Mirror Flop/Motor

In the previous post I displayed some problems we were having in mirror flop.

To test this I performed three tests all while telescope tracking.

1. Take exposures without doing any focusing
2. Take exposures while only locking/unlocking focus knob
3. Take exposures while slightly adjusting focus

Results:
They all had stars dancing between frames. After discussing with Mike we have pinpointed the root issue to something in the sidereal mechanical drive. Mike pointed out that because it is periodic this points to the drive. Our next action is to visit the fork features called Smart Drive from Meade that is supposed to compensate for mechanical defects in the drive.

Now tests 1 and 3 have the same looking drift/jump of stars. Test 2 did reveal that the mirror lock is causing mirror flop. So for now we decided to not use the mirror lock and will revisit the issue soon.

With all this being said, the better news is the starting of observations. At this point all that is needed is starup/shutdown scripts to hammered out and then we can let the observatory run itself. Again being another landmark :)

Stay tuned!