Much nicer than anythign I have gotten on Jupiter this year. In fact I had given up. Nice work. I may have to go back to tryinging for Jupiter again this week....
FPOA had a shindig on the hill, with over 150 people participating in a number of events starting around 5PM. A decent BBQ, a huge raffle with 2 telescopes...
Long exposure without autoguiding?? These fellas say it's possible: http://www.mda-telescoop.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=40 RBA...
I don't think it will work as well as people think without additional software support. They claim that only refraction and polar misalignment are issues, but...
I'm with Ray on this one - I suspect it's going to be a appointment for a lot of people (and an expensive one at that). I don't think they'll have problems...
From my quick skim of the web site, all it looks like they are doing is moving the encoder from the servo motor out to a secondary gear train that is attached...
Great observation Pete - I may not like Meade from an engineering point of view, but they are the masters of taking a bunch of cheap plastic gears and making...
... I doubt that patent will fly because there is "prior art", at least in professional telescope drive mechanisms, not to mention maybe a half dozen mount...
You really don't need a fancy encoder if all you are trying to do is verify a rotational rate not an absolute position. Gear it up, it will work fine. An 8000...
Oops... of course I mean 'geared up encoder' in the last paragraph, not 'geared up stepper' :-) It also occurs to me that backlash in the gear train wouldn't...
Hi Pete, I suspect a little bit of drag added at the encoder would keep the gears well-meshed, especially as the RA shaft is turning in the same direction...
I shot this Saturday night / Sunday morning. 5 hours of 15 minute subs using an Astrodon 6nm Ha filter and 4 inch ED refractor @ f/5.6. The image has been...
Ummm... pithy, but a little short on detail... It seems that they do actually use a low-cost encoder with some form of mechanical coupling. To copy part of a...
Hello, While waiting for the SMC to get a little higher for some OIII data, I did a little luminance channel fun shot over on good old Rho Oph. Always a fun...
I don't think gear errors would be that big a deal, particularly if you were willing to make your own encoders (which both Meade and Celestron do now). A...
Are their other unannounced mounts that I'm not aware of? The Chronos mount gets more precision by having 3 gears engaged simultaneously. The AP El Capitan...
Hi Jim, Another great image. I'm with you on the less-is-more thing though, in my case, it's a great way to hide my lack of photoshop skills :) Keep 'em...
Oh yeah I forgot to ask - was the framing/orientation intentional? The dark nebula looks like some sort of long-horned plains critter (springbok? antellope?)...
Hello Darren, The framing is intentional. One could mosaic this image, up down, left and right for a really spectactular result. Problem is this pesky,...
Hi John, In which case great job with the composition! Being a native of Melbourne I was pretty surprised that anybody would put up an observatory anywhere...
Hi Darren. Don't know that much about PS either, but I do seem to be dangerous with what I do know. Lots of subtleties in image processing, and no two images...
These are the pictures (plus some tutorial) of the total solar eclipse on August 1. Instead of trying to take high res pictures of the eclipse I instead...
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