| Telescopes Homemade 6" reflector, classical Newtonian construction. The mount is a basic EQ6, with an MCU update from Anand Rajiva to provide GOTO capability and autoguiding. The software that allows the PC to control the scope was written by Doug Dieter. GOTO operation: The GOTO capability is amazingly accurate. Align the scope on a star in the constellation of interest and let the software know which star you have chosen. Instruct the PC to slew the scope to any object in the database and there it is - usually bang in the centre of the field of view. The guidescope is an inexpensive 80mm refractor. Tube rings used to attach scope to mount were made by Chris Livingstone. Contact Chris Livingstone |
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| The 'open' end. Crayford type focuser with 10:1 fine adjustment. (Newly acquired anti-dew heater wrapped around tube) |
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| Looking down the tube. The mirror was aluminised 22 years ago so shows a bit of grime, but the camera flash makes it look far worse than it is! |  |
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ST4 Autoguider The CCD head at the right sits in the small white telescope and is locked onto a guide star. Any deviation from perfect tracking causes corrections to be sent to the mount RA and DEC drive motors. Well, that's the theory! (This is no longer used, An off axis Lodestar guider is now the guiding option.) |
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| The 10" scope The mirror was made by me. Mirror cell, secondary spider and tube rings made by Chris Livingstone. |
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| Counterweight extension bar |  |
| Guidescope further forward - main scope can then move further back - more stable. |  |
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| Observatory I hope to have one of these set up fairly soon. Now done! See here |
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| What I want for Christmas... Click for video |  |
Astelco
mount Slewing speed 20°/sec Acceleration and Deceleration 20°/secē Absolute positioning accuracy < 5 arcsec RMS ("Full Sky Blind Pointing") Differential positioning accuracy < 1 arcsec RMS Tracking accuracy without autoguider < 1 arcsec / 120min Tracking accuracy with autoguider < 0.3 arcsec Zero periodic error |
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| Or
even better! video |
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ASA
Direct Drive mount High torque motors in RA and Dec. (Direct Drive without gears) Pointing < 5” RMS with pointing file Tracking precision < 0.25” RMS in 5 minutes Encoder resolution 0,02“ on the axis Moving speed 15°/sec. |
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| Santa Claus failed to deliver so I had to make a serious dent in the pension fund... |  |
See this section for details of my new toy. | ||