I am kind of afraid to log this, it may jinx the system…
The Tak is successfully running 15 minute exposures unguided!
I can’t really say why it is now working. I tightened down the clamshell holding the Tak a bit, otherwise nothing unusual. After completing the insulation and drywall project, I ran a new Tpoint model and tried things.
First I wanted to guide using the Edge 11; this has worked in the past. However, it wasn’t working – the guiding seems to be working well, the guide star stays in the tracking box, reasonably small guide errors. BUT, there seems to be a bit of flexure between the Tak and the Edge? Stars are slightly trailed in 10 minute exposures. ProTrack is off so it doesn’t interfere with the guiding.
Just for fun, I tried a 10 minute exposure with ProTrack. Say What? It actually worked! Even 15 minute exposures are working well. Longer than that is not necessary, my camera theoretically works efficiently with 10-15 minute exposures.
It has been running great for about a week now. I am nervous about switching systems between the Tak and the Edge. I have a separate model for the Edge, but maybe switching the systems will mess things up again. We will see.
Tak Model
The Tak model has 206 points (some are thrown out, of course). The final Sky RMS = 12.7 arcseconds; excellent, but no different than values I had previously.
