Quote:
Originally Posted by Wavytone
It might be adequate for driving an equatorial platform for a Dob being used visually, or perhaps a small mount with a piggyback camera with a short lens taking short exposures of a few minutes, but thats about all.
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From what the author has written, I would expect the system to be more capable that this, given the limitations he has addressed below:
"Unlike different conventional autoguider systems, Telescope Drive Master does not need and does not have any feedback from the sky during tracking. This means you need to minimize the mechanical and adjustment problems of your telescope OTA, mount and pier such as mirror flip, tube & mount flexure, dirty and improperly installed RA bearings, swinging cables of CCD & power supplies on OTA, instable and moving pier as the most common problem sources and, finally but chiefly, inaccurate polar alignment.
If you want to achieve less than 1" (arc-second) tracking error during your 5 (maybe 10) minute exposure on "photometric altitudes" of the sky (zenith distance is less than 40-45°) without position-corrections, you need to keep the axis of the RA shaft on the (refracted) pole (see explanation below) with the best accuracy you can achieve."
Cheers
Dennis