Quote:
Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
PrecisionPEC was simple and uploaded the PEC curve to the PME without issue. Given it's such a small PE I was surprised it fitted a curve so well.
I used a smaller 30 star TPoint model to do the polar alignment. Your PA would have to be pretty bad to yield out of round stars! What guiding software were you using?
Yes, accurate time on your PC is critical. Download NMEA time (small cost) to connect to an internet time server. It will update your clock when you start up and then you can set it to update regurlarly - I set mine to update every hour.
AutomapperII is very easy to use ... and it's free!
Cheers, Marcus
|
Hi Marcus,
No I disagree, PA can be close and still get eggy stars at 3 metres focal length. I have drift aligned it at times and gotten it very good and still get slightly eggy stars in 10 min subs. Mind you they are only medium eggy but not good enough.
Everything is easier at 1 metre focal length. At 3 metres round stars are a bit harder to achieve even with the PME. It needs to be setup just right but of course it is capable of it. I had it setup pretty nicely and I must have bumped into the scope a few times (its at one of those heights!) and also I installed an autodither plugin in CCDsoft and that affected the autoguider and took me ages to find out why things were going pear shaped with guiding.
I redid PA and it is close at the moment. I also accidentally erased the existing PEC curve and then tried Pempro. It created a nice curve but I couldn't get it to upload. I suppose that is a question for the Pempro group. It seems rather fiddly as a program and has lots of steps. But it may be the way to go and just go through the learning curve.
Guiding software is CCDsoft. I use a MMOAG with an ST402. It is a good setup although the connection between the 402 and the MMOAG is weak and a possible source of flexure. I may get a proper screw connector. I was also advised a simple parfocal ring on the 402 nosepiece helps.
You need Pinpoint as well as Precision PE. I may get those and go through a similar routine you have. It would be worth it long term.
Also now you have a large Tpoint model you can activate Protrack and get even better tracking.
My mount is also about +/- .8-1 arc second PE. I saw this a few times as I recorded PEC. The scale was +/-1.5 arc sec and the graph didn't go more than about 1/2 way to the limit.
The PME seems to be pretty tolerant of balance being such a beefy mount but I have seen errors from a lack of balance at times. It can be balanced horizontally and be out of balance at 30 degrees.
You must have wireless internet in your observatory? I don't have an internet connection in my observatory. I have a wireless modem but it didn't extend that far. Time off the iphone I imagine would be accurate to the nearest second. Updating it every time may be a good idea. I'll have to check to see if the computer's clock goes off over time. My time was off by about a minute when I updated it off the phone. It seemed to make a noticeable difference.
Greg.