Does anyone here image across the meridian in a single session? As in, track an object up to the meridian. Stop, tracking, cross meridian, plate solve, focus and continue tracking? I know it's *possible and sequencing programs are set up to achieve this, but it seems to me that there are several potential issues that have kept me wary:
- If you use the 'slightly unbalanced scope' trick to make the gears engage nicely, once you cross the meridian, it will be the opposite weighting and tracking will be worse, wouldn't it?
- Supposedly optical components may realign as they move across the meridian (ie, mirror flop) but I'm not sure why this should be the case, since my telescope is never 'upside-down' on a GEM.
- If you're not at your telescope, there are more things that can go wrong with big moves, like cable snags, failed focus, failed platesolves which would seem to be more likely to happen when switching from one side to the other.
So...is it best to stick to one side of the Meridian or not?
Cheers
Markus