wedge first light

Last week, my Meade Ultra Wedge arrived. I practised during the daytime installing the scope on
the wedge, removing it again etc. worked fine, although putting the lx200 on the wedge the
first time was a bit scaring.

Last night, I tried polar alignment, which turned out to be pretty difficult. Even putting the
sope in polar home position was tough, but after some attempts that was ok. I then did the
"easy align" option in autostar2. The scope slewed to polaris, which I centered by using the
wedge controls. Then the scope slewed to Vega, which I centered with the keypad.
Goto was not good at all though, so I did the whole thing again, resulting a spot on goto.

I then tried some 30second exposures on M57 and noticed very little field rotation, although it
still showed a little bit on some exposures. I also noticed that some images had tracking
errors. I already knwe that in alt/az my mount has these, unfortunately in polar as well. I
need to train the drives I think.

Setting up takes a lot more time than setting up in alt/az
I need better polar alignment, even for 30s exposures
I need to train the drives to remove periodic error

This morning, when I told my wife about this, she said "I thought a wedge would improve
things!".
:-)

--
Martijn (astro-at-pff-software.nl)
10" LX200GPS-SMT
ETX105
www.xs4all.nl/~martlian

md wrote:
Last week, my Meade Ultra Wedge arrived. I practised during the daytime installing the scope on
the wedge, removing it again etc. worked fine, although putting the lx200 on the wedge the
first time was a bit scaring.

Last night, I tried polar alignment, which turned out to be pretty difficult.

There is a learning curve to this. Once you get familar with the process
its actually quite easy.

Even putting the
sope in polar home position was tough, but after some attempts that was ok. I then did the
"easy align" option in autostar2. The scope slewed to polaris, which I centered by using the
wedge controls. Then the scope slewed to Vega, which I centered with the keypad.
Goto was not good at all though, so I did the whole thing again, resulting a spot on goto.

You might want to elaborate on how you polar aligned ? I would suggest
drift aligning the scope. Lots of information on how to do this is
available on the internet. Google it up.


I then tried some 30second exposures on M57 and noticed very little field rotation, although it
still showed a little bit on some exposures.

They say God is in the details .....A 30 sec exposure should not show
*any* field rotation unless you are not polar aligned very well. But
most importantly .... all images of the same object of the same duration
should show equal field rotation. You are suggesting that this is not
the case and that does not compute.

I also noticed that some images had tracking
errors. I already knwe that in alt/az my mount has these, unfortunately in polar as well. I
need to train the drives I think.

The Meades typically do not track very well and PEC is necessary.


Setting up takes a lot more time than setting up in alt/az

If you mean polar aligning then yes.

I need better polar alignment, even for 30s exposures
I need to train the drives to remove periodic error

This morning, when I told my wife about this, she said "I thought a wedge would improve
things!".

Welcome to Astrophotography The wedge will make thngs easier. But it
also requires new skills in order to achieve those results. Keep after
it and I'm sure you will see huge improvement.


Regards

Bill



--

William R. Mattil : http://www.celestial-images.com

I then tried some 30second exposures on M57 and noticed very little field rotation, although it
still showed a little bit on some exposures. I also noticed that some images had tracking
errors. I already knwe that in alt/az my mount has these, unfortunately in polar as well. I
need to train the drives I think.


Hi:

This was not due to "field rotation" per se, but due to inaccurate
polar alignment. If you didn't do a drift alignment, you'll have some
declination drift.

Also, while the Meade tracks quite well, you might consider doing a PEC
recording, as you'll occasionally get a trailed 30 second frame due to
periodic error. You might also try shooting at f/3.3 or 6.3, as this
makes tracking/guiding much less critical.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further info

For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/

"William R. Mattil" wrote in message
...
md wrote:

They say God is in the details .....A 30 sec exposure should not show
*any* field rotation unless you are not polar aligned very well. But
most importantly .... all images of the same object of the same duration
should show equal field rotation. You are suggesting that this is not
the case and that does not compute.

I think my T-adapter may be slipping a bit, today I noticed that the ring and the t-adapter
seem a bit loose. I need to fix that.


--
Martijn (astro-at-pff-software.nl)
10" LX200GPS-SMT
ETX105
www.xs4all.nl/~martlian

"RMOLLISE" wrote in message
oups.com...

I then tried some 30second exposures on M57 and noticed very little field rotation,
although it
still showed a little bit on some exposures. I also noticed that some images had tracking
errors. I already knwe that in alt/az my mount has these, unfortunately in polar as well. I
need to train the drives I think.


Hi:

This was not due to "field rotation" per se, but due to inaccurate
polar alignment. If you didn't do a drift alignment, you'll have some
declination drift.

I didn't do a declination drift, only an "easy align" through autostar. The EOS350D has a large
chip and the drift is only barely visible at the edges, so I am quite content.

Also, while the Meade tracks quite well, you might consider doing a PEC
recording, as you'll occasionally get a trailed 30 second frame due to
periodic error. You might also try shooting at f/3.3 or 6.3, as this
makes tracking/guiding much less critical.

I was shooting at f/6.3 and I agree: much easier than f/10. Also shows more when shooting only
30sec. I am waiting for my remote control to arrive, then I can try longer exposures.

--
Martijn (astro-at-pff-software.nl)
10" LX200GPS-SMT
ETX105
www.xs4all.nl/~martlian

"md" not given to avoid spam wrote in message
...

"RMOLLISE" wrote in message
oups.com...

I then tried some 30second exposures on M57 and noticed very little field rotation,
although it
still showed a little bit on some exposures. I also noticed that some images had tracking
errors. I already knwe that in alt/az my mount has these, unfortunately in polar as well.
I
need to train the drives I think.


Hi:

This was not due to "field rotation" per se, but due to inaccurate
polar alignment. If you didn't do a drift alignment, you'll have some
declination drift.

I didn't do a declination drift, only an "easy align" through autostar.

I mean "drift align", haha.