Anyone have experience with the Planewave Ascension 200HR

[Peter Prendergast]

I've placed my order and am waiting for delivery. I spoke to Paul Gardener about them and he was very complimentary. He said he's only ever used 40 points during a mapping run and the results are stunning. Just curious have others seen this? I use 700 plus with my PME II and get great results, 40 would be very cool indeed.

How's the through the mount cabling? I'm wondering how many wires you can comfortably get to run through it? I'd like 3 USB, 1 serial, 1 CAT 5, and 18g power cable.

Peter

[Bob Denny]

I have worked on several observatories with the PlaneWave mounts. Stunning is right. The use of servos and encoders is the secret. Note that the PlaneWave telescope control system is a derivative of Dan Gray's awesome Sidereal Technology control system. If/when you do get this, check in with me to optimize its usage. It is not necessary to jump through the hoops they say you need to to initialize it. With ACP, you can auto-initialize on the first target of the night, then after than, no more pointing updates!!