Posts Made By: Alex McConahay

What do you mean by "remote operations?" I am assuming you mean you will have a permanently established observatory in a remote location that you will operate from home.

Assuming that, I do not see how you can practically align from home. The scope, being permanently established, should already be set up and dialed in such that just turning it on, it knows where it is and where it is "parked." YOu send it to the first star, and the star really should be in (at least close to) the center of the chip. If it is not, you have not set the mount/scope up right.

I am assuming if you are contemplating remote observatory operation, you have thought about plate solving software. Pinpoint, or other software, will allow you to slew to an object, take a picture, figure out exactly where your scope is pointed, and then correct the pointing. If this won't work (because you are too far off, your equipment is not accurate enough, etc.....) then I doubt just putting a webcam behind a telrad would help much.

Alex

People have been using the second method (mounting bar bolted to the tube) for years, and it has no drawbacks that I know of. You will need "radius blocks" or a bar shaped such to mate to the curve of the tube. (The round tube does not mate directly to a flat bar.) Otherwise, just mount away.

Alex

Lindy,

YOu have to name a piece of equipment that Anacortes sells. When you get to the part that asks the equipment, you must search their catalog and determine what they sell that you used.

Have you done that?
(I did not find Nikon camera or 200 mm lens in their catalog)
Alex

See the little boxes at the left?

See "My Account" (third bos down)

Click on "My Profile"

Does that do what you want?

Alex

Yes....If it is listed on Astromart Terms of Service:

See item "h" below. And just for the heck of it, we should all probably read the whole list every now and then---so here it is:

Alex

15.2. Astromart also prohibits the listing or sale of the following goods for any reason, including but not limited to any item that is illegal to sell under any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation:
(a) Food (other than packaged food meeting all applicable federal, state and local standards for sale to consumers by commercial merchants).
(b) Pharmaceuticals or any other controlled substance.
(c) Dangerous, counterfeit or stolen goods.
(d) Goods which do not actually exist.
(e) Any good that infringes or violates anyone’s rights.
(f) Any goods or services that violate the terms of Section 4, above.
(g) Any item which in Astromart’s™ sole discretion is inflammatory, offensive or otherwise inconsistent with Astromart’s standards of business ethics.
(h) Any item/s that are placed on any other site for sale at the same time it is offered on AstroMart™.
(i) You may not sell anything you do not own
(j) You may not sell any 3rd party items - no selling for friends or family or organizations
ANY violations can and most likely will result in the deletion of your account including ratings.

I am not having any problems. Try telling the Firewall that Astromart is okay....

Alex

Louis,

If that is a typical day--I'd say solar is not a good choice....too many clouds.

I am sure solar can be done, but you would need lots of batteries, etc. to assure good power through the night with computers, power to the dome, etc.

Alex

400, 800, speed film is a bit more sensitive. I think there is a sign that 400 is Okay, but I would not trust it if you need absolutely clean film. It would be better to have it hand inspected. It would probably be okay for most purposes to just let it go through, but just to be safe, hand it to the folks at the check-in.

Alex

Very nicely done, Mike. I hope to get that good someday.

Alex

I do not have much experience with dew, but keep an old hair dryer out in the observatory just in case.

I would avoid any capping of a wet scope.

Alex