From: "James Lerch" 
To: , ,

Reply-To: "James Lerch" 


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Krajci" 

> You still rely on a non-flexing mount that points/tracks accurately.  No
> such thing as a free lunch.  For good imaging performance (no matter
> what mount type), you need a well-performing mount/drive system.
> Without it...you're hosed, and software will not help very much, if at
> all.
>
> Beware the hi-tech 'chaser of warm biscuits'....the type who never grabs
> the biscuit sitting on the table...because some other technical solution
> is 'in the oven'...with the implied promise that "when it comes out of
> the oven, it'll be the *best* biscuit you ever had!"
>
> This high-tech biscuit chaser will never finish chasing.  His existing
> technology will never mature or be honed to high performance.  He's too
> busy chasing the biscuit 'in the oven'...and we all know that 'tomorrow
> never arrives.'

Hi Tom,

For the record, I bake most of my own biscuits :)  So far only one batch
failed to produce sustenance, my Schwarzschild Scope project.  The
Schwarzschild project failed because I couldn't coerce an 11.5" F/7
into a hyperbolic surface with a b = -11.5, and it wasn't for lack of
trying! 

> You can't polar align?  Identify the problems and fix them.

Easier said than done in my case...  I was using the drift method of polar
aligning, and while I couldn't see any drift over 30 mins or so, the drift
was still there, but only revealed itself over the course of several hours!

> CCD is limited to 30 seconds?  Identify the problems and fix them.

Easy, NEED MORE MONEY  I am currently limited to modified Web Cams
and a Sony
Digital Camera for astro-imaging.  30 second exposures can still capture a
lot of sky, especially when stacking a few hundred images..

I'd rather build something to work with what I already have, then to buy a new
$$ CCD imager and a proper mount to go with it.

> Eyepiece has pincushion distortion?  Get a better eyepiece.

I'd rather make my mount work with what I already own...

> Tired of manually rotating images for a stack?  Get software that can do
> it.

True, If pin-cushion and drift weren't a problem.

> None of these are hi-tech problems, and I bet they don't require high
> tech solutions.
>
> Your results will dramatically improve without resorting to new
> technical approaches.

You are correct, but your implying the goal is simply to take astro-images.
Honestly my goal is to BUILD something to take astro-images.  If that
something utilizes a new technical approach, all the better!

James

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