Welcome to a Titan Tips page
This information was orginally written and maintained by Bob Allevo and is re-posted here with Bob's permission. The thanks of many a Losmandy Titan owner goes out to Bob for permitting us to continue using these valuable materials! Thanks Bob!!!!
On with Bob's original pages! My name is Bob Allevo. I live in rural CT. and find astro-imaging a challenging hobby. I am very lucky to have such a supportive wife.I received my HGM Titan on June 2, 2004.....and I was very impressed first with its sheer size and also how impressive it just plain looks. I still am. Also, the look of quality of the components is outstanding as well as the packaging. I already had the Gemini manual, & email notes from Titan_Mount@yahoogroups.com, Losmandy_users@yahoogroups.com, and several new acquaintances listed below. As a result of these new connections, I had already purchased a high-power regulated power supply and a voltage converter to up the ante for the servo motors, even before the Titan arrived. I had also built a new, tiny observatory around my existing pier.
Now understand, this is my first German
Equatorial Mount (GEM). I had been using fork mounted Meade SCT's since 1985. So
now terms like "meridian flip", "saddle", and others were
just so unfamiliar to me. You don't have that stuff with a fork mount. So my learning
curve was is steep. Maybe I'm forked. But I am
eager to learn and so I picked up some valuable information along the way and
discovered that many other new Titanites had the same questions. This is so true
of so many products, etc. Sure, you can search it out and eventually get most of
what you are looking for. But several people have mentioned that it would be real
nice to be able to go somewhere and get a white paper for the information. This
is an attempt to provide it. It really should be put into an Adobe PDF document
so it could reside in the Titan files section and not on my personal web site. Some of the info is specific to the Titan yet there
are other tips, such as balancing a GEM, that apply to any GEM.
Believe me, I am not a know it all. Lot's of the info here has been passed along by my new friends. I just felt like putting it together so someone else, such as a new Titanite, would have easy access to these tips. So many of the same questions keep getting asked over and over again. I too had my turn and I'm not finished. Nor are these info pages. As I learn from experience or from the experience of others, I'll try to add the info.
I do not assume any responsibility for any problems you encounter by trying any of these tips. Do them at your own risk.
So let's begin.........