Kevin,
Thanks for the info.

I'm not up and running on MEC yet -- I've got a Ouranos box ordered -
- but with SkyCommander, I've noticed the pointing error is off by
about the same amount 5 to 15 degrees, as if I slew thirty or forty
minutes across the sky or just hop a few degrees over from an S.C.
alignment star. That's with only the standard polar alignment -- no
drift alignment. I think this says more about encoder precision
(there's no apparent backlash in the encoder gearage) than anything
else. The standard Losmandy US digital endoders are 512 steps Xs four
quadrature, at a 2:1 gear ratio, giving 4096 ticks, but I'm
considering an upgrade to 1024 step encoders.



RB

--- In guide-user@y..., Kevin Cooper <kjcooper@t...> wrote:
>
>
> I have encoders with a 4320 count / revolution overall and after a
2 or
> 3 star alignment, and maybe some MEC, I usually can land an object
on my
> camera CCD with a field of view of 12 by 8 arc minutes. It may only
just
> on but can be seen. This is on a german equatorial mount. The
> theoretical resolution is 5 arc minutes
>
> Kevin Cooper
>
> Bill J Gray wrote:
>
> > Hi Robert,
> >
> > I've heard from one gent with 8192 count/revolution encoders
and a
> > Dob mount who, after a bit of playing with MEC, got pointing
> > accuracy of a few arcminutes. I dunno how well that represents
> > "general" accuracy, but I'd expect it to be about right. He
_did_
> > have to acquire a couple of dozen stars, as I recall.
> >
> > I suffer from a lack of data, because not many people have
> > actually used MEC. Give it a shot, and you'll see why: it's
> > ugly to use. Something I will be remedying...
> >
> >
> >