Hi all
I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of, or has seen reference to additional encoders for the LX200GPS?
One of my main problems with this telescope is the slewing noise. My back yard is surrounded by Colorbond fencing which tends to amplify the noise in the dead of night to the point where've actually had neighbours stick their heads our of their windows at 2:00am and ask what the hell's going on. Not that my LX is any louder than the next - it's just part and parcel of the breed. Those motors are not, uhmm.. quiet.
The main problem is that when you set up and achieve alignment, all movements from that point must be under motorised control in order to maintain the alignment.
What I'd love to be able to do is de-clutch and manually slew, silently, to my next object whereupon I'd re-engage the clutch to track the object I've found and want to stay with. The only problem with this is that the LX200GPS loses all sense of position if this is done, and uses the last-motored-to point as its last reference.
IS there an external Argonavis-type external encoding system that would allow me to move the scope manually in push-to mode? I notice that Wildcard Innovations (Argo Navis manufacturer in Australia) lists installation kits for most SCTs but excludes, in particular, the LX200.
I guess that if there was you'd then use either the Autostar OR the push-to system but not both. It would be nice to have the external system feed back the current pointing parameters to the Autostar so that even de-clutched and moved it would still know where it was.
At least if de-clutched and manually moved, the scope forks would still sit there and track in RA for photography. You wouldn't need GOTO just to achieve that unless you planned to move to another object under Autostar control - which I have star maps to guide myself with anyways.
Does anyone have any experience in this at all?
Cheers
Chris