My suggestion is to regard “find home” as a recovery tool. In about 10 years of using Astro-Physics mounts, I’ve never actually used the “find home” feature. In my normal workflow, I have my automatio

I believe that the “known parking positions” are all based on how the mount thinks it’s oriented with respect to the sky. I believe that the “find home” will position the mount relative to a known axi

I’ve been setting mine on the flat surface under the RA axis, between the supports. This seems to be a place where it’s unlikely to be affected by heat from any gear. Also, it’s somewhat protected fro

So does anyone have a parts list and plan so that I can get a head start on building one of these? I tried to source parts on Amazon, but finding the metal tubing and fittings has been a challenge. Th

Thanks again for the suggestions. I’m thinking that I’ll probably build an 8x8, 6’ tall barrier that surrounds most of the site where I’m currently setting up. I was already thinking about going with

Thanks for that. It looks like all of the rigidity is from guy wires, correct?

I think so, too. The problem is that my wife would prefer if I not sink fence posts into concrete for a temporary solution. My fear is that without a really solid anchor, our wind would simply blow it

I am taking 10 minute, unguided exposures at 0.88 arc seconds per pixel, so I expect that my polar alignment is good – or at least consistent with the tracking model. I’ve only recently switched to un

I just wanted to follow up and say that using the motorhome as a wind block made a huge difference. Based on the below results with the 175 refractor, I assume at this point that the mount itself is p

Interesting. If I can get tracking like you are seeing, that would be great. If I unplug the encoders, I’ll either need to set up guiding or program a PEM curve. Out of curiosity, what you are using f

I've been doing a bunch of experimenting to transition from guided imaging with an SCT, to unguided imaging with a first class refractor. Coincident to this, I'm imaging in a particularly windy area,

It's not the network stack. It's Windows Firewall, trying to determine which set of rules to apply before allowing traffic through. In the case where I encountered this, I had made a change to the wir

I like to keep my configuration as similar as possible between running at home and running in the field. What I didn’t mention earlier is that the only things that change between the two methods are t

For clarity, I use wired Ethernet over WiFi anywhere that I can. For my setup, I have a “normal” home WiFi router with 4 Ethernet ports. I use Ethernet wire to connect the mount to the router, and als

“you can also just bring a laptop and remote in while next to the NUC. that's why I do all the time i don't have extra keyboards and HDMI monitors laying around :)” It’s rare, but I have had the occas

So I just added myself to the notification list for a Mach2. I suspect that’s the best long term solution. I’ve been hung up on the fact that the halves cannot be separated – but I’m already transport

Here are the requirements, simplified: I have been using the AP1600 both in the field and at home, always for imaging. I’m moving it into an observatory and will not be using it in the field anymore.

I would use the Mach1 as the portable imaging mount. Most of the time, it would be carrying the 130GTX. Occasionally, I would mount my 80mm refractor for wide field work. That said, I put my C14 on a

" BTW, why would you want to use beta software from any manufacturer at a dark site? That seems like a risky decision that could cost you imaging time if something goes wrong." Amen to that. I travel

#APCC

Since retiring, I am changing how I regard my astronomy gear. I have an AP1600 with Absolute Encoders, and an AP1100 (without encoders). I keep them both up to date with the latest CP4 firmware, etc.