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HaleBopper
sage
Reged: 01/14/08
Posts: 261
Loc: Great White North
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Hi all,
I'm just curious. Is there really a big advantage in calibrating the CG5 mount, other than better pointing accuracy? I have never done it and my gotos are quite good. I'm wondering if it's worth it. Does it help for astrophotography purposes?
Thanks.
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8" SCT CG5 mount
Canon Digital Rebel 400
Kodak Easyshare 2.0 Megapixels
5, 8, 13, 17, 21, 24mm Orion Stratus
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rmollise
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 1660
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Quote:
Hi all,
I'm just curious. Is there really a big advantage in calibrating the CG5 mount, other than better pointing accuracy? I have never done it and my gotos are quite good. I'm wondering if it's worth it. Does it help for astrophotography purposes?
Thanks.
You mean adding calibration stars? All it does is improve go-to accuracy by correcting for cone alignment (mechanical alignment) errors. Well, almost. One thing it can do to aid astrophotography is make the built-in polar alignment routine a bit more accurate.
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Uncle Rod
Watch for Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT--coming in December!
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HaleBopper
sage
Reged: 01/14/08
Posts: 261
Loc: Great White North
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No no, I do that. I'm referring to the "calibrate mount" feature in the utilities section of my Celestron HC.
By the way, I really enjoy reading your write-ups!
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8" SCT CG5 mount
Canon Digital Rebel 400
Kodak Easyshare 2.0 Megapixels
5, 8, 13, 17, 21, 24mm Orion Stratus
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rmollise
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 1660
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Quote:
No no, I do that. I'm referring to the "calibrate mount" feature in the utilities section of my Celestron HC.
By the way, I really enjoy reading your write-ups!
Thanks! As for Calibrate Mount, yeah, now I know what you are talkin' about. I have never fooled with it.
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Uncle Rod
Watch for Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT--coming in December!
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Eddgie
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/01/06
Posts: 1739
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Are you sure that it is "Calibrate Mount?" Or does it say "Calibrate Go-to"
Meade has a "Calibrate" function that compensates for endoder and alignment issues. It can affect pointing a bit, but not generally a great deal. They also had a "Calibrate Motor" function.. The purpose of this was to figure out how much slop was in the gears.. The idea was that if you used for example the RA button to back up when using slow speeds, rather than slowly creep up on the point where the gears start contacting each other, the controller would briefully spead up for just long enough to take up the slack.
The "Calibrate Go-to" in the Celestron mount basically just tries to compensate for imbalance. It basically just checks to see if the load causes the mount to make its final apprach slow in one direction, it will simply attempt to speed it us so that the final slew doesn't take so long if you ARE off balance badly.
In the Meade, the "Calibrate Mount" function did (if I remember correctly) slightly improve pointing.
The "Calibrate Go-To" in the Celestron does not improve pointing (it was not intended to).
Regards.
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Celestron C14, CGE (Big Al)
Astro-Physics 6" f/8 (Buffy)
Televue 101 (No name, but I call it my Widescreen HD Space TV)
The night sky is my mistress. She seduces me away from all other lovers.
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HaleBopper
sage
Reged: 01/14/08
Posts: 261
Loc: Great White North
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I think your explanation pretty much covers what the manual states. I was just curious how important it was or if it made a difference.
For the record, under the utilities section there is a "calibrate mount" feature. If it's selected then there are 2 choices: R.A. Index calibration, and GoTo Calibration.
The RA index is supposed to improve pointing accuracy while the GoTo is supposed to be useful when attaching heavy visual or photographic accessories.
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8" SCT CG5 mount
Canon Digital Rebel 400
Kodak Easyshare 2.0 Megapixels
5, 8, 13, 17, 21, 24mm Orion Stratus
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Eddgie
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/01/06
Posts: 1739
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I am not positive, but I think that these calibrate functions is more to remove backlash. As I recall, the purpose is to advance the motor quickly when you change direction. For example if you are driving at 4x and you use the hand controller to go East, the Calibrate function is used to determine how much the motor has to turn before all the slack is taken out.. It runs the motor at a higher speed until that happens, then slows down to the 4x (or whatever) speed.
Not sure that it will greatly improve pointing though.
Sorry.. I guess I have just owned too many mounts and it is all jumbling up in my head...
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Celestron C14, CGE (Big Al)
Astro-Physics 6" f/8 (Buffy)
Televue 101 (No name, but I call it my Widescreen HD Space TV)
The night sky is my mistress. She seduces me away from all other lovers.
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