Thanks for those suggestions Rob. I suspected the stars were too close to each other. I spent most of last night looking at galaxies in Eridanus/Fornax and the Argo was pretty good. I was also looking at the helix and saturn PN's in the western sky and the positioning
was up to a whole FOV out.The mount does feel a bit sloppy, squirming about a bit. One of the IIS guys suggested screwing a plate over the alt trunnions to stop things wriggling. I might try a couple
of metal brackets on the inside of the 2 side plates.I do have a report almost finished, but I want to check one of the galaxies in Eridanus as the maps suggest there is another one nearby. Last night I was concentrating on the Argo more than the objects in the eyepiece. I have made the mistake of setting the magnitude limits too low in Tour, tonight, if the weather gives me a chance, I will try increasing it to 15. Some of those galaxy cores and ellipticals at fainter mags are
easier to see than a face on spiral 3 or 4 mags brighter.Our weekends are pretty full at the moment, Brisbane on Saturday and the 4WD Club christmas party the weekend after. Hope the weather clears for tonight. Cheers, Paul.
On 28/10/2010, at 7:54 AM, Corona Australis wrote: Hi Paul,I’ve never had enough faith that those GSO style mounts would stay rock solid over time. I would recommend bracing or if you have the time a rebuild. I’m not too sure about the alt trunnions I’ve never really taken much notice of how they really work it has been awhile since I’ve seen Glen’s GSO. So sorry I can’t help you too much there. All I can say is it is worth the effort spending time in making sure you mount is as solid as you can get it.
Does the mount feel sloppy to you? the Argo is pretty accurate and can be susceptible to mount errors, no mount is perfect. If these errors are consistent you can use Argo’s inbuilt TPAS to program to get your pointing accuracy up to speed and fix some mount errors. You should be able to land most objects near the centre of your 22mm t4. What size EP are you
using for alignment? try a higher powered/smaller FOV EP for this.The alignment stars you used are a little on the too close side. You should aim for alignment stars that are a minimum of 30 degrees to a maximum of 90 degrees separation in both alt and azi. You will probably find that you need to do a realignment say after looking at objects in the west and then you decide to look at objects in the east (TPAS can fix this problem). My mount can generally cover most of the sky on two alignment stars but running TPAS would
make it even better, just haven’t gotten around to doing it. Cheers,CS RobFrom: nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:nswnra- bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul McGuiness
Sent: Wednesday, 27 October 2010 18:31 To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [nswnra] Re: finally - some scope time (with AN)! Hi Rob, Thanks for the good wishes. It was so good to have it working reasonably well. My alignment starts were pretty close to each other, Achernar and Al Nair. Most of the others are either Northern Hemisphere objects, behind the house or not visible. Some objects were on the edge of the FOV of the 22T4 which surprised me, others were nearby, butthat didn't stop me finding them. The guys on IIS suggested that the mount may need some additional bracing, also a plate to stop the alt trunnionsfrom sliding around. Makes sense. I know your mount is different, but as an
experienced user, does that make sense? Early days yet, tonight looks good too, tiny storms have evaporated. Hooray!!. From: corona_australis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [nswnra] Re: finally - some scope time (with AN)! Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:00:10 +1100 Paul, Excellent stuff mate! I was thinking about you when we were heading homefrom Lismore last night and seeing the skies were pretty clear and wondering
whether you were able to get out under them and give the new toy a goodwork over. It is certainly a pleasure when you can just dial up point and look no more star charts or hours sitting down planning and printing out star charts.
I love Tour mode myself. Don’t be surprised if every object doesn’t land smack dab in the middle of the FOV. There are a lot of minor position errors in the NGC and IC catalogues but most should be fairly close to centre or within the FOV of
your 9mm t6. We might get lucky over the next few nights and see a bit of clear air. Cheers,CS RobFrom: nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:nswnra- bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul McGuiness
Sent: Tuesday, 26 October 2010 23:21 To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [nswnra] finally - some scope time (with AN)! Hi all, Well, the AN is off and running. After sorting out the "direction sense", it was into tour mode. Galaxies spotted before the moon started to rise: 1097, 1316, 1365, 289, 253, 134, 55, 7793, 7713. Planetaries: 7293 (Helix - good with UHC), 7009 (Saturn), 6818 (Little Gem), 6853 (Dumbell), 1360 (a very bright oval shaped one). Also spotted a dozen or so globulars. Most of the positioning was somewhere near the FOV but not exact, maybe some fine tuning to be done. Initial feelings are that the gadget is excellent. Great to get some scope time again. Cheers, Paul. PLEASE READ THESE CONDITIONS:The colour that you see on screen can in no way be guaranteed. As you have not seen a hard copy proof you must accept that the colours you see on your screen will never match 100% what your final product will be. Colour variation occurs from screen to screen and from screen to print
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