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Old 13-04-2019, 10:27 AM
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gregbradley
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney
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Quote:
Originally Posted by codemonkey View Post
I could be wrong, please correct me if I am. I believe protrack is the software which does the actual tracking correction, and according to its docs, it requires:

A Paramount MX, Paramount ME, Paramount ME II, or MKS Series Software
Bisque Telescope Control System (Bisque TCS).
2. TheSkyX Professional Edition.
3. TPoint Add On.
4. A telescope with a fixed mirror. (The random motion caused by mirror flop
can make precision tracking nearly impossible.)
5. An extensive set of TPoint modeling data (50 to 200 stars or more
recommended).
It definitely will activate, whether its affecting the tracking its hard to say. Its not like it makes a huge difference. I did find with the PMX that Protrack did seem to improve tracking a bit. Protrack seems a bit of a gimmick to be honest.
Tpoint modelling for PA is amazing though. For gotos as well. But I doubt those claims of being able to use Protrack only without autoguiding and getting great results. I would be happy to be wrong there.

My experience is even high end mounts require PA to be spot on or eggy stars start to annoy you. PA needs to be checked as soon as star shapes start to go off. A wet season, drought etc can perhaps shift slabs a tad. Bumping the mount walking into it in the dark etc all can throw things off.

With Tpoint though a perfect polar alignment takes me 30 minutes or less.

Greg.
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