September 10, 2000
Got up early to take a crack at Jupiter and Saturn. I mistakenly thought that
the GRS would be visible (mistook today for yesterday, I think.) Anyway, I'm focusing
a lot more carefully than I'd been and have decided that a major portion of what's
left in terms of fuzziness is coming from vibrations in the ETX clock drive. This morning
I tried 'jogging' the guide button. This causes the drive to "burp" a bit, making for a
potential bad frame if it gets taken during the move, but followed by a couple of good frames
as the drive waits to start up again. At 15 arcsec per second, a 1/30 sec exposure only drifts
.5 arcsec while the drive is just sitting there, which is acceptable.
Anyway, this is my current theory, and I'm sticking with it until I change my mind.
Oh, and I'm displaying images twice as big as I've been. Halving the sizes makes them
look sharper, but it seems like a crutch.
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