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Re: [ATM] Ideas/suggestions for South Pole sun following platform?
Hi Peter,
Good luck with your new project.
>I am helping to design an experiment for Antarctica
Tracking the sun down there can be quite different than what we are used to! The sun does not necessarily come up in the east and set in the west. And it NEVER goes overhead. At -78* the summer sun stays a bit above the horizon, and goes all the way around the compass everyday. The sun could be over the north horizon at noon, the west at dinnertime, over the south horizon at midnite, and shining in the east in the morning on its way back to the north.
To track it with an EQ mount, the mount has to have a 360* gear, and it has to be able to go all the way around those 360 degrees over and over and over without twisting up any wires.
You can take an alt-az mount down there, and by tipping up one edge a bit you now have an EQ.
You've probably though of all those things, but maybe I helped a tiny bit...
John
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