Paramount GT-1100 Robotic Telescope Mount

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page 24 Paramount User’s Guide adjustments, but rather to provide a small amount of fine-tune leveling. Additionally, they can be used insure the base plate of the ME is not distorted by a non-flat mounting surface. A slightly concave mounting surface would tend to bend the bottom plate of the ME, but when the Micro-Levelers protrude slightly below the surface of the base plate, they act as “legs” to stabilize the mount base. Figure 13 – Micro-Leveler (see arrow) and base plate attachment knob. over tighten them. The best approach for leveling the mount is to simultaneously adjust two Micro-Levelers so that the mount is tilted either East/West or North/South. The accuracy of the leveling depends on the long-term use of the mount. If the mount is attached to a permanent pier without the intent of portable use, leveling is actually less important. When used in a portable sense, insuring that the mount is level helps to quickly polar align the mount. The Micro-Levelers have a relatively small surface area of contact and are not intended to lift the mount. Take care not to unnecessarily First Slews Once you have assembled the mount and connected all the electronic wiring, verify that all the electronic and mechanical components function by turning on the mount. It is important to note that the Paramount ME will not respond to joystick commands and will not start tracking until it is homed. What is that Sound? When the Paramount ME is turned on and initialized, the servomotors emit an audible variable-pitched sound. This is the sound caused by the control system checking and adjusting the position of the DC servo motors over 3,000 times per second and is normal. This sound serves as the “heartbeat” of the mount and provides an audible indicator that the electronics are powered and functioning. What Is Homing? Homing is the automated process of slewing each axis until the homing indexes are located. The right ascension and declination axes have sensors that are used to detect the home position. The home position is at approximately hour angle 2 and declination 0 degrees. This position is fixed and cannot be changed as it depends on the physical position of the gears and the internal sensors. Note: The Paramount ME will not slew or track until the mount is successfully homed!
Paramount User’s Guide page 25 Each time the mount is homed, it returns to the same home position and sets the position registers to zero. When star synchronization is performed, the hour angle and declination of the home indexes are stored in the internal flash of the Paramount ME. Subsequent sessions simply use the Local Sidereal Time, as computed from the inputs in TheSky software, to accurately determine the pointing direction of the mount. Homing the Paramount ME provides the following benefits: · · · · Once a mount is aligned with the celestial pole and homed, extremely accurate pointing can be achieved using the Paramount ME under control of TheSky. After homing, the mount “knows” its slewing limits and the mount cannot be slewed into itself. The right ascension limits are just approximately 5 degrees past the Meridian in each direction (east and west) and in declination the limit is at approximately –90 degrees declination. The PEC function uses this information to calibrate the internal PEC table with the orientation of the worm gear. You can quickly recover from power loss to the mount or other personal computer malfunctions using the homing feature. Homing the Mount Using the Joystick To home the mount using the joystick, tap the button on top of the joystick twice deliberately, with perhaps a small hesitation in between. If you move the joystick after the homing procedure has started the homing process will be aborted. This behavior is provided as a safety feature, allowing you to stop the telescope in one or both axis by moving the joystick away from center. Left-right motion causes the RA axis to stop; up-down motion causes the declination axis to stop (see the diagram below). The Joystick In addition to homing the mount, the joystick is used to manually move the Paramount ME. It also has a built-in red LED flashlight for use at the telescope. Figure 14 –Slewing the Paramount ME with the joystick.
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Paramount GT-1100 Robotic Telescope Mount

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