Mach1 GTO in the wind

I was imaging on Monday night in the Blue Ridge Parkway. It turned gusty after 2am. I had an Epsilon 180ED, STV head, 7x50 finder, and Canon 20Da on the Mach1 mount. Total loading was around 38-40lb. Granted that this is a stubby OTA, I'm still pleased to report that the Mach1 was very stable and shrugged off the wind gusts with no effects. Looking at the STV control panel display, it was as if the wind was not even there. Every single frame I took that night had perfect tracking. My previous EM-200 tended to have numerous issues when the wind got going (I would loose about 20-40% of photos at times)- which was the precise reason I went with the Mach1. At the end of the night, I checked the polar alignment-it had not shifted at all. Nice stable system.

Ivan

Hi,

Did you use drift alignment?

Wei-Hao

I used the Eagle pier. I had the pier raised on the highest setting and then added the extension pier (I was using my refractor earlier and was too lazy to change back)- so I was a little worried about all that height- turns out it was quite ok.

Ivan