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  #21  
Old 11-09-2008, 08:51 PM
gary
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevnool View Post
Still havent given the AN a run yet Gary , I wish I could stop driving around the countryside ( i got home from Forbes today. )

This sat night is on the may be list if it dont eventuate it will have to wait till weekend after because driving off to Sydney again ( No i,m not a truck driver). I dont want to take it out the front yard as i want its first run to be out in the stix and memorable

Cheers Kev.
Hi Kev,

Sounds like you have been putting in some miles!

At least the saving grace for you there in Broken Hill is that really excellent
dark skies are not too far a drive out of town. Hopefully you will get the chance
during the last couple of weekends in the month near Last Quarter and New Moon
and that the spring weather will be clear and the seeing and transparency
perfect on those nights.

Best Regards

Gary
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  #22  
Old 11-09-2008, 08:58 PM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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I had a phone call from an Astro friend the other day, Chris Thomas, to tell me of the wonderful customer service he received from Gary.
A Company with integrity.
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  #23  
Old 11-09-2008, 10:19 PM
Craig.a.c (Craig)
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I have to get one for my 12". What is the going price to set up one up on my 12" Dob?
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  #24  
Old 11-09-2008, 11:23 PM
gary
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Argo Navis for a GSO 12" Dob

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig.a.c View Post
I have to get one for my 12". What is the going price to set up one up on my 12" Dob?
Hi Craig,

Thanks for the interest.

I have sent you a private message with some details. Please don't hesitate
to email me or give us a call should you like to learn more.

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
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  #25  
Old 12-09-2008, 05:44 AM
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gaa_ian (Ian)
1300 THESKY

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Here in Gove we are about to join the AG club. We are currently fitting the AG to our 18" dob. It's also a good opportunity to give the scope a complete renovation, especially making some improvements to the primary mirror mounting arrangements.
Without the "Push to" assistance of the AG, we tend to go back to the same old same old DSO's.
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  #26  
Old 12-09-2008, 09:57 AM
gary
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gaa_ian View Post
Here in Gove we are about to join the AG club. We are currently fitting the AG to our 18" dob. It's also a good opportunity to give the scope a complete renovation, especially making some improvements to the primary mirror mounting arrangements.
Without the "Push to" assistance of the AG, we tend to go back to the same old same old DSO's.
Hi Ian,

Thanks for the post and good to hear the unit arrived in Nhulunbuy.
Great to hear the installation is also a good opportunity for some renovation
work on what is undoubtedly a well loved scope.

At 12S latitude, you would be getting some of the best of both hemispheres,
being able to see both Ursa Major and Crux at the same time.

Once The Wet kicks in around Nov/Dec, does that limit your observing
nights, or on any given night, is there typically a downpour followed by
clearing skies afterwards?

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Wildcard Innovations Pty Ltd
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  #27  
Old 12-09-2008, 10:52 AM
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Quark (Trevor)
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Greetings Gary,
Thanks for the tip regarding a locknut on the Azimuth bolt, where it protruded through the base of the Lightbridge. This addition securely locks the Az pulley without inducing excessive drag into my modified Az bearing system. Prior to the addition of the locknut I was experiencing some rotation of the pulley.

Have sussed out a new observing site not far from Broken Hill that is a major improvement over the one my group had been using. When Kev gets this current rush of work related travel out of the way we will set up together and get his Argo operational.

Thanks again for your most excellent service and assistance with helping me sort out the setup of my Argo to communicate with "The Sky".

Best Regards
Trevor
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  #28  
Old 13-09-2008, 10:21 AM
gary
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Smile Thank you

Quote:
Originally Posted by Quark View Post
Greetings Gary,
Thanks for the tip regarding a locknut on the Azimuth bolt, where it protruded through the base of the Lightbridge. This addition securely locks the Az pulley without inducing excessive drag into my modified Az bearing system. Prior to the addition of the locknut I was experiencing some rotation of the pulley.
Hi Trevor,

Great to hear the locknut is doing its stuff.

Kev's GSO 16 has a similar arrangement and there is a locknut supplied
in the kit.

Quote:
Have sussed out a new observing site not far from Broken Hill that is a major improvement over the one my group had been using. When Kev gets this current rush of work related travel out of the way we will set up together and get his Argo operational.
Excellent! You are fortunate to live in a part of the world where dark skies
are readily accessible. How many are in your group?

The encoder direction sense sign (+/-) in SETUP AZ STEPS should end up being
identical to that on your LightBridge.

Thanks for assisting Kev.

To determine Kev's SETUP ALT STEPS sign, push the scope to the
vertical, DIAL up MODE FIX ALR REF, ALT REF=90 and press ENTER.
Then DIAL up MODE ENCODER. Push the OTA down toward the horizon.
If the right-hand displayed value becomes larger, i.e. +90, +91, +92 etc.
then reverse the sign in SETUP ALT STEPS. if it decreases, leave it at the
value it currently is set at.[/QUOTE]

Quote:
Thanks again for your most excellent service and assistance with helping me sort out the setup of my Argo to communicate with "The Sky".
Thanks Trevor! You are welcome.

Bet you are counting down to Mauna Kea!

Best Regards

Gary
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  #29  
Old 13-09-2008, 11:12 AM
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Quark (Trevor)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gary View Post
Hi Trevor,

Great to hear the locknut is doing its stuff.

Kev's GSO 16 has a similar arrangement and there is a locknut supplied
in the kit.



Excellent! You are fortunate to live in a part of the world where dark skies
are readily accessible. How many are in your group?



Thanks Trevor! You are welcome.

Bet you are counting down to Mauna Kea!

Best Regards

Gary

Hi Gary,
Our group varies in number, we have a core of 12 plus we get the occasional tourist passing through town and occasional professional people that get posted out here for short periods of time.

Within our core group we have a fair range of equipment, Robinson College has an 8" Dob that is available to us and within the group is a 16" Bintel Dob, 12" Bintel Dob, 12" Lightbridge, 10" Lightbridge, 8" Bintel Dob, Celestron C-8 and a Meade ETX. We also have 15 x 70 Binoc's on a trapezium mount and various other sets of binoculars.

Occasionally we use the 16" eq mounted scope in my observatory. We really have become to successful of late and I can no longer fit the whole group inside my dome, so we now generally observe as a group out of town.

The Argo Navis will be a real boon for group observing and obviously will cut down the time it normally takes us to star hop to the particular target we want to observe. That said, I am very fond of my Herald Bobroff Astro Atlas and I am very pleased with the Argo feature that refers to the HB chart number for the target object.

Regards
Trevor
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  #30  
Old 13-09-2008, 11:14 AM
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desler
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Just get one Craig!

I couldn't be happier, Gary has been great, the mounting and tinkering and testing started to get on my nerves a little, but Gary was good and patient enough to spend some quality time on the phone with me to get me up and running........

The unit is absolutely brilliant!

Darren
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  #31  
Old 13-09-2008, 11:50 AM
gary
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quark View Post
Our group varies in number, we have a core of 12 plus we get the occasional tourist passing through town and occasional professional people that get posted out here for short periods of time.
Hi Trevor,

Thanks for the response. It's great to hear the core group has a dozen regulars.
Plus the occasional professional or tourist!

Quote:
Within our core group we have a fair range of equipment, Robinson College has an 8" Dob that is available to us and within the group is a 16" Bintel Dob, 12" Bintel Dob, 12" Lightbridge, 10" Lightbridge, 8" Bintel Dob, Celestron C-8 and a Meade ETX. We also have 15 x 70 Binoc's on a trapezium mount and various other sets of binoculars.
A nice range of equipment and all handy enough that can be readily transported.

Quote:
The Argo Navis will be a real boon for group observing and obviously will cut down the time it normally takes us to star hop to the particular target we want to observe. That said, I am very fond of my Herald Bobroff Astro Atlas and I am very pleased with the Argo feature that refers to the HB chart number for the target object.
It certainly is an excellent atlas and highly recommended.

We bump into Peter at the occasional star party and we were only chatting to
him a couple of weekends ago whilst walking along the the shores of Lake Hume
at the Border Stargaze near Albury.

Speaking of Border Stargaze, we've chatted on the telephone about your own public outreach
work there in Broken Hill, and you will be pleased to know that the ASAW, that runs Border Stargaze,
is doing a fabulous job in their part of the country. Petra mentioned they had about a thousand people pass
through at the Border Stargaze, many of them local school kids.

Thanks again for the follow up.

Best Regards

Gary
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  #32  
Old 21-09-2008, 12:37 AM
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Kevnool (Kev)
Fast Scope & Fast Engine

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Well tonight was the night, Was so suscessfull the Argo-Navis performed better than i really expected.

From the moment the Argo-Navis was turned on it worked like a charm,the 2 star alignment was so easy.

Well i loaded in Messier objects and NGC objects as well as toured scorpius and fornax.

Over 100 objects observed,the laser can go out the window ,star charts are a thing of the past.

WooHoo #1 is happy and clapping his hands.....Cheers Kev.
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  #33  
Old 21-09-2008, 06:40 AM
CoombellKid
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevnool View Post
Over 100 objects observed,the laser can go out the window ,star charts are a thing of the past.

WooHoo #1 is happy and clapping his hands.....Cheers Kev.
Ain't that the truth!!!! been giving mine it's initial run over the last couple
of nights. Although I'm still trying to sort out some aspects, like pointing
accuracy but I think it has more to do with the accuracy I've set my local
time.

Actually I sitting there last night wondering what was giving me the bigger
thrill!!! the new 16" up from 8" (oh my, you can see quite a bit more) or
the ease of just dialing up objects wal-lah!!! and not spend hours planning
and printing star charts, and finally not screwing up my neck star hopping.

regards,CS
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  #34  
Old 21-09-2008, 09:28 AM
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Kevnool (Kev)
Fast Scope & Fast Engine

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Quote:
Originally Posted by CoombellKid View Post
Ain't that the truth!!!!
Well i,m still poking around the house this morning with the biggest grin.

I was doing tours with the 0III when i needed it with the Meade 4000 14mm UWA only once did i change to a Meade 5000 26mm.

Collimation was perfect all night the stars in the field were pin points.

Only problem for the night was i forgot to put the step ladder in so Saggitarius was out of the equation, but hey that is only a minor detail.

I didnt want to put a pic in but i thought i better......Cheers Kev.
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  #35  
Old 21-09-2008, 11:15 AM
gary
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Thanks Kev

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevnool View Post
Well tonight was the night, Was so suscessfull the Argo-Navis performed better than i really expected.

From the moment the Argo-Navis was turned on it worked like a charm,the 2 star alignment was so easy.

Well i loaded in Messier objects and NGC objects as well as toured scorpius and fornax.

Over 100 objects observed,the laser can go out the window ,star charts are a thing of the past.

WooHoo #1 is happy and clapping his hands.....Cheers Kev.
Hi Kev,

Thanks for the post, which is very much appreciated, and you have made our day.

It sounded like you had a marvelous run!

Thanks also for the photo. Obviously with your dark desert observing location,
you're collecting minimal numbers of man-made photons and just the stuff that
has traveled the distance and thus worthy of being collected in 16" of aperture.

With New Moon weekend coming up, I can imagine you can hardly wait for the
next hundred or so objects.

Thanks again for adding an Argo Navis. May there be a lifetime of great nights to come.

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
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  #36  
Old 21-09-2008, 11:57 AM
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theodog (Jeff)
Every photon is sacred !

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Yep, mine are clapping.
I ordered the AN unit with encoders for the G11.
After an hour I had the encoders fitted and begun the long wait for dark.
Soon after dark I had it initialised and references fixed, following the instructions.
Away I went. It put objects very, very near the field of the 12" f5 with a painfully small field of the SBig 7.

No longer trying to read vernier marks in low light and moving offsets.
Just look an object up in a planetarium package for size and details, and plug the numbers into the AN catalogue.

Software user objects are great to for asteroids.

I use my AN in my obs with a small 240V transformer rather than the batteries. Only issue (not really) is when a blackout strikes and I have to reset references. I might try it on a UPS.

Overall, I have been very happy with my AN except I'm now forgetting my star-hopping paths.

Great bit of kit -if you can, get one.
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  #37  
Old 21-09-2008, 04:44 PM
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Kevnool (Kev)
Fast Scope & Fast Engine

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Good on ya Jeff , Seems like your enjoying the ease of the AN also

I,ll run mine on the batteries for a while as they last a very long time.

Star hopping was good when i had to do it, but for the people without the AN all the time I spent looking up to the sky with one eye on the sky and one on the map was costing me observing time... 99% of the time is now looking through the eyepiece.

Can I keep clapping..........cheers Kev.
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  #38  
Old 22-09-2008, 05:43 AM
CoombellKid
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Well, I've managed to over come my pointing errors and had a fantastic
time last night. I wasn't setting the FIX ALT REF properly... well
accurately so I used my big Square. Also I logged into the Atomic
Clock and found my local time was 45 seconds out. After I had set these
correctly nearly every object landed in the FOV of my 14mm XW. And
the ones that missed (probably 2-3 out of about 40) were straddling the
EFOV. I knew it had to be a timing thing as the previous night the AN
was accurately in accurate... meaning objects appear to be alway slightly
east of the FOV. So in this case the AN was telling what was wrong...
pretty neat really when you think about, still I got a lot of the manual
read while working on the problem yesterday

I did a tour of Globs in Sagittarius, Galaxies in Fornax and I dialed up
serveral object from Starry Night I had running on the PC inside. The
AN never missed a beat, boy was I having fun

So I'm definitely a happy clapper!!!!! only came in last night because of
work today... but I'm off tomorrow : )))))))

Thanks Gary for a wonderful product, already I dont think I could live
without.

regards,CS
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  #39  
Old 22-09-2008, 09:25 PM
gary
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Hi Rob,

Thanks for the post.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CoombellKid View Post
I wasn't setting the FIX ALT REF properly... well
accurately so I used my big Square.
When you perform the FIX ALT REF step, I recommend you know begin
using AUTO ADJUST ON. Please see the third post in this thread for the
procedure I posted on how to set it up and use it. It is also detailed in the
User Manual in the section on FIX ALT REF.

The beauty of AUTO ADJUST ON is that you can put away the set-square.
You only have to push the scope to the vertical as an initial 'hint' to the
system and AUTO ADJUST ON will compute the ALT REF point for you.

Quote:
Also I logged into the Atomic Clock and found my local time was
45 seconds out.
If you are aligning on stars, Argo Navis doesn't require you to set the date/time
or location and unless you are observing satellites, there is no need to set it
to the nearest second. As you know, Argo Navis has an internal lithium coin
cell that maintains the time of day clock even when the main batteries are
removed. This clock is used to determine the position of planets, comets, asteroids
and satellites and is an input into refraction correction. For most observing,
setting it within a few minutes is fine. Likewise, your location setting is
not used as part of the alignment process either.

Your pointing improvement would therefore come about from establishing the
ALT REF point more accurately using the mechanical approach you took.
However, switching to AUTO ADJUST ON will do the same thing for you
without needing to use the set-square.

Quote:
I knew it had to be a timing thing as the previous night the AN
was accurately in accurate... meaning objects appear to be alway slightly
east of the FOV.
Non Perpendicular Axis Error (NPAE), which is between the Az and Alt axis
and Collmation Error (CA) which is non-perpendicularity between the Alt and
optical axis can result in predominantly azimuthal error residuals. Some time
in the future you might want to try performing a TPAS run to see if you
can characterize the error.

Quote:
I did a tour of Globs in Sagittarius, Galaxies in Fornax and I dialed up
serveral object from Starry Night I had running on the PC inside. The
AN never missed a beat, boy was I having fun

So I'm definitely a happy clapper!!!!! only came in last night because of
work today... but I'm off tomorrow : )))))))
That's what we like to hear.

Quote:
Thanks Gary for a wonderful product, already I dont think I could live
without.
Thank you Rob.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Wildcard Innovations
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  #40  
Old 23-09-2008, 12:26 PM
CoombellKid
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Gary,

Thanks for the tips, I went out and tried them late last night. Can I still
have Refraction On when I have Auto Adjust On?

Having Auto Adjust On, seemed to work ok. I tend to find the alignment
error happens when I do an Align Star in the west and then swing and look
at something in the east. But I also found if I did an Mode Align on the
object (with Auto Adjust On) seemed to fix it, is that how it should work?
I have a feeling this could some sort of mount error. I'll perform a TPAS
once I've become comfortable with what I'm doing.

However in say the above the errors mostly the difference from dead
center to the EFOV.

I think I logged 100+ objects last night through to 1:30am this morning. I
think that would have to be a record for me. It was fairly clear with
trans 7/10 but a touch windy. Which made setting the Mode Fix Alt Ref
a bit hard. Turning on Auto Adjust made that a lot easier.

regards,CS
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