# Test Day



## griz (Jan 9, 2006)

The Argo Navis pointing computer is on the truck. Getting nervous before testing out my DIY encoder solution. It should work right off the bat unless I have a misalignment on the reader wheel combo. Mr Murphy likes to live on my shoulder though so we'll see. The guy that makes the Argo's also does custom encoder installs so I have a back up if things go bad.

Worst case I'm out 35 bucks and I'll have to get the other axis. But its just taking me way too long to get something all framed and ready to image. I had it set up and polar aligned by 6 the other night and it was almost 10 before I was able to start a sequence. Much easier with the wider lenses but the 400 doesn't have a lot of FOV. Much after midnight and I turn into a pumpkin.

If it works I'll be 400 bucks ahead of buying a GM-8 with encoders 800 if you include the Argo. Or if it goes the other way and I have to buy the other axis I'm still ahead 100 bucks. And the mount is awesome. Tracks perfectly. 10 minutes the other night with just a polar align unguided. It will go more I just haven't needed any more yet.

If I get into narrowband to expand the color palette I'll need it for sure. If this works I can get all the clip in narrowbands and still be ahead on buying a full mount. I don't think I could carry a GM-8 out to the yard. I had a hard time 15 years ago. But my set-up is only 22lbs and its easy to grasp with that big tube.

I'm finding out the best imagers work on a target for days. The Argo will come in really handy for that as well so I can go back to the exact point I was at before and not end up loosing the edges when I restack with the new data.

I've been using nova.astrometry.net to do plate solves. Shoot a quick jpeg and upload it will solve it and tell you exactly where you are pointing. Maps out the other features in the image makes it easy to find the spot on the starmap and figure out where to go next. There is a version of it that will run on your computer but its unix. Supposed to be able to run it in Cygwin so I'm going to try and get it up and going that way. It comes in really handy when you start trying to do a panorama. I want to get the Heart and Soul nebulas for my first big project. It will take many nights they are huge and spread apart enough so its going to take a fairly large mosaic to get them both in the same pic. I wish the cellphone deal would have worked better. The granite out here does weird things to signals. Cell drop outs and such. The magnetic disturbance indication comes up all the time. Just didn't work out for me. So I hope the test works out today I have a lot of plans depending on getting the pointing sorted.

Stargazer & Rusty I'm going to be in Houston for 3 weeks starting Dec 17. You guys are pretty close to League City as I recall. I'm going to bring the rig with me. I have the best light pollution filter going and I did manage to get some images from my brother's house last time. So maybe we can get together one night if you guys want to play with the rig a bit. Moon goes down a few days before that so at least we won't have to deal with that. 
Bring your gear and get some snaps or use mine.

Once I get this figured out I want to rent some time on an internet robotic scope. A guy I met on Astrobin does all his images that way. Doesn't own any equipment. Its kinda pricy so I want to have the workflow down pat so I don't waste money before I try it out.

The guy that made this has been helping me out a lot. His stuff is amazing. Uses a 100mm Borg. You don't need a giant telescope to get amazing images.








http://www.astrobin.com/138556/B/

I could look at Astrobin all day. Roll over the images to get the map.

Griz


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## griz (Jan 9, 2006)

*Victory*

It went super smooth. Unpacked it plugged it in turned it on and it was all working. Didn't even have to change the sign on either of the encoders. So I'm all set up now no more hunting for objects half the night. You pick your object from its internal databases or you can send it from a planetarium program. It puts up the distance in az and alt and an arrow for the directions to move. You center those two readings and you are there. I have 12K line encoders so its very accurate. Less than the FOV of my biggest lens. Can't wait to get it out again. The only frustrating part so far is done and over with.










Pretty proud of it actually. I haven't built anything like this in years. Very satisfying when it all comes together.

Griz


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