Miscellaneous Tips

Titan Tips

• Since I hardly ever have my diagonal with an eyepiece, but instead have my CCD camera attached, I would build a pointing model by centering a star in the finderscope, then take several images moving the mount in between, and eyeball putting the star in the center of the image. For more precision, if you use CCDSoft or MaximDL, you can have crosshairs on the image so that for each additional align, the star can be accurately placed. In CCDSoft, when the image appears, press the number "6" key. In MaximDL, right click on the image and select "Crosshairs" from the drop down menu. See Fig.1. If you don't use either of these programs, search the help file of the program you do use. I just discovered this for CCDSoft from the SBIG user group. I immediately checked MaximDL as well and found it. Of course all of the above may apply when the lousy clouds and rain in CT go away!

CCDSoft Crosshairs	MaximDL Crosshairs

Fig.1

• The Gemini default setting for GOTO and slew speeds for the Titan are 1200. This appears to be way too high (fast). Reduce them down to at least 900. I have put mine at 600. The weight of my OTA is about 43 lbs, plus dovetail, camera, 63 lbs counterweight, etc.  This is quite a bit of weight for the motors to accelerate. Reducing the speed will help keep those motors cool.

• MOTOR HEATING UP - likely causes:

  • Slew and GOTO speeds too high. Default for the Titan is 1200 and is way too high. Lower it to 900 or lower.

  • System is unbalanced by a substantial amount. See Balancing your GEM

  • Worm to gear engagement is too tight. Not enough clearance.  See  Worm Clearance & Adjustment

  • When checking for motor temperature, place your fingers on the reduced diameter shown in Fig.4 . The motor should NEVER feel hot, just very slightly warm.

Fig.4