Re: [guide-user] Two scope-related questions/answers

Bernd Brinkmann Nov 14, 2002

Hello Bill,

> Pat Madden asked about having Guide set up to track asteroids.
> (And, by extension, other moving objects: comets, planets, the
> moon, artificial satellites.) Strikes me as a good idea, but I have
> no real idea how to do it. The straightforward thing to do would be to
> send RA/dec commands from time to time, but it's hard to get any sort
> of smooth motion in that manner.
>
> Somewhat more critically, the LX-200 protocol only allows you
> to specify RA to the nearest RA second (15 arcseconds).

That information is new to me.
>
> I _have_ heard of software that does a decent job of tracking by
> sending directional slew commands ("set the following guiding/slew
> rate... move left... move up... stop..."), all timed so that the
> overall motion will be passably close to that of the target object.
> Dunno how well this works, and don't remember any details. Anybody
> know what I'm talking about?

Yes, Bill I know very well what you are talking about. As a comet
photographer I have this problem too. I have a new GOTO GEM from
AstroOptik Kohler, Swiss (WAM 350) which has included the FS-2, a
very popular telescope drive unit here in Germany (see
http://www.astro-electronic.de/ or direct link
http://www.astro-electronic.de/fs2.htm).

There you have the possibility to enter two numbers for the movement
of the object in RA and Decl. and the mount will follow it by changing
the frequences of the motors. But the units are rather unconvenient:
Minutes of time per day for RA and minutes of arc per day in Decl.

So my great wish to you Bill: Would it be possible to add a line in the
"more info" window where you convert the movement units from
position angle and speed of apparent motion to the units I mentioned
above?

Thanks in advance
Bernd, who will be off line for one week to observe the Leonids from
Spain


Bernd Brinkmann
Herne, Germany

http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Bernd.A.Brinkmann/index.html