RE: [APML] Robotic Barn door tracker - a sneak preview

["Chris Schur" <cschur@therim.com>]

George, I can lift a C8 with the drive capability of the motor.  I had the
opportunity to star test the unit last night, and it tracks the full 10
minutes and keeps the star in the center of a 7mm nagler on a refractor put
on the pan head.  I think its ready.  Now we will get 2 months more of
monsoon clouds.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: astro-photo-bounces@seds.org
[mailto:astro-photo-bounces@seds.org]On Behalf Of George Anderson
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2004 7:59 PM
To: Discussion of Film Astrophotography
Subject: Re: [APML] Robotic Barn door tracker - a sneak preview


Hi Chris

Due to the weight of your camera rig have you thought of rotating your
whole barn door so that during the exposure you are lowering the camera?
It should put less load on the stepper during the more critical time for
smoothness.
Nice rig in any case. Looking forward to seeing some shots from it. With
a 50mm f/1.4 pentax lens it should be good for the leonids as well.

George Anderson
Montral Canada

Clear skies and good health

Chris Schur wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Many hours spent on this one, this can be either stand alone or controlled
> directly by the Aurora Cam robotic film camera.  I havent taken any shots
> with the tracker yet, but next clear night, Ill be checking its speed.
The
> base is a standard barn door mount, with a dc motor, and optical shaft
> encoder.  Twin microcontrollers set the speed, and function.  Just under
the
> servo that closes the shutter on the aurora cam, you can see a lever
switch
> turned at about 45 degrees.  This moves up when an exposure is being taken
> by the camera, and starts the tracking routing.  When the shutter is
close,
> and the exposure is over, the switch the switch moves down and initiates a
> rewind routine in the micros.  So during the exposure, the mount tracks.
In
> between exposures, when the camera is winding for the next frame, the
motor
> in the barn door quicky rewinds to start.  So you will get (I hope)
perfect
> tracked shots of the same piece of sky as the constellations move on
through
> it.  More to come, I just wanted to share my excitement on this new
> creation...
>
> http://www.psiaz.com/schur/astro/latest57.html
>
> clear skies
>
> Chris
> Astro: http://www.PSIAZ.com/Schur/astro
> Paleo: http://www.PSIAZ.com/Schur/azpaleo/azgeology.html
> Robotics: http://www.psiaz.com/schur/astro/roboticsmain.html
>
> ---
>
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