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Re: [APML] ST-4 and the Northern lights
John, I guess it's possible that the AC was wacked by the aurora but that is
pretty rare I think. Anyway, sounds like you have a good backup plan!
Stuart
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Lanoue" <johnlanoue@hotmail.com>
To: <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: [APML] ST-4 and the Northern lights
> 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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