Quote:
Originally Posted by Jooster
Has anyone had any experience with this piece of equipment? I also know that Lumicon have the same model. I am travelling to the U.S soon on business and thinking of getting one for my C8.
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Hi Jooster,
Gary Kopff here from Wildcard innovations. We design and manufacture the
Argo Navis Digital Telescope Computer, so as disclaimer, you will need to judge
for yourself whether you want to take the following comments on face value or not.
I'm a professional Electrical Engineer and intimately familiar with the Advanced
Astro Master (AAM) operating on a C8. We have both here in the office have
tested them together extensively. Last century, back in the early to mid 90's,
when the AAM was introduced, it was regarded as state of the art and did a fair job.
Its very low performance 8-bit CPU is now dated, which is no suprise.
For example, by analogy, consider the performance difference of PC's then and
now. One would have to think long and hard before forking out any money
for a 1995 vintage PC today.
This low performance was a major limitation. For example, it limited the
maximum encoder resolution the device could reliably operate with.
Today, these older DSC's are simply not fast enough to operate with the
10,000 step effective resolution encoders that ship as standard today.
Perhaps the most major limitation of these older DSC's was with the C8 itself.
The C8 was an excellent telescope, but the mount/fork/OTA's various
geometric fabrication errors as well as gravitational flexures degraded its
pointing performance severely. I know this having almost certainly tested the
pointing performance of the C8 more than any other person ever has or
ever will have. Think hundreds of hours of field testing at night alone.
On the Celestar 8 we have here, its whole-sky raw Root Mean Square (RMS)
pointing performance is about 14.5' when fitted with 10K step encoders.
That means about 68% of objects fall within a FOV of twice that. i.e. 29'.
100% of objects fall within a FOV of 53.4'. If you use lower resolution
encoders, like 4096 steps, these figures become even worse. In other words,
unless your FOV is a whole degree across, your DSC is unlikely to find
your object just because of the fabrication errors within the OTA/fork/mount.
I won't even begin with other limitations like the incredibly imprecise
planetary position calculations.
Enter the Argo Navis Digital Telescope Computer (DTC) we manufacture.
Dual CPU architecture including a much higher performance 32-bit CPU with
high-speed memory and caches. The Telescope Pointing and Analysis System
(TPAS) that we developed for it right here in Australia requires this sort of
performance to analyse and potentially compensate for these types of
fabrication errors. The result on the Celestar 8 we have here - 2.1' RMS
with 100% of objects falling in a diameter of 9'. The difference between
landing it in a modest power eyepiece or not. And what is the primary job of
an electronic pointing device? To do precisely that. Plus TPAS will tell the
user what the problem with the mount was plus it will even assist them
refine their polar alignment.
I'll leave it at that as I don't want to sound advertorial and just want to
give you the hard numerical facts. The C8 with a good pointing device
is an absolute joy to use and will bring it a new lease of life.
If you happen to be in the U.S. next month and get a chance, drop in and say
hi to us at the Texas Star Party or at our booth at the Riverside Telescope
Makers Conference where you can see "Australian Made" on display.
Or feel free to email or call us in Sydney should you seek further opinion
or advice.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au
