Dave, thanks! you had clarified the reason why the leg should be north or south. You are correct I do have the regular Meade Wedge.

Also you are correct it is a long time without clear skies and I miss the opportunity to see stars.

I thought that the steadiness was more to the tripod than the wedge itself, I see the tripod been to many pivot points that will cause the thing no to be stable.

I think if I make the decision to upgrade we might have some troubles to be able to get the SuperWedge down to Mexico and will be additional moneys. Would you be able to send me an email with the amount you are looking for the SuperWedge so I can make a decision to sign in in the Astromart and potentially work it out.

Regards.
Pille

Hola a mis Amigos! Hi from Mexico to all!

In my town there is been cloudy night since May and no single night to bring the scope out and this will continue till mid October, I cross my fingers it will be sooner!

In the mean time I been looking in to the Meade 8" SCT LNT and first I have looked in to the adjustments for the Alt/Az with very good success, on the other hand looking in to the scope  to a fix point (terrestrial) and the Meade Wedge I see the tripod or my arrangement not very steady, it continuously vibrates. Is there any way we can control it or make it minimum?

Electrically all the power consumption is 0.55 amps, is this a reasonable number? it is a max speed. at tracking number will not go above 0.25 amps.

On the other hand I was looking to the information contained in this Forum and I see that Grizz (Meade Standard Wedge) is suggesting the process to align the scope and is different from what it is said in other places like the one described in Jan's Meade LX 90 pagers. for example Grizz puts the single leg of the tripod pointing north while Jan's suggests pointing south. as said in the discution it makes much more sense to have most of the weight in two legs than a single one. is that the main reason? Also he described in a very good detail the process he follows and looks very good I will try it soon.
here is the detail he referred to:
1. Point tripod (with wedge attached) north.
2. Level tripod.
3. Install scope.
4. Re-check level
5. Put scope in a position that will get a GPS fix. I try and get the antenna as high as possible with the clearest view of the sky.
6.Power up
7. Acquire GPS fix, confirm site.
8. Put scope in polar home position (OTA upside down) (handles down) I spin the RA circle to read 0 and line up the 3 marks. That should make the fork arms pretty level.
9. Select one star align. (not EASY align)
10. The scope will rotate and stop. The autostar will ask you to put the scope in the polar home position. (its there already)
11. Hit enter
12. It will rotate around till the OTA is almost right side up (handles up) Then it will ask you to adjust the wedges latitude and azimuth controls till the pole star is centered.
13. Do that.
14. Hit enter. It will choose another alignment star and slew to it.
15. Center that star with the hand controller.
16. Hit enter. Align successful

I know I'm  bringing to alive an old topic but I'm sure any topic will be usefull to anyone in the astronomy, specially topics like this.

Suggestions and or recommendations will be appreciates.

My best regards to all.

Ron, here is the picture of the mask I used for the excessive I did

As you can see it was made out of a card box of cookies and it work oK!
I did read the links you shared with me but it is been raining for almost 2 weeks, first opportunity I will try to see if I can improve the seen.

Regards
Miguel.

Ron, sound very interesting.
I you may, starting from the basics, will the 300 - 400 frames were you planning to set the camera to start taking frame by frame or you were going to go with a video and then take the frames?
If you were going to shoot for the video how will you brake the video in to single frames?

Thanks for the time to respond and help me to understand better.

Pille,

Ron, I would ask for some days because today the Telescope is in the closet and I will be out of town over the weekend, but I will work it out and during the week I will take the picture and show you the mask mounted in the telescope.

Regards, have a nice weekend.

Pille,

Ron, what type of camera is the Nikon CP995?
How many you had plan to take before the battery died? and what is the process you follow to define the amount of pictures to be stacked?

The photo embed is just great!, Congratulations!

Pille,

James you are correct, as it can be seen in the first photo of the Chain, you can see 6 spikes, those are a result of the Hexagonal mask , reason why you can see them. The mask I installed on top of the corrector lens and it was the one that generated the effect.

If needed I can take a picture of the mask so it is more clear.

Regards.
pille.

Ron, thanks for the links.

You got me material to work this week.

Muchas Gracias.
Pille

Thinking about the  situation, I think the trick will be to make the best balance between Sirius A and Sirius B to get the best compromise to be able to picture them.

I had taken the picture I shared to someone that knows some on optics and he told me that it might be a reflection of the image when passing through the Cristal, and because the mask was not touching the corrector lens ( there was about 2 or 3 mm he thinks that it is because of it. But Looking in to the following picture

Here you can see that there is no star rays due to the lack of the mask but still see something in the same position as the previous picture. FYI, both pictures in this chain were taken the same day at different times and was by playing with and without the mask.

Ron you referrer that had done some investigation in Goggle and did not see to much, but if there is any interesting information sure I will like to see it.

Gracias!
Pille

Dear friends I been working a little on trying to astrophotography Sirius A and Sirius B, I know that Sirius A is approx -1.8 while Sirius B is about 8 in magnitude, meaning that Sirius A is 10000 brighter that Sirius B.
Is there anybody that know how can I see and catch them in a Photo. Initially I try a mask and the following is what I got


I used a Hex mask but I do have doughs it is Sirius B shown.

Any comment or re commentadion?

Regads
Pille

Ron thank you very much!
I have Foto Time going on and the link for Photoastronomy is:
http://www.fototime.com/users/pilleway@prodigy.net.mx/PhotoAstronomy
I will be uploading photos today, you will see some already.

Also I do have Albums for RC and Static Modeling with some photos and the links are:
http://www.fototime.com/users/pilleway@prodigy.net.mx/Plastic%20Static%20Modeling
http://www.fototime.com/users/pilleway@prodigy.net.mx/Radio%20Control

What do you mean by "embed" can you explain.

Looking for your comments, so far your help is been great. Thank you  " Gracias!"

Ron, thanks for your comments!
Well, flying an helicopter is not easy, you are correct but I can tell you to all , if you are willing to do some RC Helicopter or Airplane, you will have much more success  to learn to fly an Helicopter than an airplane even it is much more difficult, the reason is very simple, with the Heli you start doing little by little, while with the airplane once it is in the air and you do not know how to control then you end up with a crash.
I just love the Heli even I do both. Do not do upside down, because every crash it is very expensive.

Regarding my photos I wold like to share them, but if you recommend a site where to store them I will try and if any additional help is needed I can come and ask again.

It is been a very long and tired week but if I can I will try to have some pictures posted soon!

Happy weekend to all.
Pille,

My friends, how small is the world, I'm in Mexico and I'm  learning Photoastronomy but I come from the RC Helicopters club and I just love them too, I do fly a RC Raptor 60 Helicopter with a 70 engine and it is fun, I fly it on Sundays with my son and Friday and Saturday nights are (if condition allowes ) I take the Scope out and spend time searching in the sky.
I do have some nice pictures ( with no Photoshop) mainly in the Messier objects, but I'm not to good to post them. ( if any can help I will share some of them)
I do have a Meade SC 8" with a WO 80mm APO and a Canon 30D and there is no complain at all of the equipment I do have, the only problem is that the WO on top of the SC seams to me to much weight.
If any recommendation for posting I will share some with you. ( Even I recall there is a way for a hyperling for a photo depository so I can share them with you)

My best regards to all of you.
Pille

Dave, I join my self to rest of the team, my best regards for the milestone achieved.

Hat off for the recognition and effort!

A recognition from Mexico. FELICIDADES!
Miguel.

Ben & Dr. Clay:
Thanks for the great welcome, Yes! I'm sure it will be very interesting and learning experience with all of you!

My appreciation to the  complete team and Participants.

Miguel.