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Old 20-08-2014, 10:50 PM
gary
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Mt. Kuring-Gai
Posts: 5,916
Tracking the Moon with Argo Navis/ServoCAT Beta firmware during a grazing occultation

Argo Navis owner Alex Cherney is among our dedicated team of Beta testers trialling forthcoming releases of both Argo Navis and ServoCAT firmware.

One of the features of the Beta firmware is the ability to track solar systems objects, such as the Moon, at their inherent tracking rates.

In the Argo Navis/ServoCAT architecture, the Argo Navis performs all the tracking rate calculations on the ServoCAT's behalf.

The ability of the ServoCAT to track at the inherently non-sidereal rates of solar system objects can only be achieved when it is driven by an
Argo Navis Digital Telescope Computer.

On August 4th of this year, Alex took his Argo Navis/ServoCAT equipped 22" f/3.6 SDM Dobsonian telescope to central Victoria to pursue the grazing grazing occultation by the Moon of Saturn.

Alex reported that :-

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Cherney
"The weather in Heathcote was fine with no cloud in sight right until ingress and out of the blue came thin high clouds but luckily it did not adversely affect the images. The seeing was ordinary but 22" fast f/3.6 mirror allowed me to use short exposures (1/200s) and "freeze" the seeing. The image is attached and the video is here:"
http://vimeo.com/102933610
He reported that :-
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Cherney
"SDM, Argo Navis and Servocat worked very well and I tested tracking on both Saturn and the Moon with great results - drift of less than 5 arcmin in 2 hours."
The inherent resolution of the 10,000 step optical encoders fitted is 2.1 arc minutes. So a fine result!

We want to thank Alex for assisting in Beta test and for the great video!

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place
Mount Kuring-Gai NSW 2080
Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au
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