ASTRO: NGC 6946 - NGC6946_20090825_MJA.jpg (1/1)

that M33 looks excellent, Milton. I was intrigued by the equipment
configuration you are using. Looks to be all dialed in and working great!
You are definitely an excellent troubleshooter and very creative in your
solutions to get a decent performing system and at low cost. That is not
easy!

I also really enjoyed reading your comments on your page

Shame to see Calgary go down the "san francisco cesspool" of bums, hooker,
drugs and shootings..... I thought only we uncivilized yanks
permitted/nurtured/cultured such societal decay...

hats off to liberalism for totally ruining two formerly great countries!


"ergal_bush" wrote in message
...

In article , Richard
Crisp wrote:

Hi Richard;

that M33 looks excellent, Milton.

Thanks very much for the kind words. NGC 6946 was the toughest one
because the camera and OAG were nearly making contact with the legs on
the mount and in fact I had to throw out some of the color frames
because the top part of the camera cable "jammed" against the leg.

I solved my optics dewing issues (80 to 95% humidity) with a $15
heating pad that I wrap the top part of Carbon fiber scope tube with. I
set it to the lowest heat setting and this keeps the optics clear and
doesn't add any current turbulence during the summer. Well none
noticeable at above zero temperatures and at 1150 mm fl. At -40°C, at 4
meter focal lengths, the tube current turbulence generated by the pad
are interesting to watch, in a perverse sense. In fact putting your
hand in front of the scope to adjust collimation of the secondary at
-20°C creates amazing amounts of heat turbulence..

I was intrigued by the equipment
configuration you are using. Looks to be all dialed in and working great!
You are definitely an excellent troubleshooter and very creative in your
solutions to get a decent performing system and at low cost. That is not
easy!

No it isn't easy at all, but I have nearly all of my issues resolved,
except one.

The remaining one I have is the HEQ5 is just not good enough for
imaging at about 1.1 arc second. I've dismantled it, cleaned out and
replaced the synta black grease (turns to concrete at -20°C or colder)
and tweaked it as much as possible. What I can't really work around is
that at about 5 second intervals, there is a 1.5 to 3 arc second spike
"shift" due to the worm gear and brass main gearing. I can guide out
the broad PEC easily, but this jump up and back happens fast at less
than 1 second intervals. So the guiding software sees the +1 to + 3
pixel surge, corrects for it, but by then it's moved back into position
again, so we get an over correct which has to be corrected for. I have
saw tooth pattern of Ra corrections.

The only way I can reduce it is to back off the gear tension so that
the mount has about 30 arc seconds of back lash / slop on it and the
spike of this worm issue is reduced to about 1.5 arc seconds or lower.
Of course if you touch the mount to switch filters, well you have to
re-center things again and let the backlash get spooled up.


I also really enjoyed reading your comments on your page

Shame to see Calgary go down the "san francisco cesspool" of bums, hooker,
drugs and shootings..... I thought only we uncivilized yanks
permitted/nurtured/cultured such societal decay...

hats off to liberalism for totally ruining two formerly great countries!

Yes they certainly did. I've lived in the downtown core for 20+ years
through two Oil Booms and have never seen anything like this before,
but we had a good mayors and city council in those periods, not the
fools we have in now. When the money started drying up, the Crack
dealers started a turf war and began shooting the competition. About 10
dealers bought it within 6 blocks of where I lived in broad daylight,
so I pulled the pin and moved out to a new area. The mayor and the city
council just let it all happen until it was nearly over and then 4
years later start increasing the police force after the fact. With the
downturn in the economy and the Province increasing the Royalties the
O&G companies have to pay (which has driven them out of Alberta), all
the free money for "recreational drugs" is gone, so many of the crack
dealers have left for greener pastures, at least for now.

My next move will be likely south or east of Calgary by about a 1 to 2
hours to smaller communities.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle
http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/AstroIndex.html

Milton Aupperle wrote:
In article , Richard
Crisp wrote:

Hi Richard;

that M33 looks excellent, Milton.

Thanks very much for the kind words. NGC 6946 was the toughest one
because the camera and OAG were nearly making contact with the legs on
the mount and in fact I had to throw out some of the color frames
because the top part of the camera cable "jammed" against the leg.

I solved my optics dewing issues (80 to 95% humidity) with a $15
heating pad that I wrap the top part of Carbon fiber scope tube with. I
set it to the lowest heat setting and this keeps the optics clear and
doesn't add any current turbulence during the summer. Well none
noticeable at above zero temperatures and at 1150 mm fl. At -40°C, at 4
meter focal lengths, the tube current turbulence generated by the pad
are interesting to watch, in a perverse sense. In fact putting your
hand in front of the scope to adjust collimation of the secondary at
-20°C creates amazing amounts of heat turbulence..

I was intrigued by the equipment
configuration you are using. Looks to be all dialed in and working great!
You are definitely an excellent troubleshooter and very creative in your
solutions to get a decent performing system and at low cost. That is not
easy!

No it isn't easy at all, but I have nearly all of my issues resolved,
except one.

The remaining one I have is the HEQ5 is just not good enough for
imaging at about 1.1 arc second. I've dismantled it, cleaned out and
replaced the synta black grease (turns to concrete at -20°C or colder)
and tweaked it as much as possible. What I can't really work around is
that at about 5 second intervals, there is a 1.5 to 3 arc second spike
"shift" due to the worm gear and brass main gearing. I can guide out
the broad PEC easily, but this jump up and back happens fast at less
than 1 second intervals. So the guiding software sees the +1 to + 3
pixel surge, corrects for it, but by then it's moved back into position
again, so we get an over correct which has to be corrected for. I have
saw tooth pattern of Ra corrections.

The only way I can reduce it is to back off the gear tension so that
the mount has about 30 arc seconds of back lash / slop on it and the
spike of this worm issue is reduced to about 1.5 arc seconds or lower.
Of course if you touch the mount to switch filters, well you have to
re-center things again and let the backlash get spooled up.

I also really enjoyed reading your comments on your page

Shame to see Calgary go down the "san francisco cesspool" of bums, hooker,
drugs and shootings..... I thought only we uncivilized yanks
permitted/nurtured/cultured such societal decay...

hats off to liberalism for totally ruining two formerly great countries!

Yes they certainly did. I've lived in the downtown core for 20+ years
through two Oil Booms and have never seen anything like this before,
but we had a good mayors and city council in those periods, not the
fools we have in now. When the money started drying up, the Crack
dealers started a turf war and began shooting the competition. About 10
dealers bought it within 6 blocks of where I lived in broad daylight,
so I pulled the pin and moved out to a new area. The mayor and the city
council just let it all happen until it was nearly over and then 4
years later start increasing the police force after the fact. With the
downturn in the economy and the Province increasing the Royalties the
O&G companies have to pay (which has driven them out of Alberta), all
the free money for "recreational drugs" is gone, so many of the crack
dealers have left for greener pastures, at least for now.

My next move will be likely south or east of Calgary by about a 1 to 2
hours to smaller communities.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle
http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/AstroIndex.html

What grease are you using? I'm using Lubraplate on the Paramount and it
seems to work just fine at -40C but if there's something better I'll
make the change. Grease is not a subject I'm up on. My brother-in-law
recommended it for cold and seems to work fine. I do change it yearly
as the mount is used all night nearly every clear night.

Rick

In article , Rick
Johnson wrote:

-----------Snipped for Brevity

Hi Rick;

I found some low temperature Yellow Lithium grease at Canadian Tire.

It worked great at -44°C last winter (-55°C with windchill).

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle



What grease are you using? I'm using Lubraplate on the Paramount and it
seems to work just fine at -40C but if there's something better I'll
make the change. Grease is not a subject I'm up on. My brother-in-law
recommended it for cold and seems to work fine. I do change it yearly
as the mount is used all night nearly every clear night.

Rick