Updated: 6.23.03

Losmandy Titan Performance

The raw corrections in pixels with PEC off is shown in the first plot below. There's some drift resulting from RA speed, but the PE is very low! All data was collected on 1.9.03.

The second plot is corrected for the slope by subtracting out the regression value from the raw data. This has the effect of flattening the overall slope of the data. Again, this is plotted in pixel error.

The third and final plot is the periodic error (PEC off) translated into arc-second errors. The telescope was operating at f/6.9 (focal length = 2070 mm) during data collection, corresponding to 0.86 arc-seconds per pixel. As you can see, the PE is simply phenomenal! Conservatively, this mount can be rated at better than +/-2 arc-seconds! The only thing that was done on the mount was to adjust the worm to main gear spacing, just short of binding.

Although I have attempted to train PEC, software autoguiding has not worked as well with PEC as without. I have also tried various advanced time settings so that the PEC corrections and autoguider corrections would not overlay (or become 'confused'). Still, my best guiding occurrs without PEC and that's what I do exclusively now.