On Wed, Oct 9, 2024 at 11:21 PM, Peter Betts wrote:
hello to the group, being a new comer to the titan mount i was wondering if i can nudge the scope by hand when RAandDEC locks are on. would i be doing damage with a slight nudge to manualy center an object? many thanks.
Hi Peter, welcome to the group!
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The mount is configured with slip-disk clutches intended specifically for such a push-to, manual operation. You're not going to hurt the mount, just don't crank down on the clutches with all your might as the tighter you make them, the more friction there is between the axis and the worm-wheel, and that makes it harder for the clutches to slip.
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If you use a Gemini controller, you can use the hand controller buttons to do all the nudging and that is much more precise and easy to position the mount, especially at higher resolutions and with more weight on the mount. If you do use Gemini for Goto's, then manually pushing the mount will, unfortunately, result in Gemini losing track of where in the sky you're pointing to. This is because Gemini uses motor encoders rather than axis encoders. This means if the axis is shifted by hand, without the motor, Gemini will not be aware of this position change. If you do this accidentally, you can re-sync Gemini on a known bright star so that it knows where it is pointing to. But constantly mixing push-to and motor-based nudging is not recommended. Use one or the other, consistently, and you'll be fine.
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Regards,
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? ?-Paul
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Paul Kanevsky