eq8 is here

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Originally Posted by rustigsmed

overtoasting the pier clamp nuts?

Incandescent! The lock nut siezed and the liberal application of brute force, I sheered the bolt in half. No damage to the tripod itself thankfully.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by AstroJunk

Incandescent! The lock nut siezed and the liberal application of brute force, I sheered the bolt in half. No damage to the tripod itself thankfully.

well that confirms a theory i had - they sending you a new bolt? when i bolted mine together for the first time I thought to myself how much tension would these take if you over compensated to "hold up" the mount and gear on top?

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

well that confirms a theory i had - they sending you a new bolt? when i bolted mine together for the first time I thought to myself how much tension would these take if you over compensated to "hold up" the mount and gear on top?

Originally Posted by AstroJunk

Incandescent! The lock nut siezed and the liberal application of brute force, I sheered the bolt in half. No damage to the tripod itself thankfully.

yep i reckon i nearly did the same thing, with the lower one. but i haven't revisited the mount since i unpacked it on Day 1 ... i'll be extra careful when i get back to it as i want to lower the pier a bit..

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Originally Posted by OneCosmos

I put the question to Rob McIntyre at Tasco and thought this forum might be interested in his response:

"The clutch levers may be at the end of there travel. You can adjust the position of the lever, buy undoing the retaining screw on the lever shaft.
As they have the same star position setup as the NEQ6."

I will give it a try later today if I can.

if this works it would make life so much easier!

[OneCosmos (Chris)]

I have just tried but nothing I do seems to make any difference, but then again I'm not sure what method is supposed to work.

I tried putting the lever in the unlocked position and loosening the screw, then moving it back to locked before re-tightening and several other combinations.

Does anyone know what the actual procedure might be?

Chris

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by OneCosmos

I have just tried but nothing I do seems to make any difference, but then again I'm not sure what method is supposed to work.

I tried putting the lever in the unlocked position and loosening the screw, then moving it back to locked before re-tightening and several other combinations.

Does anyone know what the actual procedure might be?

Chris

if its like the eq6, do the clutch up tight and then undo the screw and take the lever right off - reposition the lever in a more convenient alignment on the shaft - it has an interior a bit like a ring spanner and will lock on the square shaft at more or less any orientation you want.

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

well that confirms a theory i had - they sending you a new bolt? when i bolted mine together for the first time I thought to myself how much tension would these take if you over compensated to "hold up" the mount and gear on top?

I haven't told them yet, But I'm sure one will be sent in the fullness of time! I would expect the mount flanges to break well before the bolt if you seriously over tighened it, and that would be a problem...

[Tandum (Robin)]

Cripes, do you have arms like popeye or what? Maybe you need a tension wrech.

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Originally Posted by Tandum

Cripes, do you have arms like popeye or what?

Nah, it was only M12 Stainless. I chew bigger for my iron suplements

[OneCosmos (Chris)]

Originally Posted by AstroJunk

I took this video a while back - its not a sophisticated test, but shows how solid my clutches are! I suggest that some simple adjustments are needed for others: http://youtu.be/ArbNmPd_lvI

yep my levers can now be tightened to hold everything rock solid. just in case anyone else is wondering I had to start with the levers in locked position then unscrew them completely taking them off, tighten the hex nut more then put the levers back on with plenty of room to tighten further if required. Now the scope won't move and the levers still have space to move further.

Chris

[Tandum (Robin)]

Watch that dec one. I closed mine when the scope was west and it caught on the motor box when the scope went east.

Apart from the horrible noises, now it's wobbly. Tasco have washed their hands of this issue and I got the same email you did.

[OneCosmos (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Tandum

Watch that dec one. I closed mine when the scope was west and it caught on the motor box when the scope went east.

Apart from the horrible noises, now it's wobbly. Tasco have washed their hands of this issue and I got the same email you did.

Last night I had my first night out with the scope - visual only and I ran in to the problem I think you were highlighting. Just in case people don't quite understand what the issue is I have posted a couple of pictures. You'll see that the problem occurs if you push the locking lever fully flat. You MUST therefore ensure that fully locked is at a good angle - see photos.

For good measure I have also included a photo of my system with the new telegizmos cover which arrived yesterday and made last night possible.

Chris

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Thanks for the heads up on that guys.

[jcm (John)]

Originally Posted by OneCosmos

Last night I had my first night out with the scope - visual only and I ran in to the problem I think you were highlighting. Just in case people don't quite understand what the issue is I have posted a couple of pictures. You'll see that the problem occurs if you push the locking lever fully flat. You MUST therefore ensure that fully locked is at a good angle - see photos.

For good measure I have also included a photo of my system with the new telegizmos cover which arrived yesterday and made last night possible.

Chris

Would making the locking lever slightly shorter solve this problem?

John

[Tandum (Robin)]

If it was short enough to bypass this, it would no longer be a lever. It would be a knob.
Just typical SW poor quality control. I am in no way surprised.

I watched RickS setup his AP mount at 10 chain hill this arvo.
The counterweigths had bass inserts instead of plastic bushings !!!
You get what you pay for ....

[pmrid (Peter)]

Also at TenChain, I switched guiding over from relays and a guide cable to Pulse Guiding under EQMOD. Works well - managed a good hour before cloud closed us down and the guiding was darned good. I won't be going back to relays.
Peter

[Tandum (Robin)]

Good to see it's working pete. Now there are lots more adjustment options for guiding.

I've found you just need a gentle push to get it back on track.

[rob288 (Robert)]

Originally Posted by Tandum

If it was short enough to bypass this, it would no longer be a lever. It would be a knob.
Just typical SW poor quality control. I am in no way surprised.

I watched RickS setup his AP mount at 10 chain hill this arvo.
The counterweigths had bass inserts instead of plastic bushings !!!
You get what you pay for ....

The issue with the lever having to be adjusted is not a new problem, in several instances both the Celestron CGE and CGE pro needed the levers moved as well out of the box.

[OneCosmos (Chris)]

Once you set the lever at an angle it isn't a problem at all.

I have now had a couple of nights with the EQ8 I thought it might be useful to write up how it went.

Because I can't connect the cameras up properly yet with the OAG and Lodestar I decided just to connect the Canon 50D directly to the focuser for a 1200mm fl and just see if I could get any kind of image without guiding.

Setup:

The ground has a significant slope and I made no effort to level it - in fact the pier looked like the leaning tower of pisa . I Performed a very rough polar alignment using a compass and inclinometer - but really didn't take much time over it.

Mounted the telescope, and using the SW hand controller performed a 2 star alignment. The first star, Arcturus was surprisingly close and the second was Antares - a bit off, but I centred. Pointing at this point was Ok.

I thought I'd try the SW polar alignment routine using a high powered illuminated cross hair eyepiece (I don't think the version of the firmware I used with the HEQ5 Pro had this). It works on the same lines as Alignmaster but actually it is better because unlike the latter it doesn't really how far off polar alignment you are to start with - just up to you to move the RA and Dec as far as it needs to be. Alignmaster simply fails if it thinks the margin of error is too high.

The SW polar alignment routine takes you a star (massive choice) and you centre it and then it goes to one more star and you centre that and it is then moved to where it should be and you move first the DEC axis and then the RA. You can of course do this iteratively - I didn't.

Pointing was much better now too.

I found M20, stuck the Canon 50D (modified), focused using a combination of Liveview and a magnified angle finder and did a series of exposures to see, at this focal length what the EQ8 could manage. Anything above 30 seconds showed trail, but given the rather rough polar alignment (everything took about 10 minutes) I was pleased.

I took 99 30 second exposures, no darks, no flats, no bias frames, stacked in DSS and only a minimal histogram stretch in PI. the result is attached. Also worth noting this is from Ascot, 7kms from the CBD!

Chris

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Its only taken 4 and half weeks since collecting my EQ8 but it looks like the clouds and moon have finally cleared allowing me to actually use it. i hope i remember how to put it together

unfortunately, i've got a heap of things to sort out with my system so doubting i'll be able to provide too much in terms of performance.