Takahashi Em200 or Losmandy G11 for ED80 or C11

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

10-15 min to be within 10-20 arc sec of the pole being a wee bit anal about it.

To set everything up from scratch being packed away in my car will generally take me about hour and 15 minutes to when I am lining up my first target and getting everything set for the run. Do remember i have alot of gear to setup it isn't just the mount then scope then we are away!

[Poita (Peter)]

That is fairly quick, do you have a breakdown of your procedure?

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

On my website under resources I have a guide but at the end of the day it's really to do with your gear and you get a workflow that suits you. And let me tell you it does take whole lot of time to learn! That's why i said experience is key don't be disappointed when you take 4hrs to polar align!

[Poita (Peter)]

It takes me about an hour with my EQ6Pro, I got to try an EM200 last night (thanks Bruce!) and it took me about 20 minutes and I got a better result, and I had never seen one before.
It is definitely easier to setup for me, but I'll just have to keep plugging away at the EQ6 as the TAK mounts will be outside my price range for a while yet.
I downloaded your guide, I'll be giving it a go, it is a bit different and more streamlined to the way I'd been attempting it.
Thanks
-Peter

[issdaol (Phil)]

Originally Posted by Poita

It takes me about an hour with my EQ6Pro, I got to try an EM200 last night (thanks Bruce!) and it took me about 20 minutes and I got a better result, and I had never seen one before.
It is definitely easier to setup for me, but I'll just have to keep plugging away at the EQ6 as the TAK mounts will be outside my price range for a while yet.
I downloaded your guide, I'll be giving it a go, it is a bit different and more streamlined to the way I'd been attempting it.
Thanks
-Peter

Hi Peter,

The EM200 is pretty quick to setup and align.

Also regarding gearing material here is the specifications direct from takahashi:

Spec. EM-200 USD-3 EM-200 Temma-2 Jr EM-200 Temma-2
R.A. axis diameter. (material) 40 mm (bronze)
R.A. worm gear shaft diameter (material) 18 mm (iron)
R.A. gear diameter (material) 92 mm/180 teeth (bronze)
DEC. axis diameter (material) 40 mm (iron)
DEC. worm gear shaft diameter (material) 18 mm (brass)
DEC. gear diameter (material) 92 mm/180 teeth

Hope this helps

Cheers

[Poita (Peter)]

Thanks for the info.

[Gerald Sargent]

Neither - look at the astrophysics Mach 1, a really superior piece of gear, regards Gerald.

[Poita (Peter)]

I'd love one, I think they are out of my price range however.

[ReaPerMan (Paul)]

Originally Posted by bmitchell82

On my website under resources I have a guide but at the end of the day it's really to do with your gear and you get a workflow that suits you. And let me tell you it does take whole lot of time to learn! That's why i said experience is key don't be disappointed when you take 4hrs to polar align!

I had no end of trouble following all sorts of guides. One night out with Brendan and Grahame and all was revealed! (no smutty inferences here). Since then Brendan has showed me a lot of shortcuts and I now swear by alignmaster and the setup that I was shown. It only takes me 20-30 Mins to have the EQ6 polar aligned within 20-30 Arc secs.

all the best

paul

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

I might get together with Grahame one of these weekends coming up with his little HD camera to show you the full set up from start to finish.

This is my basic work flow to set up

I get my south bearing (which i normally get stooged by some form of ferric interfearence but meh) Level the mount, place the head on, scope, focuser, OAG, counter weights, collimation check, cameras, cable routing, laptop, start maxim, connect PC to mount and cameras, rough focus of main camera, maximdl primary camera calibration, alignmaster calibration and subsequent adjustments, fine primary camera focus using FWHM, focus guide camera on OAG, slew to target, calibrate guider, frame object, last check on focus, pick guide star and set guider on while it is settling set up imaging run on object.

Its go time!

My guiding normally sits around the .3-1 pixel error (.5 - 1.0 arc seconds error) and a RMS of approximaetly .15 - .2 which basically means Round stars from a overmounted EQ6 and a moderate focal length with my normal setup.



All up that takes me about 1hr 15 minutes to be done and then off helping others and being social

[gregbradley]

That's quite low guide errors Brendan. You must have your mount nicely tuned.

Greg.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Indeed greg the white turd has been polished to a gleeeeem that and OAG keep things under wraps!

[midnight (Darrin)]

Originally Posted by bmitchell82

For the sake of it all starting off with a realitively inexpensive low end mount can sometimes cause headaches but at the same time its forcing you to actually learn what is happening with your mount and how to pull them apart to actually fix them. So when you get to your high end mount after definately figuring out what it is you want to do and how dedicated you are to your hobby the hit of a 8k telescope mount will be nothing as you know for sure that you will use it and enjoy it!

I totally agree with this from Brendan.

This is a very good thread. I started out with a LXD55 and this thing was pretty basic - but - it was equatorial and had goto and had an RS232 connection. After a while, I got it automated and then auto guiding with Guidedog. I pulled it apart many times to improve its tracking etc.

I have since upgraded and truly now appreciate my G11 for the $ I spent.

In saying that though, my autoguiding appears spot on according to the guider but my DSLR images are still showing unacceptable drift. The drift is in one direction so it appears to be sag (the 40D is relatively heavy).

Are there any tips if an OAG is not an option at the moment. My guide scope is a Meade 80mm series 5000 (FL480mm) and main scope a SN 8" recently upgraded with a Moonlite focuser (FL 812mm). One note, when I drift align at the meridian, I can easy fix N/S drift by rotating the mount E/W but I am noticing E/W drift. Ie, I use a DBK41 in my ED80 and my star drifts in RA over a 10 minute period by about 2-3 star widths (if that makes sense).

Cheers,
Darrin...

[gregbradley]

Could be 2 things.

Flexure in your scope or guide scope or both.

Polar alignment is still off (the drift you mention).

I find you need to do several iterations of drift alignment as
you can get drift from the other axis showing up.

Tighten everything up as much as possible and do several iterations of drift alignment until the star does not drift.

Greg.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Darrin,

thats why i moved to OAG, Flexure is your bane and will not leave you so you have 2 choices to spend dollars and bulk time trying to A. find it B. fix it. or you can get oag to work ive seen how much difference it makes.