Astrograph

Hi Nigel, Fancy meeting you here! The MLPT in Sequence is there if you want to image completely manually. So you pick your target etc, etc in Maxim and want to capture an image but use MLPT. This is how you do it. If you control your mount from Maxim then you can also add in dither. The limitation is you have to think about the practical limit of an MLPT run. In the winter when its cold all the time this can be quite long. At the moment with such a difference between day and night, the cooling down of the system will affect the accuracy toward the end of long MLPT runs.

As a dealer I will probably get into trouble for this but anyway..... I (and am sure other dealers) are just as frustrated about the locked in nature of MLPT. I sold a DDM85 for commercial applications 18 months ago based on its unguided abilities but despite this I now discover that commercial user is running the mount with ACP and a guide scope. Sad. I have chased questions of Sequence Run and the ability to integrate MLPT with other programs, particularly SGP but it falls on deaf ears. All I am told is 'we prefer to have our own solution'. The trouble with that is that by the time ASA have their own solution we will be old and grey and it will be limited and not developed enough. I pointed out to ASA that by the time the 'Revolution' concept actually appears it will be outdated. On board systems have been around for a while with the likes of Primaluces Eagle. As for polar alignment with built in cameras, QHY's Polemaster is the obvious one but I recently suggested a customer use Sharpcap (free) on a 50mm guider to get their DDM85 polar aligned quickly. It takes less than 5 minutes and is more than accurate enough to use MLPT. It works the same way as Polemaster. If you have a wide enough FOV you can even use the main scope and camera (if its supported). I think the bottom line is that ASA cannot make up their mind what they want to be. It is either a maker of big professional systems or amateur ones. At the moment it seems they prefer to take the big money. I can understand that but I would have thought that the need to integrate with third party software was an even bigger demand in the professional sector. Even ASA Sales are frustrated (like me) that the DDM60 has been discontinued. I also think that the people within ASA that have the final say have probably got so used to using in house software in a particular way they see no need to do anything. I experienced this 'blinkered' view myself when working for a manufacturer many years ago. Your view of a manufacturer, its products and whats needed when looking from the outside, is very different when your on the inside looking out. Personally I am resigned to using an ASA mount manually. Getting it going on a target with MLPT and letting it do its thing. Maxim allows dither as do SGP and Astro Photography Tool with ASA mounts. They all use PlateSolve now and that just adds to the frustration of having to spend money on Maxim (which I find a bit crude) and Pinpoint. I will be putting a DDM85 out in Spain with our hosting partner E-Eye in the next couple of months. It looks like I will be having some very long nights unless things change! If ASA did not make generally fabulous equipment I would have dropped them and their very odd ways years ago but we live in hope........

Dear All, I am a newcomer to the forums but have been an ASA dealer for sometime now. Personally I am not a lover of forums but this one seems semi-mandatory if just to pull as much information together about what experiences others are having with the software. As a dealer I approach things a little differently and rather than just sell off a list, make wild claims and then duck and weave when the 'it does not work' questions arrive, I actually use the stuff. If necessary I write a manual and usually i end up the proverbial pain is the backside moaning to the manufacturer. With ASA I keep a DDM60 for 'testing' and commenced my 'training' by getting Gerald at ASA to train me at the factory for a couple of days to at least get a grounding. What I can say as a dealer is that ASA would do an awful lot better in the market if they spent a few days consolidating the existing manuals into one manual and explained the mounts benefits in a clear and concise way. It seems they are incapable of doing this on any level. That much, as you have all commented on, is a severe weakness and leads to the very real public view that ASA mounts are complicated, difficult to use and don't work. I for one really struggled with this and it has taken a long while to get my mindset thinking the ASA way and not the normal way. This is half the battle. I even recently watched a technician at Astrocamp manually create a pointing file for polar and planetarium synchronisation that took hours. This is the normal mindset and had he been better informed would have realised this could have been done by Sequence in a few minutes. This is really a serious oversight on ASA's part as at least half the mounts at Astrocamp are ASA, so you would think the knowledge would be to a high level. Now I am fully on board with the ASA concept and a 'Getting Started' manual is in progress for my customers, because i am damn sure i am not going to leave it the hands of the manuals supplied! ASA had mentioned to me the 'handset' (which has clearly now become a tablet based system) way back. Infact, if memory serves, it was intended for early 2014. They also suggested to me options on how such an upgrade would be handled for existing customers as it was stated that electronics would be different. Up until the end of August last year it was still if, but's and maybes as to what would happen, but it showed that the were aware it would be an issue and was being considered. As to the current software it seems PK is still developing this as recent trouble I have had, which seems to be mostly related to how various applications are installed, has resulted in direct support from PK. Further discussions about how Sequence might be utilised by a corporate customer of ours for use with their software also suggested that development was ongoing. Therefore it does not sound like Autoslew / Sequence are due for the chop any time soon. Infact it is understood that one 'task' for ASA was to offer Linux support. However this may be a function of Ver 2.0. On the subject of Ver 2.0, the first I heard of it was this forum! ASA seem to play their cards very close to their chest and as many have discovered, the words 'support' and 'communication' are not well developed. I can only conclude with the information that I am aware of, that ASA are considering existing owners with regard to older product support and the existing software does seem to be subject to continuing development. A parallel product line may develop, I don't know. Certainly if the 'new' DDM60 version has all this extra 'crap' attached to it, it is likely to see a significant price increase surely. This would still leave a place for the existing model. As I placed an order for a DDM60 on Friday, after confirming the lead time was still normal, I will be asking some questions on Monday as to what the options are, as no doubt will my customer, because no information about replacements, new software etc was offered at the same time. I will keep you informed as to the story