I apologize if this is a repost. I seem to be having some
trouble with my send/receive function.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you all for your replies,
I just couldn't get my head to figuring out if synchronizing
on an off center object after doing a careful alignment
would mess up
anything or not. I don't often get a chance to do astro
work, and the time being precious, just have not had the
time to figure out by trial and error if the tracking would
be adversely affected. I try to cluster my intended target
selections and syncing on the first does help with
subsequent ones. Fortunately my "CCD" chip is probably
considered to be large as the one in the Canon Digital
Rebel.
Thanks again.

FWIW, I was on my way through west Texas a few weeks ago and
had a chance to stop in Ft Davis, about 20 mi from the
McDonald Observatory. The town is at 5000+ ft, has strict
light pollution regulations and is not very big. About 5
miles out of town is the Indian Lodge state park, a
campground whose campsites have water, electric, hard
surface parking spot, picnic table, fireplace, and generous
campsite areas. They also have hot showers and well kept
bathrooms, all for $13 per day + $3 per adult. It can be
breezy in the area and I despaired of setting up at higher
and more distant elevations, but the campsites are in a
sheltered valley. The downside is that the "horizon" is
about 20deg up in most directions. The up side is that while
I could hear the wind up higher it was nearly dead calm by
me. I got probably the best shots of Andromeda I'm ever
likely to get with the equipment I've got, and finally got a
picture - and even a good one - of the horsehead and flame.
The thing that really amazed me was that while taking down
the scope, I discovered I'd forgotten to tighten up the
bolts that hold the scope to the wedge. It's amazing how
sometimes you think you've got everything right and results
are disappointing, then you mess up one aspect and you get
good results. You gotta have a sense of humor to persist in
this hobby I think.

Keith

Astronomy Website
http://www.geocities.com/keithnk_m42

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