Wonder when will this happen....

Post by **VinSnr** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 9:47 am

Now with meade having all this leveling and find north technology, when will be the day we have a self align eq mount?

I am waiting for the day we have an eq mount that could align itself to the North celestial pole with reasonable accuracy. And make drift alignment obsolete or at least less of a chore.

Meade or Celestron...did you hear me?? GOTO on eq mount , not enough....make it self align!!

Post by **weixing** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 10:38 pm

Hi,
I thought SkySensor 2000 already can do that. Below are from Vixen website:
SkySensor 2000 does not require polar alignment of the equatorial mount. You can place the mount in any convenient orientation and start using the Sky Sensor.

Have a nice day.

Post by **VinSnr** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 10:50 pm

weixing wrote:Hi,
I thought SkySensor 2000 already can do that. Below are from Vixen website:
SkySensor 2000 does not require polar alignment of the equatorial mount. You can place the mount in any convenient orientation and start using the Sky Sensor.

Have a nice day.

huh?? how can that be? Skysensor 2K can lift the mount head to the right elevation???

Post by **weixing** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:06 pm

Hi,

Meade or Celestron...did you hear me?? GOTO on eq mount , not enough....make it self align!!

Didn't see this.... SkySensor 2000 is out.

huh?? how can that be? Skysensor 2K can lift the mount head to the right elevation???

Ha Ha Ha...

I think it is possible to do the alignment without setting the correct latitude... the computer just use the software to do the compensation... like a GOTO fork mount in Alt-Az mode... this is the worst case.

Have a nice day.

MooEy · Post by **MooEy** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:10 pm

actually, some dsc can tell u roughly how much to adjust the mount's altitude and azimuth. i remember the advance astro master has this function. but i have never tried it before since it's lacking quite alot of parts.

~MooEy~

Post by **VinSnr** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:46 pm

I think it is possible to do the alignment without setting the correct latitude... the computer just use the software to do the compensation... like a GOTO fork mount in Alt-Az mode... this is the worst case.

Have a nice day.

Not exactly....you need to get pretty close. If you are 1 degree north and the mount is elevated 30 degree north, the computer will tell you alignment unsuccessful when you choose your two alignment stars.

In alt-azi mount, compensation can be done because both axis are not restricted by any other axis. I have ever tried keying in 25 degree north and 50 degrees east in Singapore with the LX90. Somehow after the two alignment stars (which will be obviously very out and I need to center them), the computer managed to get it right for all other stars, despite the initial coordinates are wrong.

But for eq, there is only one pole and the ra and dec need to be align with that. Point to the wrong place and obviously there isn't any way for the RA and Dec to compensate back, UNLESS there is an elevation and azimuth motors that will correct back the error.

So I am waiting for the day when there will be 4 motors on an eq mount. The elevation and azimuth motors will find the pole accurately and then the ra and dec motors will take over. This should make drift alignment obsolete or less of a chore.

MooEy · Post by **MooEy** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 6:31 am

yeah, 4 motors is nice, add in a 50mm guide scope and a autoguider into the mount as well. remember to make it usuable in sg by providing it a half pillar with prolly a 50amp litium ion battery pack in it. then make the controller blue tooth enabled. looks ma, no cables. lastly, include a self alignment, so the user and sit back and watch the mount auto align.

~MooEy~

carlogambino · Post by **carlogambino** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 9:46 pm

I have ever tried keying in 25 degree north and 50 degrees east in Singapore with the LX90. Somehow after the two alignment stars (which will be obviously very out and I need to center them), the computer managed to get it right for all other stars, despite the initial coordinates are wrong.

This is because the comp only cares about the 2 stars, everything else will be ignored. You can enter whatever lat/long you want with any time(even daytime) you want, the comp will ignore all these as long as you center the 2 stars accurately(GOTO to moon and planets not possible with inaccurate time, of course). This is in alt-az mode of course.