Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
All very neat and tidy. Looking good Paul. One thing to remember with the PMX mount - always lock the axes before taking anything on or off including the camera. It can unbalance and slip on the gears otherwise. Its easy to forget to do it. Its looking like you will be getting lots of data soon.
Greg.
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Greg I know what you are saying. I learnt this little lessen when I was about 32. I had a long Newtonian on a GEM with 2" shafts. For some reason now forgotten to me I removed the counter weights briefly. I was swinging down and back again. I had just taken the last counterweight off (with the scope in place; a very stupid thing to do) and swung back and was hit by the end of the counter weight shaft on the right temple. I can tell you it Teed me off like a golf ball. I reckon I flew at least 6-9 feet through the air. When I got up I thought I had cracked my skull. I went to the hospital and by the time I got there I had a lump on the side of my head of about 2". It turned out I had some very bad bruising but no real damage (well maybe
). From that day onwards I have always locked the axis as I am working on a scope. If I am pulling something off the scope it goes in the native home position and is locked off.
I have become pretty familiar with the PMX locks already and been using them well. Good piece of advice though and others ought to follow the practice.
Yes hoping to gather heaps of data on any given night that it is clear. One target I am working on still needs about 12 hours and I already have 25 hours of data. Another is on 17.5 hours but needs colour and lum to start soon. Of course the moon is a factor. Though narrow band can be collected during full moon as you know. So with a narrow field unit working I ought to have plenty of data to play with and maybe produce my first image that makes APOD.
