Wednesday night was clear for me, despite others in the area having to deal with clouds. I took the chance to gather RGB data for my Spider Nebula. I also got 4 hours of OIII data but there isn't much signal there. Here is the result of combining the RGB data with the Ha data I collected on the 12th.
I have also decided to go down the path of eventually being able to run my equipment remotely. As a first step for that, I am purchasing the new MyT mount by Software Bisque. Paramounts by SB are very desirable for remote operations for a number of reasons.
o They have physical hard stops for things like 2 hours past the Meridian.
o The motor circuitry detects when a motor is stalled and stops trying to move it (good for the equipment and the motor).
o It is a clutch-less design. This means the clutch cannot slip.
o It has a homing sensor, leading to repeatable homing within 1 arc-second. This helps prevent the mount getting lost and really helps with things like power outages.
As a premium mount, it also has numerous other advantages over mounts like the Atlas. For example, it has belt drives with essentially immeasurable backlash. It has periodic error correction that reduces periodic error to under 1 arc-second. And the list goes on. I'm real excited to be getting this mount.
It used to be in its price range that the Astro-Physics Mach 1 did not have much competition. With the MyT, that is no longer the case. And for my requirements, I believe the MyT is clearly the better choice (specifically because of my desire to be able to run remotely).
o They have physical hard stops for things like 2 hours past the Meridian.
o The motor circuitry detects when a motor is stalled and stops trying to move it (good for the equipment and the motor).
o It is a clutch-less design. This means the clutch cannot slip.
o It has a homing sensor, leading to repeatable homing within 1 arc-second. This helps prevent the mount getting lost and really helps with things like power outages.
As a premium mount, it also has numerous other advantages over mounts like the Atlas. For example, it has belt drives with essentially immeasurable backlash. It has periodic error correction that reduces periodic error to under 1 arc-second. And the list goes on. I'm real excited to be getting this mount.
It used to be in its price range that the Astro-Physics Mach 1 did not have much competition. With the MyT, that is no longer the case. And for my requirements, I believe the MyT is clearly the better choice (specifically because of my desire to be able to run remotely).