The scope will still track "reasonably" on the moon. Whilst not accurate enough for photography the Sidereal tracking will keep the moon reasonably near the FOV and you just use the arrow keys on the Servocat handpad to keep it centered. A piece of cake really and no problem to keep it in the FOV for hours with a brief touch on the hand pad every couple of minutes. How often you need to use the handpad to re center will depend on the power you are observing at and the FOV of your eyepiece.
You just center the moon in the FOV and the servocat will do the rest.
Many thanks John for the info provided - much appreciated.
Gary Kopff, from Wildcard Inn. has informed me via the Yahoo group that the next general firmware release will include the moon - release date has not yet been announced.
Re: ServoCat tracking should keep the moon in the FOV - Yes, this is my experience. Actually, the reason why I posted the question in the first place was because I was having trouble tracking the moon at high power. I took my scope with me on a field camp last year with a bunch of students. WFOV was not a problem but leaving the students by them selves to look at the moon using a narrow FOV EP was a bit challenging - I needed to constantly nudge the hand-pad between student observations. I couldn't get away (I needed to do other things at the time) as they would loose control of the hand pad. Dare I say, these were Uni students..... actually they were a nice bunch of clever students, but accurate tracking of the moon at high power would be nice.
Hi gary! I Have the servo cat system with argo navis. I would like to align the telescope at night 22:00, and then go to sleep until 4:00 am. How can i park the telescope to dont align again? Thanks
Hi gary! I Have the servo cat system with argo navis. I would like to align the telescope at night 22:00, and then go to sleep until 4:00 am. How can i park the telescope to dont align again? Thanks
Hi,
All you need to do is do your normal alignment at 10:00pm. You can leave the telescope unattended until 4:00am and it will keep its original alignment, provided you do not switch the argo navis unit off. You could switch the Servocat off but you must keep the Argo Navis unit on. If you do this it is a good idea to have a set of fresh AA batteries in the Argo navis so that if your external power source dies the AA batteries will cut in and keep the previous alignment.
A couple of years ago at ISAAC 2007, Gary and I left the Argo switched on on my 18" Obsession after we finished observing in the early hours of the morning, so that we could find Comet Mcnaught in the late afternoon the next day.
If you are going to leave Argo running for this length of time and hope to retain good pointing accuracy it is fairly important to do a good alignment initially and possibly do a TPAS pointing run.
Hi gary! I Have the servo cat system with argo navis. I would like to align the telescope at night 22:00, and then go to sleep until 4:00 am. How can i park the telescope to dont align again? Thanks
Greetings to you there in beautiful Espaņa!
Firstly, thanks to John for his follow-up.
When used with the ServoCAT, Argo Navis has its own set of encoders so that
it can maintain position even when the ServoCAT is switched off or even if the
cable releases that engage the motors are disengaged.
By leaving the Argo Navis powered on, it will maintain alignment.
When leaving the scope idle for an extended period time, it is advisable
to at least disengage the cables that engage the motors. This will prevent the
scope from moving as the system tracks.
When the Argo Navis display shows one of the top level menu selections
(e.g. MODE ALIGN, MODE ALIGN STAR, MODE CATALOG, etc.) then you
can be sure that the unit is using the least amount of power. The operating system
puts the CPU into a low power sleep mode when there is no processing to perform.
Hi Stu--Gary from Wildcard Innovations will sort you out with the Argo Navis.
I was(am)a newbie and fitted a new AN unit to my dob a couple of months ago after being pretty frustrated trying to find my way around the sky.
Mate,believe all the good things you may read in this forum about the Argo Navis--and Gary!
It is the best thing I could have purchased(after the scope)as I can now find things so easy!
Its not cheap--but now Im at the eyepiece actually viewing 99% of the time!
Excellent product and support.
Good luck with your possible purchase Stu.
Is there any intention of adding the Caldwell objects to the AN Library?
Cheers,
Trent
Hi Trent,
As you are probably aware, the Caldwell Catalogue is simply a selection of 109
predominantly NGC objects with a few IC objects and a few other nebulae.
All the objects within the Caldwell Catalogue exist in other catalogs within the
Argo Navis in-built catalogs.
Some time back, Sky Publishing published the Stephen O'Meara book
entitled "The Caldwell Objects". My recollection was that Sky Publishing and/or
Moore claimed copyright on the list and there was some legal posturing going
on when someone else attempted to publish the list or use the name.
Therefore we don't include the objects that appear in that catalog under that
name.
The Argo Navis User's Group has a user contributed catalog which you can
load into your unit that has the same NGC, IC and other objects in it that
also appeared in the Caldwell list.
See http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/a...20Catalogs%20/
For a really nice user catalog for southern hemisphere observing, you might also
like to consider the 600 object list compiled by John Bambury. I refer to it as the
BAM 600. See http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ghlight=bambos
This catalog is available in Argo Navis User Catalog format.
I'm interested in the new firmware version because of the accurate moon tracking. Do you know when this new release?
Regards
Thanks for the post.
The Moon has been added as an object in our internal development versions of the
firmware.
Additional enhancements are also being worked on and tested as part of the next
general firmware release. A release date has not been announced yet.
If you have not done so already, you might like to register at http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au/register.html
to be notified by email when the next release is announced.
OK, tonights the night!!
Attached the AN to my scope MONTHS ago, and now we have had a few clear nights, I have to give it the test run.
Very scared though, as know I am going to have trouble and that its not going to work which is why I have been putting it off.
You never know, it might work straight away, but my track record is that it wont work = frustrated = angry ...... and I dont like those feelings.
Tomorrow morning/tonight I will let yous know. Fingers crossed!!
Just follow the instructions in the manual Liz - and do plenty before dark - encoder daytime check, setting encoder sign (+ or -) etc.
After that it is just "Fix Alt Ref", Scope pointing to zenith, enter, enter; "Align Star", choose first star, point and enter, choose second star, point and enter - DONE! Off to "Mode Catalog" and you are away!
OK, tonights the night!!
Attached the AN to my scope MONTHS ago, and now we have had a few clear nights, I have to give it the test run.
Very scared though, as know I am going to have trouble and that its not going to work which is why I have been putting it off.
You never know, it might work straight away, but my track record is that it wont work = frustrated = angry ...... and I dont like those feelings.
Tomorrow morning/tonight I will let yous know. Fingers crossed!!
PS ... yours worked straight away Chris?
Hi Liz,
Good luck and the good news is that we are only an email or telephone call
away should you ever require assistance.
As an additional check of the SETUP ALT STEPS sign,
point the Optical Tube Assembly (OTA) to the vertical
and DIAL up MODE FIX ALT REF, ALT REF=+90, AUTO ADJUST
OFF and then press ENTER. Now DIAL up MODE ENCODER.
The right-hand displayed value should be close to +90
degrees. Now push the OTA downward in Altitude toward
the horizon. The right-hand displayed value should
decrease, +89, +88, ... +3, +2, +1, 0 as you go from
the zenith toward the horizon. If not, reverse the
SETUP ALT STEPS sign and repeat the test.
For the Az axis, if you dial up MODE ENCODER this time
rather than MODE RA DEC and if you rotate the mount
clockwise in Azimuth from the perspective of looking
down to the scope from above, your left-hand value
(Az) in MODE ENCODER should be increasing.
Thank you Eric and Gary.
Alas, given up already, and just skulled a beer to recover.
Tried the encoder test ? if worked, mozzies nipping at my heels ... aligned Sirius and Regulus, then tried to find ... anything .... started with double star in Leo, but it wouldnt do anything. Now frowning and sweating (still about 24) and could hear the beer in the fridge calling to me.
Have a couple of night duties the next 2 nights, so will reread the manual, and become familiar with all the terms and workings of the AN.
Dont you fancy a trip up to Townsville Gary? It is beautiful up here now with temps 19 - 30. Mia would love it.
You could promote the AN to our members, and get mine working.
Time for another beer, I reckon.
Thank you Eric and Gary.
Alas, given up already, and just skulled a beer to recover.
Tried the encoder test ? if worked, mozzies nipping at my heels ... aligned Sirius and Regulus, then tried to find ... anything .... started with double star in Leo, but it wouldnt do anything. Now frowning and sweating (still about 24) and could hear the beer in the fridge calling to me.
Have a couple of night duties the next 2 nights, so will reread the manual, and become familiar with all the terms and workings of the AN.
Dont you fancy a trip up to Townsville Gary? It is beautiful up here now with temps 19 - 30. Mia would love it.
You could promote the AN to our members, and get mine working.
Time for another beer, I reckon.
Hi Liz,
I've just come back in from outside and your 24 degrees in Townsville sounds
much more agreeable than the cool, clear, night we have here in Sydney
at the moment.
It certainly would not require any arm bending to have Mai and I wish we
were up in your part of the world again right now.
Here is a quick synopsis of the alignment steps you would have performed.
1) Power ON unit.
Unit will initiliaize and show MODE FIX ALT REF.
2) Push optical tube to mechanical vertical stop.
At this position the Optical axis is approx. parallel to the Az axis.
i.e. if the scope were on level ground (and it need not be) it would be pointing toward the zenith.
3) Push ENTER button. If need be, spin the dial until display shows ALT REF=90 AUTO ADJUST OFF.
4) Press ENTER. Display will show for two seconds WARP=ALT REF OK
5) Press EXIT. Dial up MODE ALIGN STAR. Press ENTER. Dial up first alignment star by name.
6) Center first star in eyepiece and then press ENTER.
7) Spin dial and select second alignment star.
8) Center second star in eyepiece and then press ENTER.
9) Display will show WARP=xx in lower line of display for two seconds where xx is
a numerical value. Next time you get out, please let me know what WARP value you received
after aligning on the second star (the WARP factor after the first star you can ignore).
Thanks for considering an Argo Navis Digital Telescope Computer
