I’m considering getting a rotator. Unfortunately, it currently fails due to the lack of backfocus. Does such an investment make sense at all or can you do it manually in Voyager? I do not run a remote observatory. Thank you for your feedback. Greetings Enrico
I’d love to have a rotator but they are very expensive (for me). It’d be cool to have if you were imaging multiple objects in a night that needed different rotation angles. But since I can’t afford one, I setup my position angle before I start my imaging session.
Yes Voyager can get you rotated exactly where you want by using the On The Fly Camera Manual Rotation Aid. It works great and is pretty fast once you setup your camera. I can get my setup usually to within .5 degree. I get a rough focus and then start the tool. It takes an image plate solves it, and gives you your camera position angle. From there you rotate the camera to the desired angle. it takes a little bit of setup (inverted or not), but after that it’s cake.
https://wiki.starkeeper.it/index.php/OnTheFly#Camera_Manual_Rotation_Aid_Tool
Great, another confirmation for the choice of Voayger as astro software
Hi,
FYI, if you do get an automated rotator, or even if you stick with a manual version, a new set of flats is necessary for each movement of the camera. This may be obvious to many, but it was not to me (at first).
Clear Skies,
Paul
Hi Paul,
this is not true. If your camera,filterwheel and filters rotate with rotator 99% new flats are not needed.
Depends on the telescope configuration and F ratio you are using.
All the best
Leonardo
Agree with Leonardo. At F 4.5 and filter wheel and camera after rotator, flats work irrespective of rotation.
Me personally, been doing flats for every new rotation, with voyager is quite easy. But I could save some more time for imaging if I can skip that. Would you consider only a single set of flats for the whole evening on a f/4 system where camera and filter wheel rotates all together?
Thamks
I rotate on some nights a few times and use my flats for 3/4 months typically.
Same here. We rotate 2-3 times every night, and I think we’ve been using a set of flats that’s almost a year old lol. No issues.
Nice chat everyone,
This has been an eyeopener, and shows the good experience on this site.
Paul
Just stubbled upon this thread and I was happy to read your statement. How is it going with your approach, is that still okay to take flats once a while ?