Posts Made By: James Benton

John, also look at this item

http://www.astronomics.com/main/product.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/PQ313TMBA7TB8NA552K939EQ07/product_id/MBCA

James

very nice steve. I never would have though of doing this. thanks for the great idea.

James

I am not sure of your exact set up, but the meade systems in general are not perfect. Once you figure out the little quirks with meade systems then set up only takes a few minutes.

set up scope as normal (per manual). Im not sure about the date thing as it should set the time based on the GPS inputs.

when you are doing the alignment and the scope moves to the first star it will be off, it could be WAY off, no worries, you have to move the scope over to the star and sync on the star. On the autostar #497 (which I have) you do this by holding the enter key on the control pad for about 2 seconds oror until you hear it BEEEEP at you. then you manually move the scope using the key pad to center the star. you hit the enter key again to "sync". this tells the controller where that star is. then you follow the steps to align on the second star and follow the same steps as above to get the second star synced.

once both stars have been "sync'd" your scope know where it is at and where the objects are. your goto's should be fairly accurate now, but not completely. you may still have to adjust the scope a little to get the star centered in the eye piece. when you goto and object onthe opposite side of the sky the goto's may get out of wack and the scope might be way off, but just sync on the object and that part of the sky should be good.

also during your set up you should perform the test motors, and calibrate drives (train drives) before you begin your alignment. this can be done during the day and is actually easier to do in the day. just pick a distant object like a light pole or building or tree.

James

which controller do you have? I know with my old LX-90 and the autostar #497 there was a procedure to be able to track the sun. you had to add a comet to the autostar user objects (or something like that) that had the coordinates of being directly behind the sun. you could do a 2 star alignment during the day, then tell it to goto your "comet" and it would get over to the sun (well pretty close) then you just recenter and sync and it would track it very well

I think I found this over on the mpaug user group or at weasners Mighty ETX site
http://www.weasner.com/

James

Cool, thanks for the info

also if you type in Area 51 in Google earth it will show you that location as well 8O

James

wondering if the cord may have gotten damaged or the handbox it self. I know someone sells a repair kit for worn out keypads on the hand box, but just dont know if the whole thing is damaged or not.

also there is a link some where on how to build your own cable if you have the tools. if not and you know someone with the tools ask them to build it per the pin out

http://members.aol.com/kewtasheck/pinouts.html

James

I got a $29 rolling tool box at Lowes to put my 8" LX200 ATO in. I just cut the shipping foam to fit in side the tool box and it works wonderfully.

James

i read a link someone posted here a while back comparing the canon's Vs. the nikons with each ISO setting and exposure length. wish i could find than link, it had some good data in it.

the stock (not modified for astrophotography) canon cameras performed better than the nikons.

i shoot canon and Im still trying to get results at astro photos.

for my 20d I have the canon batter grip. this allows you to use 2 batteries at 1 time and i have done about 45 minutes of total exposure time in 1 night with plenty of battery power left.

also there is the canon AC power adapter which you could power from a 12v battery pack with adapters is AC power is not available.

canon also has a timer remote that i have. you can configure it to take as many shots as you want for any length of time and have it pause for any amount of time between exposures. or you could control the camera with your PC / laptop with the USB cable and the canon capture software.

canon does have a wireless remote shutter release, but its about $500.

nikon does have a wireless remote option(ir?) in which you can get one for a few bucks off ebay


now the big question...... what film camera have you been using? If nikon, all of your Nikon glass will work on any nikon DSLR.

if canon camera it has to be an EF mount for them to work on the canon DSLR's

James