Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
>snip
So wouldn't the best of both worlds be the gears coated with low friction coatings, the TDM,
the AO and then an autoguider set for 1 minute corrections to pick up flexures. Perhaps that would
be a super setup. SBIG are releasing their new standalone autoguider with an artificial star to correct
for flexure as well as normal corrections. That'd be a beauty.
Greg.
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Hi Greg
From the TDM website, some of the scenarios listed for utilising the capabilities of the TDM unit are just what you have described above in your thoughtful and interesting analysis, vis-à-vis:
- TDM is firstly recommended for the observers who intend to take a lot number of shots per night about different parts of the night sky quickly and easily. (E.g. supernova patrols, comet and/or asteroid hunters, observers of cataclysmic variable stars, etc.)
- For amateurs or professionals who have backyard or institutional observatory for permanent telescope installations (with permanent and good polar alignment).
- TDM can be an extremely advantageous application for robotic telescope owners who needed to find bright enough guide stars within the field of view manually so far.
- For "tourist amateurs" who do not want to drag an extra tube and CCD just for autoguiding purposes up to the peak of the mount escaping from light-polluted regions.
- If you want to use a narrow band filter (e.g. H-alpha) but you have a dual chip CCD or just an AO-7/AO-8 adaptive optics as guiding equipment, your guiding chip will be in almost total darkness... But TDM will help.
- If you have just a tiny guiding chip at the bottom of a small aperture tube, you probably will not always be able to find an appropriate guide star... TDM will help you again.
- TDM together with AO-7/AO-8 adaptive optics is the best equipment that you can have!!! TDM will eliminate the periodic error of your mount (independently of the magnitude of its amplitude) and AO-X will eliminate the rest of the deviations like scintillation and/or refraction. This is the ideal, ultimate set of serious astrophotographers!
- Who is not satisfied with his/her mid-ranged telescope mount's tracking ability but does not want to spend another couple of thousands of euros/dollars for a top rated one (which has much more PE then TDM...), those will appreciate this cheaper solution.
Cheers
Dennis