I have a 20" dob with servocat/argo Navis. I can not do the two star alignment any more due to a disability.
I really can't bear to think of selling my scope or getting a smaller one. Is there any method of using the a field CMOS camera for a plate solve and then sych back to argo Navis/servocat.
Maybe this question is really to servcat, but checking to see if anyone has done this or maybe knows someone who has done it.
Only method i can think of is after doing the plate solve convert the RA/DEC to Alt/AZ and point the scope at the alt/az quickly enough to see the star.
thanks
dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the post.

Sorry to hear things have become more of a physical challenge for you, but great to hear you are determined to solider on.

To help me appreciate the scenario, I gather you can't get up to the eyepiece any more and will be doing imaging through the same camera as well?

Does the scope happen to be permanently set up in an observatory?

I can then put the thinking cap on and see if we can suggest a solution, including possibly feeding back the az/alt to find the alignment stars.

thanks Gary.....yes scope is in observatory.
started looking at ZWOAIR Pro, Stellarmate, and ATIKbase to put on scope and talk by wifi to pc. The ZWO 1600 CMOS camera will give me almost 0.5 deg diagaonal image. Easiest and very good bandwidth, if i can do two star align, just plug in camera into Pc.

Gary,
is it possible to add a alignment star to the catalog, that i can just define the Plate solve RA/DEC?
dave

Hi Dave,

One strategy is once you do perform an alignment is to then simply keep the unit powered on.
We have users with fixed observatories that leave their units powered on for days at a time.

Argo Navis allows you to align on any object at any time. You are not restricted to those in the MODE ALIGN STAR list, which is simply a list of convenient bright stars.

You can use the last object you selected in MODE CATALOG, MODE IDENTIFY or MODE TOUR in conjunction with MODE ALIGN (as opposed to MODE ALIGN STAR) to perform an alignment.

This includes a pseudo object whose J2000.0 RA/Dec co-ordinates you have downloaded into the FROM PLANETARIUM entry.

There are several ways to fill the FROM PLANETARIUM entry but for example, if you happened to be running the navis STARTUP command on one of the serial ports
and sent the command :-

fp `STAR1|12:34:56|+12:34|STAR|1.0|MY PLATE SOLVE STAR`

it would fill the FROM PLANETARIUM object with those RA/Dec co-ordinates and if you were then to EXIT out of MODE CATALOG and dial up MODE ALIGN, you could align on it.