Hello I have a friend here with a Cube. It is the early version and will not track satellites because it can't be controlled by an external computer but it is a goto and mechanically the same as the new versions. All the software is in the hand controller. It does an amazingly good job of finding objects and tracking accurately at sidereal, solar and lunar however it seems quite noisy and jerky when it slews (goto). This indicates to me that it might have considerable vibration in the image if you try to track a satellite with the new version. The new version is the "G" model. Externally controllable via a USB input in the hand controller and supposedly ASCOM compliant. It just came on the market. Combining this with its alt/az configuration you might think it would make a good satellite tracker. I have been following the discussions on the Ioptron user group on yahoo. There is still some debate about how well it really works on Ascom systems but most people are getting it to work well. No one that I can find has yet tried it on satellite tracking so I am waiting for that. For know it seems the best solution for tracking is the Meade LX200 series mounts in the alt/az configuration. Just my opinion, I am not a fan of Meade otherwise. I haven't heard much about the Celestrons used for tracking. When I get someone on the Ioptron group to try tracking a satellite with the G model I will report it here. Dale ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun May 18 2008 - 15:17:53 UTC