Quote:
Originally Posted by goober
I got my "Saturn" bundle today, along with the offer on a Patrick Moore DVD issue. I'm not sure I need this, but if Coz Colin can comment...?
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[Right! We'll try again!]
Can't comment on the DVDs, I'm afraid - I didn't sign up for them. Have to admit that I'm not particularly interested in astronomy as a whole, and seeing that they didn't deal specifically with the orrery, I decided not to bother.
We've finished the build in the UK, with the exception of the (official) power supply unit. That's about three weeks overdue now, so needless to say a few folk have strapped an alternative to it in order to check things.
Suffice to say, some are experiencing headaches at the death. Quite a few reports of faulty and/or noisy motors, for example.
In my particular case, I can't get an earth/sun orbit time anywhere near the suggested 36.5 seconds (=10 days) even at full speed, leading to lots of tinkering. Tighten some bits, loosen others, to gain a second or two. The downside is that this tends to have a negative knock-on effect elsewhere....usually the arms.
Another concern has been with the collars (!) - or rather, the support arms. It appears that there's even a range in arm diameters, from about 2.95mm through to 3.05mm. Granted, just a "gnat's" as they say, but you get a "bad" arm and a "duff" collar, and you've got a bad combination there!
Don't get me wrong - it's still an impressive looking piece of kit, but whether it's the "accurate working model" that's claimed....well....time will tell, I suppose.