Greg, can you tell me the bits of the instructions that are missing? The mount has some problem which although intermittent is real, I've gone around in several circles with this problem, I have a half useful mount, if I had bought this in Aus, it'd be back with the agent.
Cheers
Stuart[/QUOTE]
Sorry only just now seeing this.
The cam pin adjustment lacks a few points. Fristly the 2 threaded rod type screws that stick up on the block on either side of the cam pin may or may not need adjusting. I looked at mine and compared it to the drawings which show them sitting quite low. Mine were sitting high.
These 2 screws if not right will cause the gears to slip no matter how many times you adjust the cam. They determine the tension. I was advised by SB they should be 2.25 to 2.5 turns open from fully screwed in. I did that on mine, then adjusted the cam and no more slippage issues and no more stalls. I was getting an occassional stall from too much tension yet if I slacked it off too much I was getting gear slippage. So its a tad sensitive.
My mount has the black belts. I am now wondering if my sudden PE spike was in fact some junk off the belt stuck on the pulley and hitting every couple of minutes or so. I will keep that in mind. I think I'll ask for a couple of grey belts to be sent to me just in case.
Tested out my PMX tonight. Based on the question for the forum, I.e. can I go wrong with a paramount mx: I don't think so. After homing the mount, roughly adjusting mechanically (I.e. no slewing or using the joystick) for polar alignment then playing around a bit, I got more accuracy than a few months of playing around on my iOptron. I know, I know, no comparison.
Anyway, if I can get very good accuracy without starting a model or tpoint, then it's an awesome machine.
I'm looking forward to building a model and taking some photos with this mount.
I tested the MX a bit more tonight. After about an hour of building a model, I tried out TheSky's 'tour' feature. A bit confusing as it threw the model out of accuracy - which is probably something I shouldn't have done because I was getting a bit 'hmm, ho hum' after my 40th or so star so I played around a bit .
Anyway, long story short, I just homed the mount, re-synchronised on a star and started the model again, now it works perfectly ! I want to look at 47 Tucanae so I point to it on the sky chart, select slew and voila, dead centre in my eye-pieces (all my scopes now point to the same spot in the sky). I'm stoked.
Now I know I shouldn't have jumped in so quickly because I think I have to turn off auto-corrections in the options somewhere before starting a tpoint model so I'll probably have to do this again, but the way I figure it, a few goes makes me more familiar with the mount and it's operations, the more familiar we are with our tools, the better the outcome and more we can do with them.
So, visual work seems perfect. Tomorrow (or another night because it's late now and I'll probably want sleep tomorrow) I might look at starting my tpoint correctly and build that up over a week or so.
Good to hear that the mount is performing well. I distinctly remember the feeling I got when I first turned it on, got it roughly aligned and started playing with it. It's a great feeling of justification for having forked out the dough.
When it comes to doing a t-point model and getting your PA spot on, there are some experts here and the manual is pretty good. It is worthwhile as once done it makes the dream mount a thing of beauty to use.
When you take the covers off the RA drive check for the grey belts!
Covers off? Not yet I think. I'll start with the easy things and possibly then have a look inside the bonnet - but am going to be gentle for a while until I get more confidence in using it.
Yeah, I've read over the manual and the t-point add on manual. Funny thing is the manual suggests doing an automated calibration run (complete with pictures) for PA whereas the t-point manual suggests initially doing a run with 6 stars and then adjusting, then doing it again and iteratively getting more accuracy.
I'll do it the 6 star way first because it sounds easier.
If you want to know how to do polar alignment using Tpoint, don't read the manual, get on the Software Bisque support forum and ask Patrick Wallace. Get it straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.
...is now accurate to the point where Tpoint cannot make any more recommendations without sufficient confidence. Basically within a few arc seconds.
This is awesome - one interesting trap though is I found the recommendations to move the 'left' and 'right' knobs reversed in the software. I have set it to southern hemisphere but after about 3 full runs (and making suggested adjustments) it was just getting further and further away. I applied my brain a little and did the opposite of what it suggested and it worked perfectly.
Now, clear the data, do a run with 200 or so stars () and I will start my super model. I'm wondering though, do planets count when building a model or should I just stick to stars?
This is awesome - one interesting trap though is I found the recommendations to move the 'left' and 'right' knobs reversed in the software. I have set it to southern hemisphere but after about 3 full runs (and making suggested adjustments) it was just getting further and further away. I applied my brain a little and did the opposite of what it suggested and it worked perfectly.
I wouldn't use planets. Don't they move at a different rate to stars?
I followed the recommendations and got improvements. That is odd. Do you have the latest build of Sky X? It may have been a bug that was fixed. If so you should report that to SB so they can add a correction to their latest build.
I have also found this to be the case, but, the software tells you to turn the right or left knob, which is which depends on your orientation to the scope. If, you sit where I do, facing the electronics, or looking South, the the knobs are reversed, if you look North, then they are correct.
I liked the labeling as East or West myself, these are absolute and if you can't tell East from West, then you're gunna struggle with setting up a scope.
Agreed, the old way was completely unambiguous. Why they changed the East/west method is beyond me....
Simon, Ernie is correct. Let your camera do the work! Do automated T-Point runs of at least 45 points, run the super model, and then make polar adjustments. If you run less than 45 points or so the results will start to be contradictory from one run to another. Patrick Wallace has stated that T-Point is not iterative; that is, if you follow the recommendations exactly the mount should be aligned perfectly. The great difficulty is that what you input to the mount in terms of movement in azimuth and elevation may not be accurate enough. You might get a recommendation to move by 1.4 tics. You may think you moved it 1.4 tics but the reality is that the mount probably only approximated that move. So, yes, repeating the process over a few times does get you closer and closer, but then the adjustments also get harder to do and you can end up chasing your tail so to speak. When you get really close you might try using the camera to confirm the move was accurate. For example, you get a recommendation to move the mount up by 45 arcsec. Try using the slew command and move the scope 45 arcsec down. Then adjust the mount up and compare photos. Using this method you can get closer than you actually need! There are more details on how to do this on the SB site. Ernie put me onto this method and it really works well once you figure out how to do it!
Greg - yes, my naivete on the planet question was more about if the software takes into account the movement of planets at the same time. Since have done some reading and realise...err...bit of a novice question to ask
I grabbed the latest build (and daily release) about two days ago - the daily build was I think the 27th or 29th of March one, but, I will do as you recommend and let them know about the experience, purely in the interests of giving them as much info about the end user experience to help out.
Peter - after reading your info about twice I got it! I completely understand, which is a new feeling for me.... And Ernie's advice is good, I've been using the camera in live mode instead of letting TSX take pictures for me because I wanted to figure out how it all works first. Now I understand the theory, I'll do it using an automated run and sip my scotch and maybe watch the sky a little while it's working for me
[QUOTE=baileys2611;962578]Greg - yes, my naivete on the planet question was more about if the software takes into account the movement of planets at the same time. Since have done some reading and realise...err...bit of a novice question to ask
I grabbed the latest build (and daily release) about two days ago - the daily build was I think the 27th or 29th of March one, but, I will do as you recommend and let them know about the experience, purely in the interests of giving them as much info about the end user experience to help out.
Never feel embarrassed to ask any question. That's what this forum is here for.
It may be that the latest build has an inadvertent bug that has affected this. For what its worth I did not experience any difficulty with T-point polar recommendations last time I used it which was about 4 months ago now.
Hi PMX users. I am in the process of ordering a PMX mount now (unfortunately the intro price is over and it is $1000 more now ). I read the posts about the black and grey belts - do they now automatically ship the grey belts or is this something I should be asking for? Thx, Peter
I'm enjoying this mount. Wanted to ask some advice though.
I've done my tpoint model, have good polar alignment and built a supermodel accurate to within 20 arc seconds. What's next?
I've tried automatic calibration but must need to experiment a bit with that, cannot get past the first point without it saying that there aren't enough stars, but do I need that now?
Also, does it need to be synchronised at all again, I'm permanently mounted on a pier and of course if I change equipment setup I will need to build another model, but now that it has it's model, do I need to add anything to that or is that all? I feel I'm missing something because this was actually pretty easy.
Well, you could program the PEC. That's very easy to do.
Patrick Wallace (the author of Tpoint) is of the opinion that it doesn't hurt (and could help) to sync into model at the start of each session. Mind you, Patrick doesn't have a Paramount. I just home and go with the Paramount, so long as I haven't changed anything since the previous evening.
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I've tried automatic calibration but must need to experiment a bit with that, cannot get past the first point without it saying that there aren't enough stars, but do I need that now?
20 arc-seconds isn't bad. If you do an automated calibration you'll probably be able to whack that down to 10 arc-seconds or so. You should definitely work on the "not enough stars" error because being able to plate solve is sort of important! Try binning 3x3 or 4x4 with your exposure set from 5 to 15 seconds. What's your FOV in arc-minutes? If it's really small, like under 10 arc-minutes on a side, then you may need to add the NOMAD catalog (Database Add On).
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Not yet I think. I'll start with the easy things and possibly then have a look inside the bonnet - but am going to be gentle for a while until I get more confidence in using it.
) and I will start my super model. I'm wondering though, do planets count when building a model or should I just stick to stars?
). I read the posts about the black and grey belts - do they now automatically ship the grey belts or is this something I should be asking for? Thx, Peter
