Well after Suavi laid mention to it, I figured it was about time to actually sit down and write out a review of the DDM60. Had it out a number of times, evidently not as much as I would have liked in the last 7 weeks but I think I have bought (yes bought) a tsunami of rain with me from Austria
I am going to start with the cons as they’re few (not a few btw!). The biggest difficulty that I have had is getting the tripod aligned accurately! This isn’t an issue with the mount as such, more so the way the mounting plate connects to the tripod. The mounting plate works as a tip/tilt; it has four bolts which allow 2.4º movement, for the most part I actually really like this system as it is very easy to accurate fine adjustments. For whatever reason, I am horrible at getting the tripod pointing in the correct direction, this was never an issue with the HEQ5 or EQ6 as there was a LOT of allowable movement in azimuth. The only part of my backyard that has decent views of the sky appears to also have a bit of magnetic interference, the needle moves around a bit as I do. To combat this I basically end up lifting up everything a fraction and rotating the tripod itself to compensate for the azimuth until it is close. Luckily finding out how far I am out only takes about 20s though.
One other issue I have noted is software related during the PA alignment process, that simply being that plate solving doesn’t work well when there is a large error. In a whole these “issues” are really quite minor. An issue with plate solving and my inability to accurately put down a tripod
Still, having a secondary “rough” movement in azimuth would be preferred and has been sounding for a while among the DDM60 community.
One of the biggest issues (which after years of talk may FINALLY be being resolved) is the documentation. Within the last two months the ASA Community has started building a comprehensive documentation on ASA stuff, how-to’s and the like. ASA has always come across to me as a company that for years dealt with the professional community and lacks experience with the in some respects more demanding amateur community. For instance the balance tool, which is arguably one of the most important parts of setting up, is mentioned in the manuals but not actually discussed! Mentioned so far as “The balance tool is in the Drive Menu” and “After the telescope has been balanced” with no mention of the in-between.
Moving on however!
The build quality of everything is of a very high standard as it to be expected. Everything arrived very well padded, eventually had to cut the mount out of its foam; tried gently removing it to use as a padded box but that failed! Excellent for shipping, not so much as a padded box for the long haul.
Software:
Software wise, I had no issues at all getting everything to talk to one another. After downloading the ASCOM driver for the mount it talked to Maxim DL and TSX without a hitch. The main mount driver software is Autoslew is in some respects quite basic from the whole planetarium aspect. It is more or less purely for controlling the mount itself behind the scenes. The experience as a whole works best when using TheSky as a planetarium.
The other software package that comes with it is called Sequence, it requires Maxim DL to run as it uses it for Plate Solving and camera control. It is used for creating sky models not dissimilar to that of T-Point in TSX. Works well and quick, documentation sucks but it does allow for simulation modes for testing and learning the software.
Mount:
The mount itself is lovely to use. Moves completely silently, when I’m on the laptop I only hear it moving around by the fan on my QHY22! It is quick and smooth enough that I can do a 16 point model in TSX in 1:55 (I find using TSX for rough polar alignment considerably easier than the alignment routines in Autoslew and Sequence). Even when doing the accurate polar alignment in Autoslew, TSX makes life so much easier!
Tracking accuracy is obviously very good. At this stage all I do is a 12 point model, 6 points both side of the sky and that allows for 600s exposures with nice perfectly round stars at any part of the sky; one of the benefits of imaging at 660mm. For the longer focal length scopes there is a function in Sequence which does a virtual track of what you’re going to image across the sky. You input how long you’re going to be imaging it for (e.g. 4 hours) and the number of images you want to track it for (20 for example) and it’ll take an image for what would account for every 12 minutes, plate solve every shot and then calculate the tracking error for both RA and DEC. If enough images are taken every repeatable error (mirror flop, focuser flexure and the like) can be accounted for. Still, easy at 660mm
There is still a lot more playing around I need to do with the mount but, like the rest of us, I need some clear non raining skies! Would add some pictures but I don’t actually have any to add! Will add more to this thread as I think of more to add to it.
