• ASI Mount

  • AM5 for my solar eclipse timelapse. I want to avoid a meridian flip

Hello, I am planning to mount my solar scope on the AM5 for the April 8 eclipse and do a timelapse with an image every minute for the three-hour event. The problem is my observing location, the eclipse will go from 11am to 2pm, thus a meridian flip in the middle of the sequence.
I will run the mount only with the app, no other software to run the mount. My scope is compact and I have a pier so no risk of hitting the tripod. I haven't tried but I heard the mount will stop some minutes after the meridian, is that correct?
What if I manually go to the other side of the meridian and start tracking from there? will it work?
Again I can do those test any day, but will like to know if someone has already tried this and can shed some information on the subject.
Thanks.

8 days later

Well, I made the test. So read on if you are interested in this.
Effectively, only tracking with the ASImount app (no ascom, no asiair) the mount will stop tracking after a few minutes of passing the meridian. There is no way to avoid this. A setting to allow tracking after x degrees after meridian will be useful, but for now there is no way.
The workaround for this, if you like me are interested of tracking an object without meridian flip, in my case I want to track the sun for three hours to do a time lapse of the eclipse, taking a photo each 15 seconds, so a meridian flip in the middle of the event (as will be my case) will ruin the continuity of the timelapse.
So lets say the sun is at 11am at the east side of the meridian. I will goto to an object at the west side of the meridian and then manually with the arrows will locate the sun. The mount will be in an awkward position, make sure you will not hit anything doing this movement as RA will surpass the horizontal limit. From that point on the mount will track ok and will not perform flip as the scope position is already flipped.

Hope this helps anyone with the same situation.

Thanks

    12 days later

    jirestre Thank you! I have an AM3 and pier on the way. I will be mounting a dslr and 600mm lens on it. I have been hunting the web for a clear method to avoid the meridian flip. Found several people on CloudyNights suggesting this same thing, but your how-to is written so I actually understand how-to!! Thank you! I will be testing this as soon as my mount arrives!! Clear skies!

      a month later

      I have been tracking the Sun for the last 2 months with my Sky- watcher AZ EQ5 Pro in the alt az mode with no problems. Why can't I do the same with my AM5? The Sun will be at 181° at the start so will I need to flip? That is real close. I just got the AM5 so I just do not know enough about it to be sure.

        Alt Az works Great. I tracked the Sun all day today. No meridian flip. No deviation at all.

        Interesting... hadn't thought of this approach! 🙂

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