Maxim and pier flip - huh?

[pvelez]

I've been using CCD Autopilot happily for the last few weeks. The only trouble I have had is getting guiding to function after a meridian flip.

One of the requirements of CCDAP is that all pier flip settings in Maxim are turned off. I have done this on the Camera set up tab and the guiding tab. I've also turned it off on the Telescope Control tab.

Despite all this, Maxim still tells me that it will undertake a pier flip. This is shown on the attached screen grab.

Is there a secret setting to turn this off that I have yet to find? This shows up even if I have yet to connect a camera.

Or am I misreading this?

Pete

[RickS]

That setting in the Telescope tab doesn't affect guiding AFAIK. It's used for auto centering.

I recently tried CCD Commander, CCDAP and ACP. I had the same problem you did with all of them. As well as turning off Pier Flip and Auto Pier flip in the Guide tab I found it helped to always calibrate with the scope pointing East and not far from 0 Dec. I did manage to get it working in every case but it sometimes took a couple of attempts. I don't think I ever managed to get guiding to work with CCDAP choosing the guide star - but it did work with Maxim choosing the star.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Rick.

[pvelez]

Thanks Rick

I'm v happy with the program but it's the pier flip that has me beat. There are so many settings in TSX, Maxim and CCDAP.

I'll have another play tonight

Pete

[RickS]

Pete,

I had CCDAP crash on me a couple of times (admittedly, when I pushed it a bit hard) and I didn't much care for the way you had to hit the update button when you modified a plan or you silently lost the changes. Apart from that there was a lot to like about it.

I ended up choosing ACP which suits my penchant for tweaking things. If needed I can do some scripting myself. It's really designed for permanent setups but works well enough for portable imaging. It was the most expensive of the options, of course...

Cheers,
Rick.