Rapheal,?
If you are close on the ratios an AutoCAL will not help with what you're trying to do. It is running closed loop and the ServoCAT is aggressive (high gain) in order to keep up ... BUT the AN does all the math related to the path and it is the most critical element. So - TIME is the very most important criterion. It has to be precise to the second. Confirm that - even if you checked/set it say a day before - confirm at the time you plan on doing it.?
Alignment I believe is the next critical item. Gary Kopff from WCI can respond to this... the track of any object is going to be an approximate one with the error being directly related to issues of alignment. Mount error - i.e. the mount (the scope) is not made to a very high precision (in most ServoCAT systems it is a WOODEN telescope meant for visual use). So issues with bearing placement side to side forward/backward up/dwn... will come into play.?
Hold on - I just re-read your note - you didn't REALLY 'see' the ISS ... in a 36" DOB!? Is there is a translation issue there? When I was working on the ServoCAT side of designing this - with my 12" out in the backyard - I knew that doing any type of fast-ish tracking for Earth orbit objects would be limited by the size of the scope and ESPECIALLY if there is a ladder involved... I can't imagine trying to follow with a ladder. I know I did a bunch of booster rocket tracking - and it was moving pretty darn fast. (and it is SO COOL to see this happening - one of the first times this was working I was looking and thought - "its not working, the stars are flying by in the view" ... then I looked again and BINGO - the object I was looking for, however, was DEAD CENTER STATIONARY in the filed. It was a weird sensation).
Gary Myers
