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Posted by Robert May on February 6, 2003 20:59:02 UTC

Interesting project!
If you really want to do this, the people at SBIG are probably the people that you want to talk to.
If I was to do the job, I'd probably want to make a whole platform for the scope that would track Polaris (don't forget that Polaris is actually about 48' off of the Polar Axis) and maintain the platform level. You will not only have to accomodate the tilting but also rotational errors as the building will also be twisting in the wind.
The alternative would be to have a system to automatically lock to a suitable star in the field and track that with the mount's control system. While this wouldn't be suitable for photography of any duration due to rotation of the FOV, it will keep the scope pointed at the field you are viewing.
I find it unusual that the angle and rate are rather high as I would more expect that the motions would be more in the 1 degree or less for tilting and the rates to be in the minutes rather than seconds. Something moving that fast would quickly be a seasickness effect on anybody even half way up the building. In addition, rates anywhere near that high would probably only be seen in a storm condition where a scope really wouldn't be used in the first place.
Good luck!

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