Hii Matt, I am really delighted to have this mount and pier. Its through the work of many enthusiasts that the mount has come to life again. Lars Hanson in saving its bones, yourself for the complete dismantling, sand blasting, careful brass cleaning, shellac and painting then reassembly. Zane H for the magnificent ra gear and worm, Fahim for the Losmandy/Celestron drive and Matt T for the construction of the tangent arm, azimuth adjuster and ra worm gear with steppers controlled using a Losmandy/Celestron 492 digital drive. Love the way my engineering friend redid the clutch so the ra gear is now completely exposed. I dont think the electric drives detract from the mount as even most of the great old large observatory refractors have lost their clock drives for more modern electric systems. The old telescope eyepieces have a whitworth thread, apparently thats what was decided upon by the Royal Astronomical Society in England 1847. Nice reference here on page 152
http://www.brayebrookobservatory.org...REFRACTORS.pdf
The 3" refractor is a heavy lump at 12 pounds of brass.
Mark