Dave,
I don't have an Argo-Navis, but I have used other DSC's.
Point your telescope North, with the tube flat (0 degrees altitude).
Get your DSC's to report to you the raw encoder ticks (or, if you cannot do that with your DSC's, set it to read out raw altitude and azimuth).
Turn the tube through one whole circle (turn it to the east, south, west, and back to the North). Read off how many encoder ticks it went through. (Or how many degrees it went through.) THat should tell you how many ticks you really need, and is dependent on your encoders.(Or how many degrees it thinks it went through--which should be 360)
Now, send the tube to straight up. YOu should get 1/4th the number of altitude ticks you have on your encoder. (or 90 degrees in altitude).
If that is all working out, then check your settings to make sure you are in Alt-Az mode, and not GEM or something else.
Try your time, and other settings to make sure they are accurate.
If those work out, go back to exercise 1, and see if things are changing smoothly (do things grab, do you lose data, is East at 90, south at 180, west at 270, etc. )
Look for loose connections, slipping couplings, etc.
Are the objects consistently way off, or randomly way off?
Alex
I don't have an Argo-Navis, but I have used other DSC's.
Point your telescope North, with the tube flat (0 degrees altitude).
Get your DSC's to report to you the raw encoder ticks (or, if you cannot do that with your DSC's, set it to read out raw altitude and azimuth).
Turn the tube through one whole circle (turn it to the east, south, west, and back to the North). Read off how many encoder ticks it went through. (Or how many degrees it went through.) THat should tell you how many ticks you really need, and is dependent on your encoders.(Or how many degrees it thinks it went through--which should be 360)
Now, send the tube to straight up. YOu should get 1/4th the number of altitude ticks you have on your encoder. (or 90 degrees in altitude).
If that is all working out, then check your settings to make sure you are in Alt-Az mode, and not GEM or something else.
Try your time, and other settings to make sure they are accurate.
If those work out, go back to exercise 1, and see if things are changing smoothly (do things grab, do you lose data, is East at 90, south at 180, west at 270, etc. )
Look for loose connections, slipping couplings, etc.
Are the objects consistently way off, or randomly way off?
Alex
