Posts Made By: Roland Christen

You're brave to be out in this cold.

Rolando

Fine shot!

Rolando

I have interferograms that go back to late '94.

Rolando

>>so if the cold should make the clutches "more sticky" and at the same time cause binding in the gears,>>

You have the wrong idea about how clutches work. I have been fighting this for years - people think a loose clutch takes the strain off the drive gears and a tight clutch increases strain. I guess it is a losing battle. Clutches just simply do not work that way.

let's see if I can once and for all explain how they really do work. Imaging that the Dec axis is just a simple motor driven gear. You cannot turn the axis because the very high reduction of the gear set prevents you from driving it backwards. Only the motor can drive it. So if you attach a telescope directly to this axis, you cannot push the scope by hand - the high gear reduction prevents turning it backwards. You have basically a clutchless system that cannot be moved by hand.

So now enter a clutch. How does it do it's thing? Well, instead of bolting the telescope directly to the axis, you first add a "lazy susan" type of rotating mechanism to which you attach the telescope. Now you can rotate the telescope to your heart's content by hand, and this mode would be called "clutches loose" mode. The clock motor sees no difference in load between this "loosened clutch" mode and the previous directly bolted scope mode. So, then how do we tighten the clutches of this "lazy susan" mechanism so the scope does not spin freely in the wind? We basically add some kind of friction material that can be tightened - this is now the clutch. This allows us to bind the telescope tightly to the axis - BUT importantly we have not changed the load on the clock motor even one molecule when we tighten this "clutch".

Yes? No? Maybe? Too confusing still?

Rolando

My Roush Mustango is waiting to chomp on it! Come BMW, make my day, hahaha... 8)

Rolando

You won't notice 87%. That is not the reason to get a dielectric.

Dielectrics are cleanable without developing micro scratches, which degrade planetary contrast. If you never look at the planets, you won't see much or any difference on deep sky objects.

Rolando

I shoot from Rockford, Illinois, which is close to the Wisconsin border. You can look thru these deep sky images, which were shot from here using between 1000mm to 22,000mm focal length:

http://geogdata.csun.edu/~voltaire/roland/

I normally achieve 2 arc sec FWHM or better resolution here, and at times during the summer and fall as low as 1.2 arc sec FWHM resolution.

Rolando

For your info: AP 1200 mount being tested by French dealer with scopes mounted side by side:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBf2T36vq0w

Rolando

Great composition.

Rolando

Beautiful photos. I was there on a nice warm November day last year after attending the AIC conference. Great place. We got there just before closing time and got in for free.

Rolando