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Old 15-08-2017, 07:15 AM
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rcheshire (Rowland)
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Success!

Getting the correct sense of the handcontroller RA DEC reversion switches matched to the adapter made all the difference.

Following polar alignment using the mount's built in reticule, I took a 4 minute exposure with guiding off and then a second with guiding on. It was difficult to discern the difference, without pixel peeping - this mount is superb properly aligned.

Further exposures with high speed correction increasing the rate for subsequent exposures produced no discernable change. Pixel peeping verified the same.

Increasing to 5 minutes verified slight misalignment without guiding.

Satisfied that an operable guider would be confirmed by a series of exposures I set up guiding with normal speed correction on the mount and let it run for 35 minutes.

All seven exposures lined up exactly with beautifully round stars. Will post images once processed.

The Lacerta MGEN II stand-alone guider performed flawlessly with factory settings and a Borg 50mm guide scope.

The EM200B turns 21 this year and has probably never seen an autoguider. It was designed for manual guiding. I'm sure Takahashi had good cause to use +ve ground and Hirose connectors (which are still in production), making the conversion more involved than I would have liked.
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  #22  
Old 15-08-2017, 03:51 PM
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A crop of the test subject, which does nothing more than show round stars. 5 minute subs. Southern Pleiades, I think. A short video of the alignment of the first and last frames 35 minutes apart.
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Old 24-07-2018, 07:13 AM
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rcheshire (Rowland)
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Adding to this, having got everything up and running. There is no auto guiding interface on the EM-200B.

When calibrating the MGEN II auto guider, I noticed that orthogonality and motor speed are linked.

The settings recommended in the attached mount control panel and hand controller images produce 99 - 100% orthogonality, calibrated.

Auto guiding with the MGEN is simple and reliable. Unbelievably so...

The in-built intervalometer and dithering routine has simplified DSLR work exponentially. All in one handset. No computer required - love it...

If you are using a CCD, one of the software packages coordinates dithering between exposures.
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Last edited by rcheshire; 24-07-2018 at 03:13 PM.
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  #24  
Old 24-04-2020, 07:13 PM
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Update for those who inquired

An update with a few more details on this project. A small how to for those who have inquired about the 'box'.


This project is licensed under Creative Commons International 4.0 Attribution
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Last edited by rcheshire; 25-04-2020 at 07:10 AM.
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