Unfortunately, our current production runs, which will take us to March 2000, have been filled and we are unable to accept additional orders.

We plan our production runs every 12-18 months, deciding which instruments we will produce in the coming months and how many. Then we lay out our production schedule, estimating delivery of various products. When all the plans have been made, we accept orders for the instruments that have been scheduled. When all of the planned scopes and mounts have been sold, we do not accept additional orders. It would be irresponsible to accept orders beyond our planned production schedule.

We anticipate that we will plan our next production schedule in the Fall of 1999 and will accept orders toward the end of the year. These instruments will will delivered in mid to late 2000 and early 2001.

If you would like to order a scope or mount, please give us a call, drop us a line or send e-mail. Let us know which instruments interest you. We will place your name on our notification list or lists. Please provide us with complete contact information including name, address, day and evening phone numbers, fax number and e-mail address.

When a scope is available for you to order, we will notify you by phone, mail or e-mail. Instruments may become available if we have a cancellation or open another production run. Unfortunately our notification lists have become quite long. We know that we will be unable to meet the demand and cannot guarantee that you will be offered an opportunity to order a scope or mount in the next production run cycle.

Astro-Physics is a small company of dedicated and talented individuals who take a great deal of pride in their work. We are all committed to excellence in telescope and mount production and providing outstanding service. Although we have expanded throughout the years (some may remember when we started in our home more than 25 years ago), we cannot keep pace with the demand for quality products. Since we realize that maintaining our reputation is crucial to our continued success, we cannot grow in a rapid and uncontrolled manner in an effort to sell as much product as possible. We would rather sell the best telescopes and mounts than the most.

We will continue to grow and add modern machinery to become more efficient and productive. Most of all, we promise to maintain our quality standards and produce the finest instruments available today.

Several years ago, we decided to limit the aperture of our refractors to 155mm (6.1") or less. Although we produced some very nice 180mm and 206mm refractors in prior years, these instruments were very time-consuming, expensive and frustrating to produce. We found that it was difficult to obtain glass blanks in these diameters that meet our homogeneity specifications consistently. The specialized glasses that we use are very expensive and are not readily available. When one of these pieces must be rejected and replaced because it does not meet spec, it is very costly and delays production of all instruments. After a series of frustrating production runs, we felt that the lost hairs were not worth it. Roland has just one life to give to astronomy and these instruments were shortening it.

We have been researching alternative optical designs for larger aperture instruments. Specifically, we have been evaluating and testing prototypes of various compound optical systems like Maksutov-Cassegrains and Maksutov-Newtonians. The glasses used for these instruments are more commonly available in large blanks of high-quality than apochromatic refractor glass types. If you wish to be informed about possible future production of these instruments, please give us a call or drop us a line. We do not have any specific information available at this time.

Our customers voted on this issue with their orders several years ago and again last year. We offered shorter and longer focal length refractors of the same diameter simultaneously. The overwhelming response favored the shorter instruments that are more portable and can be used on a smaller mount. Since most customers don’t have the luxury of an observatory, the instruments they use must fit into their cars (along with the kids and other gear) or be carried easily into the yard. Also, more people are traveling with their scopes to far away locales. The scope they take must be small enough to carry along. The Traveler fits this requirement beautifully since it is within the airlines’ tough, new carry-on requirements.

No. Each optic that we produce is evaluated throughout the final figuring stage with interferometry. When the figuring is complete, we store the final result for our future reference. We considered providing these with each refractor, however decided that it would cause confusion as most people do not know how to interpret such results. The largest factor was concern that our customers would compare their results with one another in order to assert the superiority of their own instrument. This, in turn, would result in craziness on the used market. Such comparisons are meaningless since each lens is figured to our very high standard and any differences are insignificant at that level.

Stepper motors have limited slewing ability and lose torque at high slew rates. They can stall without warning while slewing. Even when driven in the micro-step mode, they are not as accurate as a zero-cogging servo drive. Steppers take more power to run and will drain batteries much more quickly.

The inherent pointing accuracy of Astro-Physics mounts and the positioning software is very high. At two star parties in 1997, we used the following system: computerized 1200GTO mount, Astro-Physics 180 f7 StarFire EDF and IMG260 CCD camera (512 x 512 pixels) from Finger Lakes Instrumentation. Once polar alignment was achieved, we selected images from one side of the sky to the other. Each time the image appeared on the screen, it was located on the same part of the chip as the previous images. We were very impressed with the consistency of the system. The IMG260 chip is very fast, achieving excellent results in just 5 minutes for most objects. The images were not guided, yet were sharp, a testament to the accuracy of the drive system itself and the fine resolution of the motors. This pointing accuracy is consistently repeated when observing visually.

DigitalSky Voice™ software contains an algorithm to compensate for atmospheric refraction. For maximum accuracy, you can enter the temperature and pressure at the time of your observing session. The hand controller also has compensation for refraction. It is a fixed value.

Many factors will enter into the pointing accuracy - precise polar alignment, orthogonality of the telescope to the mount (is the optical axis of the telescope parallel to an imaginary line drawn through the center of the right ascension axis pointing to Polaris?). Some of the reasons that the orthogonality may not be parallel are: mounting ring diameters are not even, the optics are offset slightly in the tube, or the cradle plate is not parallel to the polar axis.

Yes, but recalibration is very easy with either the GTO keypad controller or DigitalSky Voice™ software.

During the initial stages of development, we considered this question carefully since there is an obvious advantage to maintaining calibration whether the scope is moved by hand or with the motor drive. We discovered that the encoders available for reading the position of the shaft (4000 or 8000 steps) are very coarse (324 arc seconds and 162 arc seconds respectively) compared with the encoders that are built into the motor itself (.05 arc seconds). The encoders in the motor are scanned 300 times per second to provide precise sidereal tracking. As a result, the position and the rate are accurately controlled. We decided not to compromise the accuracy of the system by attempting to use the motor encoders and shaft encoders together.

When you are using the computer go-to functions, we recommend that you do not move your telescope by hand. The mounts are rugged enough so that accidental bumping of the tube or movement of the focuser knob will not generally cause any loss of position. For casual observing, you can simply sight Polaris up the bore hole in the polar axis for rough polar alignment and use all of the controller functions except go-to. The telescope can be moved easily and smoothly by hand.

No, the shaft encoders are not used in the operation of the computer drive (please refer to the preceding question). Optional 4000 step encoders are available for all Astro-Physics mounts so they can be used with JMI digital setting circles, if you wish.

Let’s face it, many of us live in light-polluted areas so star hopping is a real challenge. We’ve been amazed how easy it is to find objects with the computer drive that are embedded in the haze and sky glow. Even when star hopping with the best maps, you have to identify nearby star patterns so that you can zero in on the obscure object you are seeking. This is not always possible.

If you wish to be adventurous and find objects on your own, you can simply drive the mount at sidereal rate and move the telescope wherever you wish. The Astro-Physics mounts were designed so that you move your telescope easily by hand even with the clutches engaged normally. You don’t have to engage and disengage the clutches each time you move the scope. In other words, you have full flexibility.

You can use DigitalSky Voice™ software (included with your mount), in conjunction with Software Bisque’s TheSky™. You will need two available serial ports on your computer since both programs must obtain positional data from mount continuously. Our computer drive system was designed to input/output RA and Dec numbers (same protocol as the Meade LX200, LX650 and LX750 mounts). Other programs written with this protocol should also work.

Very few customers ordered the SMD drive system (servo motor drive with a micro-drive controller that allows basic mount function without the go-to capabilities). We determined that the demand for this model was too low to continue production.

Initially, our goal was to allow upgrades for older 400, 600E, 900 or 1200 stepper motor mounts. However, the accuracy demanded of a go-to mount is much higher than a conventional mount. As the GTO model of each mount was developed, we redesigned various mechanical components to achieve optimal performance. These changes cannot be made to existing mounts. The cost of updating the electronics of an existing mount would probably be at least $2,000 (the entire drive system and controller would have to be replaced), yet an older mount would not be as accurate as the newer mounts. As a result, we determined that upgrading would not be cost effective for the customer. We have decided that upgrades will not be made available.

The 800, early 600, 706 and 504 mounts also cannot be retrofit with the computer drive due to the tangent arm declination drive.

Very easy. The screen layout was designed to be as intuitive as possible. You can slew to any object you wish with a minimum of mouse clicks. The program was written from a voice-centric point of view and not just an overlay of voice onto a graphical program. As a result, you can accomplish any of the functions of the program with either voice or your mouse (or touchpad), as you wish.

Once you use it and realize that you are simply speaking in your normal tone of voice, it will seem natural to give verbal commands.

• It is a pleasure to stand at the telescope and say "Find the Wild Duck Cluster" rather than trying to remember the catalog number and general location, then returning to your computer to enter the information (or flipping through your star charts to find the object).
• Your eyes can remain dark-adapted since you don’t have to look at the computer screen or turn on your flashlight.
• On cold nights, you can leave your computer in a warm location and control the telescope by microphone.

DigitalSky Voice™ uses a natural English grammar compiler for true voice recognition and doesn’t use pattern or phoneme matching. It does not require training to understand your voice. You will use easy-to-remember words and phrases to give the commands.

These are some examples of commands you will say:

• "M1." DigitalSky will slew to any Messier, NGC, IC or ADS object when you simply say the name of the database and the number. If the object is below the horizon, DigitalSky will let you know.
• "Find the Crab Nebula." DigitalSky will slew to the names of common objects.
• "Object data." DigitalSky will tell you the object that you are looking at, the type of object and the magnitude. Additional information is provided for double stars and planets.
• "Local time." DigitalSky will tell you the time.

DigitalSky Voice™ has been used successfully with a variety of US and foreign accents, however we cannot guarantee that it will work with all accents or speech patterns.

A voice recognition practice feature is provided in the menu. Before your first observing session, you can practice the verbal commands with your computer at home.

Flexibility was an important goal in development of the software. You can use the screen display with or without the voice output and voice recognition. The software can operate in conjunction with the hand controller or on its own (for remote astronomy), as you wish.

Yes. You can add your favorite objects to a user defined "cool objects" list. The object list will display on the screen whenever you are observing within that constellation. You can also add your objects to other parts of the program.

You can use DigitalSky Voice™ with the Meade computerized LX200, LX650, LX750 and DS Series; Meade ETX-90/EC and ETX-125 with AutoStar; Celestron Ultima 2000 and NexStar 5; Vixen SkySensor 2000-PC and other mounts which use the same protocols.

Although we have not tested all the microphones on the market, we have been pleased with the response of microphones as inexpensive as $40 from Radio Shack. Several less expensive ones were tried with poor results. You will need an external microphone with an on-off switch. Wireless microphones are an excellent choice, however they are more expensive. If you try to use the microphone that is built into your computer, the program will hear itself speak and become confused.