RE: ARNE's drive

[<aah@nofs.navy.mil>]

Currently, the RA limit switch is set to 0:52 east.
Since I run for 2.5hrs, that means I end up at 1:38 west,
a little farther than Tom would like to run the system
and still have it track well.  I've found that it will
work that far over.  So I don't think 2.5hrs is anything
magic; one should be able to set the RA limit switch
farther east and get close to three hours of tracking.
Note that the tracking errors are really smooth, as
indicated by the centroiding plots.  I think Tom has
a good idea for a telescope drive; it is just not as
stiff as I would like.  I also suspect that it is not
terribly reliable and will break down about mid-winter. :-(
However, nice first attempt.  Being able to track for
2 or 3 hours really opens up the possible projects for
such a system.
  I really need to do a lot of lab tests with this system,
and just don't have the time.  So I am running it on
a variety of projects just to see how it performs with
the understanding that as we calibrate the system better,
the results can only get better as well.
Arne