Re: ATM DOB: A little past vertical?

["Bob May" <bobmay@nethere.com>]

The problem with dobs at the zenith is that you need to rotate more than
elevate as the object goes past the zenith.  Pretend tracking an object with
the scope and you will see what I mean.  Going over the top won't help
hardly any if at all.  I'd almost prefer to see the other condition where
the scope can't get to the zenith by, maybe, 5 degrees or so due to this
problem.
As an example, if the object that you are tracking passes only 1/2 degree
from the zenith you will turn the scope almost 180 degrees in about 4
minutes of time while tracking.
The DSCs shouldn't have a problem with going past 90 degrees although I've
never thought of testing that on any of the ones that I've had the fun to
play with.  Maybe somebody else can provide better info on this, maybe even
somebody that knows one of the programmers that wrote the code (Mel?).
Bob May
http://nav.to/bobmay
bobmay@nethere.com