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| A lot of folks who have switched from forked mounted telescopes to a German Equatorial Mounts (GEM) are baffled by the meridian flip. I was one of those people who could not quite picture the concept of the meridian flip in my mind's eye until I saw it for the first time. Fork mount scopes configured in Az/Alt or mounted on a wedge in equatorial mode can track continuously from one side of the sky to the other as shown in this SLEW MOVIE (approx 6.5 megs). While there are some, most GEMs can not slew from one side of the sky to the other because thier design incorporates mechanical stops. These stops are intended to prevent the Optical Tube Assembly (OTA) from impacting the pier or tripod and to also prevent the cables attached the OTA from wrapping around the mount. Because of this limitation the mount has to flip is position somewhere near the meridian in order to continue it's tracking across the sky. |
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The
first left image the GEM mounted telescope is pointed at the star SAO
39331. The location of the star is marked by the crosshairs. The
star is located on the east
(left) side of the meridian. The meridian is depicted by the division line
of the purple and red shaded areas.
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In the
image on the right, Galaxy NGC-1039 (crosshairs) is on the west side of the
meridian, while the scope shown below is
on the eastern side but pointed west. Again the dashed white line depicts
the meridian |
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Clicking
on the image to the right will show a
3.5 meg AVI
file* of a meridian flip.
The video starts with the beginning of a meridian flip. The scope was positioned on the western side of the meridian while tracking an object on the eastern side. In order help visualize the scope's movement in its westward tracking in this video, the silver counter weights on the left side would have been moving upward before the scope stopped to execute the flip. After the flip is completed the counter weights will be on the right side and would now be moving downward during tracking.
The other important item to mention about the mederian flip which is a concern to astrophotographers, is the camera attached the scope is rotated 180 degrees after the flip occurs. This mean all the images after a meridian flip will be flipped top to bottom and left to right as shown by the two images on the right of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2025) and its bright companion star Alnitak which also illumenates the nebula Herschel H28-5 *The file is very slow and choppy. It does not accurately represent the speed and smooth movement of the Paramount ME. |
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Updated 01/19/2008- Please report broken links webmaster@jatobservatory.org