Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassnut
Wow, oh to be there Jase. Ask ASA if they have flexure problem sorted on OTAs right up to 16" with heavy cam/focusers, and does their smick direct drive mount have a guide input despite the claim its not needed.
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Fred, Did some questioning this morning... No more flexure issues with heavy cameras I'm told. They had a few sample images taken with the new rig with an FLI camera. Have to say it looks pretty good, but lacks details...as the flexure occurred at different altitudes of pointing. The new ASA has the twin, four vane spider configuration instead of single. This can be seen in the second photo I posted. This produces much tighter looking star patterns. I was asked to compare two photos and I have to say I was impressed at how improved the stars looked - tight with controlled difraction spikes. Stars certainly didn't appear square.
OK, now a note on the guiding. You're correct in that the direct drive mounts dont have a autoguide port. However, they still guide. This is achieved through the regular mount to PC USB connection instead of a dedicated port from camera to mount. So for example, on a dual chip configuration such as an SBIG camera, the camera to PC USB cable downloads the guider image (as it does today) and their AutoSlew software (developed by Philipp Keller) analyses the difference. Any adjustments that maybe required are then sent via the mount to PC USB connection. There is no requirement for relays etc.