Meridian flip

[JohnH]

I am new to the mysteries of GE mounts, can someone explain what the flip is and why I should worry about it?

[[1ponders]]

Hi John.

As your gem tracks from east to west (with your scope on the west side of your mount pointing to the easterly half of the sky) the scope points closer to the zenith until it reaches a point where it passes the zenith and may hit the mount trying to track too far past the zenith. To prevent this you have to do a meridian flip to move the scope to the eastern side of the mount and point it in a westerly direction. Some tracking mounts do this automatically, most don't, that I'm aware of.

As far as observing is concerned there is nothing to worry about. If you are imaging though the object will be inverted once the meridian flip is completed and you manage to reaquire the object. Physically the biggest concern is if you don't have some sort of warning system built in (eg Losmandy Gemini's mount limit warning) or and automated system for meridian fliping whn mount limits are approached, you have to watch your tracking closely so your mount/eyepieces etc don't com incontact with the mount

Hope this is what you were looking for :P

[JohnH]

Paul, Spot on, that is exactly what I needed to know, I guess I was not familiar with GEM speak...are their any other "features" a newbie needs to be wary of...

[[1ponders]]

If your using a refractor beware the sore back syndrome when looking at the zenith :P If you're using a reflector get used to turning upside down to look through the eyepiece at times. :rolleyes: