Re: LX200 12" GPS alignment problem
From: Chris L Peterson (clp_at_alumni.caltech.edu)
Date: 01/03/05
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Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 17:12:37 GMT
On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 09:24:28 +0000 (UTC), "Carl Wrightson"
<carl.wrightson@btinternet.com> wrote:
>I don't suppose anyone out there has come across this issue have they? I
>follow the instructions implicitly and once the alignment is complete (any
>option - 1 star, 2 stars, etc) and I choose go-to for an object such as one
>of the obvious planets so I know I've got the object correct (!) it points
>somewhere close (same area of the sky...just about) but not in the same
>field of view through the scope. The GPS location is set correctly and if I
>use manual alignment with known stars it is still wrong. Sometimes (not
>always), even the tracking/slew rate seems to be incorrect, and as I'm all
>geared up for astrophotography that kind if spells failure from the start.
I don't know about the GPS model, but the classic LX200 has never done a very
good job of hitting planets. You definitely can't use them for any kind of
accurate alignment. How does your scope do at hitting stars after you align it?
>Anybody got any ideas???? Any at all???!!! :-) Through my LPI I can get a
>decent image of Jupiter say, but it jumps a lot which I guess will make
>stacking the images pretty near impossible, or is there something with image
>processing software I can use to avoid this. I want to by the new Deep Space
>Imager but with longer exposures these problems will make my purchase
>worthless!
Well, you are at high magnification on a tiny chip, so you see every little
tracking error. The best solution is to put your scope on a wedge and use it
equatorially, so only one axis is tracking. This will also eliminate field
rotation, which makes stacking difficult (it is hard to detect a small amount of
field rotation in planetary images, unlike in images with star fields). If you
continue to operate in altaz mode, make sure you have the PEC trained on both
axes to minimize the amount of jumping around. You can have a lot of shifting
between frames and still get good stacking results.
_________________________________________________
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
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