro RST-135 + Hubo-i SE Losmandy G11 + Gem

There must be some communications failures going on here. I currently have seventeen mounts/scopes using nine different GOTO systems and AFAICT, not one of them has a "do a meridian flip" button or me

I would worry more about load instability on an unlevel tripod than polar alignment accuracy. Having the RAPAS rotated ever-so-slightly will still give you a rather precise polar alignment. And if you

Personally I would put a 1600 or 1200 under that scope. -Christopher Erickson Observatory engineer Waikoloa, HI 96738 www.summitkinetics.com

#Mach2GTO

There are some safety limits in the CP4 that could have a bug in some firmware revs that look like a motor stall but aren't. Make sure to be using the latest firmware rev. -Christopher Erickson Observ

I have a machine shop... However a long ADM dovetail bar combined with one or two ADM dovetail brackets and one or two XY stage dovetail brackets, combined with a drill press and some bits, 1/4-20 or