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

["John Lanoue" <johnlanoue@hotmail.com>]

Hi Stuart,

I considered that, but if that were the case, then I would not have been 
able to 'move' the star with the hand controller from the lx200.  I also 
forgot to mention something quite curious, and that is, when this happened 
to me in sept 2002, I switched my power supply to a marine battery and all 
the electronics came back to life.  I was not able to image because of the 
aurora, but at least the ST-4 was resurected.

I had an EE in my office today and I mentioned this problem to him, his 
initial reaction was "send it back to the manufacturer, that shouldn't 
happen".

-john

John Lanoue
Principal Software Engineer
Bedford, NH
http://www.geocities.com/john_lanoue/





>From: "Stuart Heggie" <stuart.j.heggie@sympatico.ca>
>Reply-To: Discussion of Film Astrophotography <astro-photo@seds.org>
>To: "Discussion of Film Astrophotography" <astro-photo@seds.org>
>Subject: Re: [APML] ST-4 and the Northern lights
>Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 21:06:33 -0500
>
>John and John, I'm no expert but how about this: can the ST-4 see the 
>aurora
>and it was utterly confused by the signal it was getting? I know from film
>that the aurora you see, great as it is, is often equalled by aurora that
>you never noticed until the film was developed. So, maybe there was
>something the ccd chip was seeing that your eye could not?
>
>Stuart
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "John Boudreau" <jeboud@comcast.net>
>To: "Discussion of Film Astrophotography" <astro-photo@seds.org>
>Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 12:30 PM
>Subject: Re: [APML] ST-4 and the Northern lights
>
>
> > 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/
> > >
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