ASA DMM60 Preliminary Potential Guiding Results

[Atmos]

I've spent the last day or so going back and forth playing around with various PID values (basically elasticity and stiffness of the magnetic drive) in an attempt to getting the best out of my new DDM60 as I can before I get out under the stars... Hopefully tomorrow night for some testing.

This is of course purely in a controlled setting thus far, my lounge room :) As to how well things work in the real world outside of the "lab", well, bring on the clear skies!

The mount has taken a bit of getting used to be it looks like it has the potential to be a serious performer :)

[atalas]

Hi Col

So,seriously....is that the mounts measured PE?I can seen the big grin on your face from Sydney dude!

Look forward to hearing more reports on It.

[Slawomir]

Such a beautiful mount - congratulations Colin! Looking forward to reading about your experiences with your new baby and to admiring your new super sharp astro images :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

So far the mount has only moved from one side of my lounge room to the other, hoping to get it outside tonight, too scared to check the weather in case of change!

This is the tracking feedback that I am getting back from the mounts absolute encoders so theoretically far below seeing conditions. Just have to get it out of the theoretical and into the practical :P



Hoping to have something to write about soon! Chances are I'll probably muck some stuff up (settings wise) and have terrible trailing or something tonight :lol:

[Shiraz]

wow, that is impressive. looks like it might be a long term keeper

[RickS]

I'm looking forward to your first light, Colin!

[alocky]

Congrats on the DDM Colin, these mounts certainly deliver tracking beyond any worm and wheel. My only complaint so far with mine is that the balance is absolutely critical. Unfortunately, setting it up can be a bit of a pain, if you need to remove the camera to check collimation the motors can't hold it that far out of balance and you will need to lock it in place with the hex bolts.
Having said that, it will out an object on your chip to less than a pixel!
Looking forward to seeing your results.
Cheers,
Andrew

[Atmos]

Thankfully I don't have any of that problem (collimation), only takes a couple of minutes to get perfect balance I've found. My problem at the moment is the damned clouds! Antares comes and goes :(

Seems easy enough to setup and get running, not that I am there yet, boo clouds!!

[Atmos]

After the clouds parted (for the most part) at 12:30 this morning I decided I'd pull most of an all nighter learning the ropes.
Very brief first impressions. The tip/tilt alt/az adjustment is great! So easy to to use for fine control much like the knobs or AZ control on the EQ series. Its failing it also the AZ control as it only has 2.4º movement which is perfectly fine if you've marked the ground or have a pier but for some reason I always seem to be about 200 arcmin off with my polar alignment, maybe I just cannot aim a compass! I have seen someone putting another plate between the mount and tripod and using that for rough AZ movement.

Other than that, pointing accuracy is amazing! I suppose it really doesn't take much to move up from an EQ6 though :P I got the ALT down to about 1 arcmin and AZ to 3.5 arcmin, was being lazy and wanting to see how it went with a less than perfect PA.

The following is the Helix at 12x300s and NGC 456 12x300 (will post when I get home from work). There was a little high level cloud around, more so with NGC 456. Seeing was terrible, measured 3.4" at 300s and the best I had near zenith from a 10s was 2.9".

[w0mbat]

Hello Colin,
As a fellow ASA DDM60Pro owner I strongly suggest you join the ASA Community Forum if you have not already done so. http://forum.astrosysteme.com/
It is a very helpful and friendly forum and is really the only place where you will get good advice to help you climb the steep learning curve that comes with these high tech mounts.
Enjoy your new mount,
Ian

[Atmos]

I've actually read most of the posts on the forum :) I have made an account but still waiting on Admin approval :/