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1600GTO - guiding near zenith not so good, perfect elsewhere - reasons?
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R Botero
Hello
Just checking if anyone has observed something like the above with their mounts. I recently rebalanced my 1600GTO after changing some of the equipment mounted on it. I checked it was well balanced by querying the CP4 for current usage whilst tracking in different positions (a trick I learned from Howard) and it's very well balanced. Maybe too well balanced? I am finding that guiding near the zenith just before or after crossing the meridian is a bit erratic whilst it's spot on elsewhere when the counterweights are further down (or further up). I suspected poor meshing in RA and the worm "floating" near the meridian if there isn't enough imbalance for the mount but this happens in both RA - AND - DEC... As soon as I'm past 1 hour angle or so from the meridian, guiding gets really tight once more. I don't have any loose cables or anything obvious. My scopes are two refractors in tandem with the Baader Vario guider attached with the AP bracket to the main refractor. Any suggestions are welcome! Thank you Roberto |
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Hi Roberto Do you have a guidelog you can share that shows this? Also do you have a picture of your setup, particularly around the guidescope assembly? Hello --
Brian Brian Valente astro portfolio https://www.brianvalentephotography.com/astrophotography/ portfolio brianvalentephotography.com |
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R Botero
Hi Brian
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Please post updates on this, as my mount also guides like an ekg on arritmia close to zenith . Not to mention once it get close to 30°
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Hi Roberto
Is there a chance that the mount is moving into an area as it approaches the Zenith where the center of balance suddenly shifts from being heavy on the counterweight side to being heavy on the scope side ? I am not sure that I am asking the question correctly, but I noticed when I was balancing my tandem setup that I had my scopes perfectly balanced when they were pointing directly at the zenith from one side of the mount (Park 4 except with the scopes pointing straight up), but when I performed the equivalent of a meridian shift and re-pointed at the zenith from the other side of the mount (Park 1 except with the scopes pointing straight up), the balance was suddenly way off. If you are experiencing the same thing and it happens to be in a condition where the weight is "helping" the RA axis, you might be getting some strange guiding behavior. I was able to finally adjust the positions dovetail plates to where the scopes were balanced on both sides of the mount. Mike |
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R Botero
Mike I will check the balance on each side of the meridian as your logic makes perfect sense.
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