Quote:
Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
Here is a very interesting post in an ASA forum about a member starting up a DDM in a remote observatory after power off:
"... Mount is switched off and parked, As it is equilibrated with the telescope and CCD ...mount keeps perfectly parked.. When I want to begin a session..I open the roof... switch on remotely the mount and by means o Teamviewer software.. looking through a webcam very sensitive sited inside the observatory.. I use Autoslew in order to move the mount aproximately to the zenith. Then I click Homefind and in few seconds the mount finds the exact values. Then I open a planetary programm (The SKy6) and synchronize with a near star. From this moment..I can begin any astronomical session automatically ( Used ACP and CCDAutopilot)"
The bold text is mine. Summary points seem to be:
- Needs to be balanced to maintain a parked position!
- When starting up from power off you need to point to the zenith first (using a remote camera)?!
- Then and only then can you tell the mount to find the home position!
- Then you have to sync on a star before starting your session!
The poster then goes on to say this always works and he doesn't understand where the problem is!
I'll tell him where the problem is! Paramount: 1) switch on 2) tell the mount to home (from any parked position) and start a session. And when the power is off the Paramount won't move - guaranteed! |
Oh dear, if all this true, that's just woefull
. No wonder you don't hear a lot about them. The price isn't bad though, for direct drive, but rest is just trash. Itelescope tell me the CDK direct drive is the ducks guts and very reliable. Albeit far more expensive.