From: Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@mac.com>

Date: March 6, 2009 10:24:02 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Rupes Recta

Hi Milton, with the CG-5 the moon had the mount going all the way to the west then slipping gradually of of reach. I couldn`t adjust it any further west! When I re-slewed it went to the eastern side of the mount. My PA is no good as usual. I had it OK by drift aligning some time ago & then my nephews shifted the scope to play cricket! Since then I`ve been waiting on upgrades Celestron are supposedly doing to GEM 4.15 to prevent slews to the opposite side of the meridian to that selected when doing alignments here in the southern hemisphere. GEM 4.15 has the new "All Star" alignment which should enable PA on any star in the "Named Star" list. I thought I`d try a simple Planetary Alignment on the moon! Mark.

On 07/03/2009, at 3:44 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:

Hi Mark;

On 6-Mar-09, at 4:37 AM, Mark Gaffney wrote:

Very nice, Milton! You must be pleased with the detail the Grasshopper

is giving.

A mono camera does pick up every pixel detail, but it was a very

turbulence free night.  Probably my one good night for the year.

With a color camera I'd have come close to these resolutions.

I've never imaged Rima Birt before either, my seeing has always been

too poor.

I was out trying to image the moon tonight & no sooner had

I got the exposure settings right for the Flea 2 & new Antares f6.3

reducer than the moon crossed the meridian & I had to re-slew to find

it.

Why is it doing that? Can you not turn that off in the options for

the mount / hand controller?

My HEQ5 never does that sort of thing, except if I use the GOTO and

then it may flip once it crosses the meridian.  If I use the normal

up/left/right/down controls on the handcontroller it slews as one

expects.

I really wish electronic manufacturers would not do this "flip over"

crap, or give us the option of deciding if it need "flip" when we

press GoTo.

Then suddenly there were clouds in the way..! Next week is

forecast as cloudy if not rainy but I might get another chance

tomorrow night if I`m on my toes! Mark.

Calgary clear for the next 24 hours, but it's snow and -23°C

temperatures until around wednesday.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle

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