pauloastro

Hi Luke, The ASA wynne corrector really have a small back focus distance. This would be a nice think for ASA to change on a near future. But in your case I would study the possibility of using a non ASA corrector. Teleskop Service have a 2,5'' Wynne corrector that could be used with the G3-16200 with a backfocus position of 70mm, or even a the TS Wynne corrector by Massimo Riccardi with 65mm of backfocus. Orion Optics could also be an option with their 3'' Wynne corrector with 70mm of backfocus. Best Regards, Paulo.

Hello every one, After re-collimating my GSO 200F4 telescope I had to make a new pointing file. Using the same 4 star at same dec. to quickly polar align, and using my camera pixel scale method (described on last post), after 3 iterations i get a precision on both axis less that 2 arc min. All this on the Est side of the pier. Doing a new pointing file with 18 star, and using a normal optimisation for PA I get the incredible result of ZERO arc min in both axis for the PA error. Is this possible? But after adding some more stars on the west side of the pier the error get bigger, for around 3 arc min on both axis. Best regards, Paulo.

Hello, After autoslew calculates the azimut and altitude error of the mount/telescope I point to any star that suits me (but the best position is near de south meridian and with Dec=0º) and using my camera pixels as a scale I move the centered star the correct amount of minutes given by autoslew using the mount adjustment screws. After this I restart a new pointing file. The cons. in this method are that you have to know your pixel scale and use some spreadsheet for help you convert the autoslew errors in arc minutes into pixeis of you camera. After using the automatic pointing star in autoslew I found that this method converged more quickly for me for finding the celestial pole than the one used by autoslew (in teory I think that they are the same method). And this work with any star on the sky. Of course I don't recommend to use Polaris for this, but any other star can be used. But the more close to the south meridian and the Declination near 0º the more precision you have in pointing in the right direction. Paulo. ,

Thank you all for your comments. I really simplified too much my point of view about this. The thing is: Sequense is a mount especific program, you can't use it with any other software besides autoslew. No doubts here. Sequense needs a image from the sky (obtained with maxim), and needs to convert the image center to celestial coordinates (obtained with pinpoint). (So far I never used Sequense, this is based on what I had read about it.) I understand that ASA was too lazy to reinvent the wheel and used two existing software tools to do part of the Sequence work. That's ok. But from a user perspective: why should I buy those two great software packages just to use Sequense? That is for me, like an ASA mount user, what doesn't make much sense. For some users this could make sense because ASA says so... Why not have some alternative solution for using Sequence? This is my point here.. Including those specific software solutions into asa mount software, like most of you agree, it really isn't the best solution, unless ASA could get a simplified version of those software that only worked with sequense.. So we could have: Automated solution: have Maxim and Pinpoint or OTHER alternatives.. Manual solution: why not give a manual pointing file for the area of interest to Sequense? :-) Thanks for the attention,

I own a DDM60 mount but If I what to use Sequense or the MLPT software I can't, because I haven't MaximDL or PinPoint software... This doesn't make any sense... So, for the time being I just have a expensive mount with very low PE... Its very difficult to find the perfect telescope for this type of mount to use without an autoguider... I think it was a good idea to rethink your software philosophy... :-) Or improve AutoSlew with all the Sequence functionality... Best regards, Paulo.

Hello Cristina, As far as I know you are correct. I'am having the same problem with my newton not just going west with telescope on the west side as going est with telescope on est side.. you can take a look on the topic Setting ddm60 est limit? Best regards, Paulo.

Hello Ian, I am using C2A (Computer Aided Astronomy) (http://www.astrosurf.com/c2a/english/) as a planetarium software. It looks like TheSky, but is more light to use on a EEE laptop and is freeware... I have used previously TheSky 6 and skymap11... and I'm never pleased! There is always a new software to try.. best regads, Paulo.