Re: [APML] ST-4 and the Northern lights

["John Boudreau" <jeboud@comcast.net>]

That does sound pretty strange John, that your ST-4 failed during those 2 aurora storms.

But I was in Rangeley, Maine on the night of Sept 7/8, 2002 during that big aurora display.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeboud/aurora_1.htm

Since I had already set up for photography before sunset, during a lull in the aurora I calibrated my ST-4 and began a 90 minute exposure. The aurora came back to life minutes later, but I let the exposure finish. It was of course badly fogged, but the guiding was perfect. 

But I was running the ST-4 off of a 12v marine battery. So I'd think that your guess about an AC power problem in your case would be more likely than an ST-4 problem itself

John Boudreau
http://home.comcast.net/~jeboud/astro.htm

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Lanoue" <johnlanoue@hotmail.com>
To: <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 10:30 AM
Subject: [APML] ST-4 and the Northern lights


> Greetings,
> 
> I know I'm not imagining this...
> 
> So last night I was preparing for an all night imaging
> session when the northern lights flared up (in Bedford, NH),
> so I rushed up to an open field, snapped about 30 or so photos
> over the course of an hour, then went back to my observatory
> to continue with my setup procedure.
> 
> When I finally got on my target (NGC7K) and acquired a guidestar
> with my trusty ST-4, I went to do a calibration and nada, nothing,
> the guidestar wouldn't move (thus the x,y readout didn't change).
> I fiddled with cables, reboots, etc... for about another
> hour before giving up, I just simply couldn't get that x,y
> readout to change (I could get it to change manually by using
> the keypad on the lx200).  Flustered, around midnight, I went
> back to the observatory to retry, and whaddyaknow, the calibration
> worked fine.
> 
> Now a similiar failure happened sept 7th, 2002, the night of the
> last big aurora here in the northeast.  I know that the ST-4 is
> finicky about power draw and I know auroral activity can wreak
> havoc on power grids... is this just coincidence that the two
> times my ST-4 has let me down were nights with auroral activity
> or is the inability to calibrate a manifestation of 'dirty' AC
> power?
> 
> Puzzled in Bedford...
> 
> john
> 
> 
> John Lanoue
> Principal Software Engineer
> Bedford, NH
> http://www.geocities.com/johnlanoue/
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Fretting that your Hotmail account may expire because you forgot to sign in 
> enough? Get Hotmail Extra Storage today!   
> http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Astro-Photo mailing list
> Astro-Photo@seds.org
> http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo
> 


_______________________________________________
Astro-Photo mailing list
Astro-Photo@seds.org
http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo