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SkyFi working fine

I'd like to report how well SkyFi is working with my 16" Dobsonian, outfitted with a Argo Navis DSC running SkyFi and SkySafari. The unit works incredibly well and adds so much enjoyment to observing. I can even be in my house and watch the stars drift through the telescope's field of view set up in the yard. It really is the bees knees.

Sometimes the alignment isn't dead on, but that's not really a SkyFi issue in as much as the inaccuracy between the Dob scope and the Argo Navis. It would be nice to hit the ALIGN button on SkySafari/Scope and have the target object get centered in the projected eyepiece field of view on the SkySafari map. If I read the instruction properly for a PUSH TO telescope I should align on two stars, of course the further apart the better. That helps, but it's still not perfectly accurate. Still, considering I rarely use less than 150x it's still quite good, and so much easier than observing without the advantages of the SkyFi.

Thank you for a remarkable product. I'm simply amazed at how things have changed since I started stargazing 50 years ago. I may be old but like to stay up with the latest advances in technology.

3 comments

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    Bill Tschumy

    Kent,

    Thanks for the positive report.  It is a welcome relief from just the reporting of problems.

    Are you using Argo stand alone or in conjunction with ServoCAT?  If the former, I think you should be able to align on up to 10 stars to get a pretty good alignment model.  If using Argo/ServoCAT *I think* you need to do the alignment on the Argo.

  • 0
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    Kent

    Thank you for the prompt reply. I'm not using a ServoCAT; all push-to with the Argo Navis. Although I like my other GOTO scope(s) I actually prefer the speed of a push-to telescope that I'm so used to. It's a challenge to teach an old dog new tricks. 

    I observed two hours last night and the only time an object was out of the 150x eyepiece circle was when the target was well away from the two alignment stars upon initially aligning the telescope/Argo Navis. 

    Changing topics for a moment does anyone have a source for the necessary RS232 cable needed to connect a Tangent DSC box to the SkyFi, which is the same as JMI, Celestron and several other DSC? It's perplexing every manufacturer uses different pin outs, and even different phone plugs.

     

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    Kent,

    You can get one from ScopeStuff.

    http://scopestuff.com/ss_bbx2.htm

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