Ad Astra Observatory

In an astrophotography rig, the mount is the center of attention. It is the clock upon which the telescope sits, like a big hour hand.

Since I have a drift problem, I needed to gather some data about how the whole rig is tracking, which will hopefully give me some info about what needs fixing.

I used PemPro2 to watch a particular star as the mount tracks the sky. Each photo is a data point, each point is tracked in a graph, each cycle of the mount’s main gear in a different color, all overlayed atop one another.

I tried to grab 10 full worm cycles, but what with one thing and another, I think I got about 5 solid ones.

Everything is so broken that I can’t even test it correctly. I used to be good at this. Sigh.

Anyway, I sent the data I had to The Jedi, and perhaps it will be of use. Tomorrow is for analysis. For now, I sleep.