New addition to the family ... has arrived!

[marc4darkskies]

I'm a happy chappy.:2thumbs: The planets have aligned for me!! Paramount MEs are ON SALE for the bargain basement, throw away price of US12.5k (2k discount) AND the dollar is high. Peer pressure has also come into play with seemingly everyone undertaking some sort of upgrade these days, so I couldn't resist and have taken the plunge. With the blessing of SWMBO as well!!:love: What's even better, it will ship tomorrow - less than a week from placing the order!:cool:

Cheers, Marcus

[Octane]

I envy you. Congratulations, on the new baby. : )

H

[strongmanmike]

Niiiiiiiiice

Just out of curiosity, the EM400 is certainly no slouch and with the AO to boot :eyepop:... so I asume you are planning an upgrade in scope too for such a solid mount? :whistle: :thumbsup:

Mike

[mill]

Mike stop tempting people :poke:

[h0ughy]

glad you jumped, i am envyous

[marc4darkskies]

You're right, my EM-400 is definitely no slouch. It's a gem of a GEM but it may not be able to carry the weight if my future plan for a 12.5" perhaps tandem mounted with my TOA come to pass. Maybe by the time I can afford a new OTA Planewave will have a 14" so the more capacity I have the better. It's not just about having a solid mount either. The PMEs robotic features, seamless integration with TheSky, higher accuracy and persistant TPoint model are also good drawcards.



Cheers H! Many sleepless nights ahead too!:)



Nah that's OK. One day soon Mike will also want to upgrade HIS mount :D They're on sale Mike - but only while stocks last!!



Thanks Dave - funny thing though - the pier and scope adaptor plates are a month away so my baby will be sitting on the bench for a few weeks! :sadeyes: :mad2: I'll be sure to give it plenty of coochy coo, who's your daddy baby talk though while it's waiting! :rolleyes::screwy:

[h0ughy]

maybe your missus agreed to get video of you doing just that - then commit you LOL

[RobF]

Mmmm, Paramount.
Where is the emoticon for wolf-whistle? :D

[Paul Haese]

Ah well done on the purchase. The EM400 is a fine mount but like you said there are other considerations. My EM400 is on its way to its new owner now.

You could get the adapter plate from OPT and the versa plate should come with the mount. It all goes together pretty easily.

Wait till you hear these mounts in action. Spooky is the best descriptive word I can use.

[marc4darkskies]

I'll be sure to post that video :) BTW, I'm an Amateur Astronomer = certifiable.



Wolf whistles are not PC you know ... but it's pretty enough to deserve one!



Yes, David Fitz-Henry has one and it sounded to me as though it couldn't make up its mind what to do. I thought my EM-400 sounded better :)

[gregbradley]

Congrats Marcus.

I am sure you will love it.

The seamless integration with the Sky is a nice plus for sure.

Fast slewing is also a big plus. A home position is a great thing.
Its sheer strength and accuracy is the main thing.

Greg.

[batema]

Hi Marcus,
I have heard nothing but the best comments about these mounts and the $12 500 is a great price but if you buy one of these then do you have to pay any import tax or something or when it lands at your door will you have only spent the 12 500. Of course shipping but does the govt stick you.

Mark

[gregbradley]

It should only be GST which is calculated on the invoice price pus shipping plus a small % add on which I don't know what that is, so assuming shipping cost of about $800 then
I'd estimate it would be around $1375. Then again there may be extras on a new mount like adapter plates, piers or extra counterweights and so on. I am not sure how many counterweights
a TOA150 would need - perhaps only the 2 the mount comes with.

As far as I know there is no import duties on mounts (we have a free trade agreement with the US and the GST replaced a lot I think). There isn't any for scopes and pretty sure none for
CCD cameras. GST on imported goods both new and second hand kicks in at $1000 threshold. So items under $1000 have no GST hence the recent Harvey Norman debacle where he was
pushing for reform so GST would be included on overseas purchases under $1000 so local retailers don't get bypassed by internet sales.

There is a guy called Jim Miller who sells custom parts for the ME very inexpensively. He advertises on Astromart. I got a 10 inch shaft extender which means I need less
counterweights for the CDK17. I use 3 stainless steel ones and 2 x 5kg gym weights I got in Sydney and they are very cheap. His part was something like $95 and was very well made
and works nicely. He has other tools/parts for it which so far I have not found a need for. The stainless steel counterweights are really expensive plus cost a lot to ship as they are so heavy.
Planewave also sells a 40lb counterweight for less than Bisque just for info. Jim also sells nice looking tripods for the ME for US$975. Seems like a bargain. That would make your PME field portable.
It is a big mount but it is reasonably manhandleable - you know, take a deep breath and lift it, make a little grunt and its on the mount! Mike Sidonio could pick it up with one hand!

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Thanks Greg. I really couldn't think of any negatives at all (except price)! Nothing but practical benefits really! I bought an extra counterweight too so I'm pretty much future OTA-proofed :).



Yes, I had to pay shipping ($US1,250) & GST ($AU10%). I bought locally too for convenience and peace of mind (through Peter Ward). Local warranty service and knowledge cannot be overstated IMO.

[marc4darkskies]

Nicked down to "The Shire" today to pick up my new baby ...

Proud, still-in-the-box dad photos here: http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/paramount_me

Funny, there are even instructions on how to take it out of the box!

Cheers, Marcus :)

[h0ughy]

so have you named your new baby yet?

[RobF]

Wow, that's one cute baby :D

[renormalised]

Marcus, make sure you've got gloves on when you lift her out...gotta be really careful with the paint job and getting dents!!!! :)

[marc4darkskies]

Hehehe ... I was thinking of Bertha :question: ... Rose? ... Pammy? ...

Hey, they gave me TheSkyX as well! ... but I think I'll give that a wide birth for now (pun intended:D)



Cute yes, but what a handful!!



Forgot about that before I touched her - sweaty fingerprints have now been removed! :D Still haven't finished reading the how-to-remove-from-box instructions anyway :shrug:!!

[strongmanmike]

Yes lift her out by her feet and give her a short couple of smacks on the back, if she cries she's yours, if not... I will take her :P

That looks like a (big:eyepop:) thing of beauty mate, sheesh, the TOA will look like a kids fishing rod on her :lol:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Nah ... my TOA will look like a million bucks!:D It's big beastie for sure but surprisingly, 1cm shorter than my EM-400 (measured from the pier mounting plate). It's definitely much bulkier though.

And it will be ME crying if she doesn't spring to life when she gets some juice into her!

[strongmanmike]

He he :P

[marc4darkskies]

:rofl::rofl:

Hmmm ... I'm looking a little scaled down these days :lol:

Kinda looks like Martin Pugh's setup! ;)

[David Fitz-Henr]

So ... have you had "first leptons" yet (ie. powered the thing on) ???

[marc4darkskies]

Don't rush me!!! ;). Don't really want to do anything until I balance it. When I get my tube ring adaptor (hopefully next week) I'll rig some weight to it to achieve that. I'm also waiting until I don't need to drive my EM-400 (when I finish imaging this month) so I can configure the laptop software as well to do Home and SH setup.

[Paul Haese]

Marcus you can run the mount without the counter weight bar. You will find that you need to do this for changing the grease out every 6 to 12 months. There are several Youtube videos that will help with this.

[strongmanmike]

Only cause you look closer to Martins stature :P

How big is your dome though! :eyepop:

Mike
hope Martin is ok with the ..?..shor...litt...eeek sorry Martin :nerd: :innocent:

[gregbradley]

Fabulous. You're having too much fun!

What are you going to use for PEC? I am thinking of getting PemPro for that.
Mine did not come with Precision PEC. But I am thinking PemPro may be better??

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

After a minor setback with the mounting plate I got for my TOA rings not fitting as advertised (dovetail does not fit onto the PME's Versaplate (!!!)), I decided it was time to power her up.

I installed the software, powered up the mount, established connection, successfully homed and completed SH setup. After a couple of software slews I deemed bench testing successful!!

Note my new "Block of Wood" OTA!!
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/132296204/large

Appreciation for a job well done! :D:screwy:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/132296221/large

Expect to get the pier mounting plate in 2 weeks. The company I bought the faulty scope mounting plate from is being very responsive so hopefully the problem will be rectified before too long!:prey:

[gregbradley]

Good one Marcus. Whats "SH Setup"?

Do you have Precision PEC?

I have a trial version of Pempro but will have to work my way through the help file to get it working.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Hi Greg. Southern Hemisphere setup. No, Precision PEC is a an optional component.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Marcus.

What do you plan to use for PEC? The manual plays down the PEC training available in the Sky.

Pempro gets a good rap.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

I'll try TheSky training first and see what it does. IMO, for high end mounts, PEC isn't that critical anyway. (Never had it for my EM-400 and look at the results I get). Of course, it may be more important at longer FLs but I'm still imaging at or below 1760mm and my EM-400 has never had any trouble guiding out the smooth 6 arcsec P to P PE I get.

[gregbradley]

6 arc seconds - oh my God, I would freak out if my PE were that bad! hehehe.

I think mine with PEC running from the previous owner (which I erased to replace it) was more like 1 arc second.

Still, you need that U-beaut polar alignment.

I would als recommend using drift alignment to get real close rather than T-Point.

T-point has often recommended polar alignment changes that made autoguiding worse, sometimes better, often worse. That is with only about 8-10 mappings.

So I'd go quite a few mappings before I would implement its suggestions and stick with drift alignment to get it really close.

One important aspect of super accurate guiding is your images will be sharper as there is less shear/blur in the image from guide errors.
With your super sharp TOA150 although your guiding with the EM400 is superb, the PME is capable of considerably better and that has to mean sharper images and less reliance on your AOL.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Marcus.

Welcome to the PME brotherhood! I think I may have been the first PME owner in Oz and had to thrash out the SH problems with the Bisques... happily long since resolved. :) and am happy to say it has delivered years of trouble free and dead-nuts-accurate performance.

The one thing which will help your modeling and subsequent pointing accuracy is an accurate time base. There various ways of doing this, but I've found NMEA time (http://www.visualgps.net/NMEATIme/default.htm) to be the best. One second of time means 15 arc seconds of error...GPS time is within a few milliseconds of UTC with a cheap GPS effectively giving you atomic clock accuracy.

A 30-50 T-Point model is more than adequate. I found using a planetary web-cam and cross hair on my PC screen gave consistent modeling data (..err don't use a permanent marker ;) )

I'm sure you'll enjoy the new addition!

[marc4darkskies]

Well, I'm still waiting for the pier mounting plate from Advanced Telescope Systems and the Casady scope adaptor plate was a dud - it didn't fit into the PME's dovetail!!! :mad2: So, I decided to make my own - how hard can it be, right??

I got a piece of 20mm thick plate cut to 200x400mm (same width as the PME's Versa-Plate). I carefully measured and drilled 8 (2 sets of 4) 11mm countersunk holes to accept the M10 socket head bolts the TOA-150 rings need. The 2 sets of holes forward and rear allow grose balancing ability. There are also 14 1/4 - 20 threaded holes carefully measured to match the pattern on the Versa-Plate. This is enough to allow me to move it up and down the Versa-plate in small increments for balance. It will be attached to the Versa-Plate with 8 bolts.

There are advantages to a DIY bolted plate anyway. It's a more stable connection with 8 bolts and positive contact over a large area of the Versa-Plate. I can also modify it if need be too.

Bottom of plate:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/132463560/large

Attached to PME:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/132463624/large

[strongmanmike]

He, he, the invisible telescope :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

I received the pier adaptor from ATS (Advanced Telescope Systems) and attaced it to the pier. Once that was done I couldn't resist a preliminary installation of the PME. Once I get the cabling sorted I can commence final setup.

See: http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/paramount_me

(Sorry Mike - the TOA is still invisible!):

The overall height is just a bit higher than the EM-400 but the OTA is now actually at its optimum height. I.e. being able to observe near the northern horizon and just above the minimum dome slit height.

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

:eyepop:that looks spectacular Marcus This shot (http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/132754918) must make you beam :thumbsup: (makes me green :() :lol:

Have to say though..those 6" OTA rings look positively rediculous on that glossy crimson monster :lol:

Mike

[renormalised]

Need to be at least 10" OTA rings:)

Gotta be in proportion....gotta be in proportion:):P

[marc4darkskies]

Not ridiculous ... just petite!! ;) Maybe an ODK 16" would look better?? :P:D

And yep, got a pretty good grin going on here! :D

[marc4darkskies]

Is this peer pressure?! Well, OK then, I'll order that ODK tomorrow! :lol: :P

[marc4darkskies]

I've finished and tested my cabling and put my TOA back where it should be!! Wooo hooo!! :party: See the new pictures at the bottom of http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/paramount_me

I now just need to make sure everything works together and do the remaining setup: new dome geometry, polar alignment, PEC training, and large TPoint model - there's a couple of nights work right there!

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

Looks very schmick! :thumbsup:...bet you have spent a few moments here and there just staring at them with a mixture of elation and disbelief.? :)

...and with a big :D on your face.

Mike

[DavidU]

That thing is HUGE. Congrats.

[marc4darkskies]

Hehehe ... Nah, don't stare at the photos, I prefer to walk out to the obs, make myself comfortable and stare in person! :D



Thanks Dave. It's only about 5cm taller than my old EM-400 (mostly because of the saddle plates). It's definitely wider and bulkier though but there's still tons of room in the obs to get around.

[marc4darkskies]

With Mike's new AG and my new PME cloudless nights have been rare!! :mad2: In the last 10 days I've only managed 1.5 nights. The good news is at least I've managed to get my polar alignment looking pretty good. Have a look at the screen grab of the 52 star model down the bottom of http://upload.pbase.com/gailmarc/paramount_me .

RMS pointing is down to 15.7 arcsecs for the whole sky (between 35 and 85 degrees altitude) and polar alignment is within 10 arcsecs in azimuth and 25 arcsecs or so of the refracted pole in altitude (nominally around 75 arcsecs above the true pole for my location). The sigma values are low too so confidence in the alignment is high. I still need to do my final 250-300 star model but I'll probably use TheSkyX with its "super model" function rather than TheSky6.

I also did a PEC curve with the result being 5 arcsecs peak to peak before correction - not too shabby! I haven't yet measured the corrected PE.

Cheers, Marcus

[renormalised]

Looks like it's aligning very well...might be lucky to hit the pole spot on:):)

[Doomsayer]

Looks great! The PME will not work up a sweat with that OTA.

Looking at your Tpoint model it looks like you are using way too many extra terms. But I'm sure you'll refine all of that once you get more time.
I re-did my PEC recently and found a similar PE - corrected the PE is 0.4

guy

[marc4darkskies]

Yeah, I thought that too, but they say 6 to 8 extra terms is normal and before I added a term I made sure there was at least a 20% improvement in RMS AND PSD. I'm at the limit now though, at least until I acquire a denser model (250-300 stars). It's also true that 14 terms is stretching it for a 50 star model, but it was required (and is recommended) to reduce the polar alignment errors to a low sigma (=high confidence). It will be interesting to see what TheSkyX's "super model" does!

Cheers, Marcus

[David Fitz-Henr]

OMG, No, no, no Marcus!!! The refracted pole is nominally over 80 arc seconds above the true pole for your location!!! This means that your alignment may be too low by over 30 arc seconds!!! :eyepop::eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:

[marc4darkskies]

Yes, good pickup David! :rolleyes: In fact it's probably around 85 arcsecs so I guess my PA is waaaaay off :lol:. Some folks say it's better to split the difference anyway and place the altitude between the true and refracted pole ... so ... errr ... that was my plan all along, so I'm spot on!! ;)

[David Fitz-Henr]

Ahh, of course, I should have realised!! There are no flies on you, Marcus - only the odd palm print on your objective lens ;):P