152mm A+M Refractor(OfficinaStellare-1200mmF/L) using a TeleVue .8XReducer/Flattener for an effect of 950mmFL and a BreakThrough X4-UV 49mm filter with step-rings to 48mm , and a CanonEOSII RebelT7i modified UV-IR @ Hutech .. on an Astro-Physics 1200GTO Mount at 1xSiderealGuideRaten, and taking RAWMonochrome Autosave Sequences as 87secISO3200 and 87secISO6400 for one each per Tile section ... the FOV Indicator for this Configuration is Width: 80'arc-min and Height: 53'arc-min . But , an 'overlay' amount is needed and using for a Mosaic in MaximDL Pro's Autosave Sequence command should be about for W: 60'arc-min and H: 33'arc-min to be safe in case some 'cropping' is needed to clip off vignetting or out of round stars around the edges that might be hard to 'overlay' correctly in the Mosaic command for assembling the 'mosaic' . I will try for W: 50'arc-min and H: 26'arc-min and do W: 5 and H: 7 for the amount off Tiles so the 150'arc-min sized Elephant Trunk Nebula-IC1396 gets in the whole imaged 'mosaic' . With this image I did a "Color Balance" to each Tile section before putting the 'mosaic' together and I brightened the end result 'mosaic' but it was too bright and I used "Levels-Gamma" to decrease it a little . I then tried the "Decomvolve" command while at a Bin2 and then Bin3 size for the 'Exponential' and a Radius of ' .8 ' and then ' 1 ' Iteration which blurred a little and I pressed OK to Close and I did the "Deconvolve" command again with a radius of ' .3 ' for ' 3 ' Iterations to sharpen the features a little bit and then Close . This might work OK but to get IC1396 framed it might take over 2hrs and it could cross the Meridian where I am in the East USA at Longitude ' 75 West ' even if I start the Mosaic imaging 2hrs before the Meridian looking NorthEast from ' 41*degrees Latitude ' . ....ee....``~~ uhoh .... because what if the Telescope flips around when the Mosaic moves cross the Meridian and the Telescope tries to slew to look to the West ? . Luckily , the Astro-Physics 1200GTO '2010' Mount that I have has a " Meridian Delay " option in the button area of the KeyPad for the 'Re-Cal' button options . I was reading in the Astro-Physics Manual Book with the Mount that with a Quick Star Polar Alignment proceedure is your telescope is pointing West within 1hr. after the meridian at a bright known star in the KeyPad you would do a GoTo and then with about 100 power with an reticle-eyepiece you would center the star and press 'Re-Cal 9' and then use the 'Re-cal' button again and select the "Meridian Delay" option and choose ' W1 ' for a 1hr. West delay and then do a slew to the star again and the Telescope will turn around to slew East but it would finish at the star that is past the Meridian and then you would use the Dec and Longitude knobs to get close to the star and then the N-E-S-W move buttons and the when centered you use the 'Re-Cal 9' again and then the 'Re-Cal 9' button again for the "Meridian Delay" option and choose the normal ' 0 ' option that doesn't activate the "Meridian Delay" and then slew to the star again with a GoTo command and try to get the star in the center position again and again till you're centered on each GoTo slew like explained . There are some more moves to this but this explains what is happening by using the "Meridian Delay" command . The Manual says the "Meridian Delay" is a good idea for Mosaic imaging . But , the only Mosaic imaging proceedure I can think of is thru MaximDL Pro with the Autosave Sequence commands for "Mosaic" . This is fine and dandy but what if MaximDL Pro doesn't know to realize the Astro-Physics Mount's "Meridian Delay" being active in the Mount's KeyPad controller ? or due to other ASCOM reasons MaximDL Pro isn't realizing to 'delay' the Mount from slewing around to point to the West from the East start of a Mosaic Sequence and when a certain Tile position is to be taken and the Tile position will be West of the Meridian and only a few rows are left to be imaged but all of a sudden the Mount starts slewing to turn around and point West an loses it's Mosaic position!? . What can be done ? . I didn't try a Mosaic yet where it works correctly but maybe next weekend Sept. 12 2020 or one day I will try the IC1396 for a 5X7 Mosaic and I'r set the "Meridian Delay" for ' W3 ' in the Mount's KeyPad and hopefully the Telescope won't slew around the Mount to point West from the beginning East position . The Astro-Physics V2 Driver I just installed in the laptop is the newest version and the ASCOM Platform I installed is the newest version , also . I am using MaximDL Pro V6.16 . The newest V2 Driver when you 'Connect' the Mount to MaximDL Pro has an ASCOM command page with settings and one is the "Meridian Delay" which might need to be active but the settings are different .... ' - ' minus numbers are for the MeridianDelay to the East and ' + ' positive numbers are for the Meridian Delay to the West , but this should work instead of using the Mount's KeyPad to do it . This sounds easy but if maximDL Pro doesn't know this is taking place the Telescope might slew from East to West ending the Mosaic Sequence . If MaximDL Pro acknowledges the Astro-Physics V2 Drive settings then are will work OK . The Astro-Physics Manual says what the "Meridian Delay" is doing is setting a ' fake time ' as compared to your site's Dec and Longitude and Time Zone and Meridian and if you are pointing East and you set the "Meridian delay" to ' W3 ' which would be West 3hrs. the Mount's computer would think the Meridian is 3hrs away even if the Telescope is pointing at the Meridian and past it and it won't slew around to point West if it is pointing East . So , If MaximDL Pro doesn't work with the "Meridian Delay" option of the Mount .... then maybe the time in the laptop and the "Settings" for 'Site and Optics' in MaximDL Pro and be ' faked ' also . I could be pointing East and do a GoTo slew after a two star aligning to IC1396 and assume the telescope is centered on the 'object' and a 'Re-Cal 9' with the KeyPad , then in the laptop I could use for the Clock the 'Pacific Time' instead of 'Eastern Time' USA , and in the MaximDL Pro "Settings" for 'Longitude' instead of ' 75 West ' I could enter in the Longitude of California and then 'Connect' to MaximDL Pro with the Mount and 'Connect' to the Camera and start the Mosaic Sequence imaging and maybe the laptop and MaximDL Pro won't think the Telescope position is anywhere near the 'Pacific Time' area and it might do the Mosaic correctly without flipping sides from pointing East and then pointing West ...till the Mosaic is finished and then return to the normal 'Longitude' and ' Eastern Time ' to continue with other 'objects' . But , at all times the Mosaic Sequence imaging must be monitored and I must stay at the Mount in-case the Mount slews around when it's not supposed to and I'l have to quickly Abort or Stop the Mount from flipping sides and pulling wires to the Cameras . The Astro-Physics Manual says that when you do a GoTo to and 'object' or star and do a 'Re-Cal 9' after centering the 'object' it will always work with that 'object' or star ... and when you slew or GoTo another star or 'object' and do a 'Re-Cal 9' it will be to that star or 'object' and you can 'Re-Cal 9' as many times as you want to .... but if you used the buttons and cause the Telescope to point at another star or 'object' and the do a 'Re-Cal 9' this will be added to the last GotTo or slewed to position you were at and that could be 30*degrees away and the Mount's computer would think it's at the other previous 'object' and the alignment will be off and when you do a GoTo to another star it won't be anywhere near it , probably . So, the idea of IC1396 and doing a 'Re-Cal 9' and then ' faking ' 'Longitude' and ' Time Zone ' might work while retaining the 'Re-Cal 9' with the Mount's KeyPad .?!?. x
