GeorgeCarey

Welcome to the group Jim. I am sure you will love your new mount!

As all ASA DDM users know, when the motor currents rise too high errors can occur. It is difficult to scan hundreds of lines of the logfile to appreciate what the currents are doing, so I wrote an Excel spreadsheet to represent the data graphically. If there is interest in this, I can make the spreadsheet available.

The first Wiki example looks much nicer than the second. The adverts all over the second one are very off-putting.

Maxim is the software that will tell the mount to move around the sky. Pinpoint will plate solve each image but cannot tell the mount to move to the next location. So, sadly, you will have to get copies of each one if you want to use Sequence. A large pointing model is very tedious to make without Maxim and Pinpoint, but it is possible. When I started I used a DSLR and manually slewed to each star. I considered a 20 star model to be big. The problem was that it took so long to do that it was easy to make a mistake. Eventually I got Pinpoint and a 50 star model runs through in a fraction of the time. If you get the trial version of Pinpoint I think you get 30 days free use.

There was an ASA scope and mount on the Astrograph stand. I talked with Rupert Smith who says that Astrograph will be the UK agents for ASA. This is good news!

The IAS show is this weekend. Will ASA be represented?

Yes, mount collimation is where the scope is misaligned on the mount plate. Some thin metal shims would do the trick. However, if you are taking the scope off the mount on a mobile setup it probably will be different each time. There is a way to check mount collimation which is something like.... Clear configuration so you are not using a pointing model. Align on a star DEC close to zero and on the meridian. Sync on the star. Slew the scope to the opposite side of the pier. Do a goto to the star. If the mount goes to the star without doing a meridian switch then you will find the star to be off centre in RA, but centred in DEC. This is due to the collimation error.

Your polar alignment could be better. The values at the left are -9.64 and 28.97 which is the raw polar error. Try to get it down to about 2 arc minutes or better. The values on the right are the best values Autoslew can come up with after trying to compensate for all the errors. 'Collimation' here is the mount/telescope collimation error. The axis of your telescope is tilted 10.32 arcminutes relative to the mounting plate. If you lift the front end of the scope up a bit it could be improved, but it is not essential.

Excellent news! Enjoy the mount. George

I am going to take a guess and say - no. It will depend on how the beta version stores it's data files. If it calls them the same as the other version then each Autoslew would access the same files. Maybe an expert could partition the hard drive or something clever?

When you made the new pointing file, did you clear the old configuration before you started?

Page 7 of the ddm85 manual has a good diagram and instructions on how to connect the power. The socket labelled 'DC IN' is the power input socket. The red banana plug should be connected to positive, the black one to negative. Before sending the mount back to ASA check with a meter if power is actually getting to the pins of the power plug that fit the DC IN socket. Maybe the lead is faulty?

Good to hear that you have found the problem!

Have you tried using a different computer? Perhaps it would be a good test to try.

Brownout?

I see there are still some places available at the Midlands International Astronomy Show. How about ASA setting up a full stand? http://www.ukastroshow.com/vendors/

I would like an ultra-portable DDM mount. For my feeble constitution the DDM60 is too heavy for portable use. I would like a small mount that could take an 80mm refractor with DSLR for taking to dark sites. I suspect that getting encoders much smaller than those in the DDM60 might be a problem. George

What a shame, I am recovering from an operation and can't go.

As Jay says, the encoders in 60 and 85 now work in the same way. I believe that the resolution in the 85 is slightly better than in the 60, presumably because the diameter of the encoders are bigger. There is a difference in polar alignment between the two mounts. The 85 has a traditional azimuth, altitude system, but the 60 has a unique centre point tip, tilt arrangement.

I have not used the Advanced pointing control so I cannot help there. However, a POI file contains all the data from your pointing model, such as where stars were and what the true coordinates were. A cfg file will store other data such as whether you have a joystick connected, what your slew limits are etc. George

I thought I had discovered a nova in M31 this morning. Unfortunately I was beaten to it by the Palomar Transient Factory. Scroll down this page for the details: http://geoastro.co.uk/january2014.htm However, it shows that such discoveries are well with reach of the amateur!

I know how to do simple photometry, but I don't know how to take observations that will contribute to science.

I used 7 reference stars as provided by AAVSO. They are in the table as Ref1 etc.

There are a few clear spells. I managed to get some photometry for the Supernova. The magnitude is pretty close to 11

Struggling with cloud, but here is a single 5 minute frame: