22.11.18

Mounting: Return to Goto norm?

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Thursday: I decided to try again with Cartes-Du-Ciel and noticed that Com1 was chosen instead of Com 3. So I changed it to Com 3 and slews began immediately. For some reason AWR thinks my telescope is upside down on the mounting and this information is being passed onto C-Du-C.  Syncing on Polaris did not help the cause and the telescope ran backwards to a target in the West instead of the East.

So I lifted the telescope off the mounting, with the new pulley hoist and reversed the cradle. The best attachment point for the hoist on the folded refractor has yet to be established. I shall get back to it after a pause for lunch.

Inverting the cradle worked after a Sync on Polaris and confirming. C-Du-C doesn't always register a Sync on a target object. Though it was interesting to see how it went the long way around to ensure the telescope was on the correct side of the pier and the right way up after a long Goto slew. Not such a problem with a refractor but a reflector would really hate to be inverted!

I deliberately and repeatedly chose opposite horizons to see how the Gotos would cope in getting to the new target. C-Du_C now thinks the telescope is the right way up on the cradle. I found a telescope inversion setting in C-Du-C last time but can't find it now despite endless searching. I can't be certain, but it seems Goto slews in C-Du-C are even slower than IH2 handset button slews. I measured roughly four minutes for 90° before I got bored with counting aloud. One thousand, two.. Retried a Dec slew with a real clock sitting on the desk. Two minutes for slightly more than 90°.


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