[Discocactus (Bill)]

Steve
My sympathies. I have been attempting to use a 6" tube on an EQ2 mount (also bought cheaply with a 4.5" scope). I have just added a fair amount of sheet lead to the counterweight because balance seems to be very important using this small mount. I expect the extra weight will help offset the light aluminium legs. The best improvement was recently when one of the slow motion controls broke off. Now it's very easy to move the scope without the knob getting in the way. Another improvement will be when a friend who is building a single engine plane will mould a resin handle for a broken RA knob. Finally, my next improvement will be to add a clock drive ($89 from Andrews for the deluxe model); although this seems like overcapitalisation, I just bought a 4 mm plossl (250X thru this scope) and tracking is gunna be a must. I'm also gunna buy a 40 mm (25X) plossl as a step up from the finder to use for easy location of objects. At least I finally got to see Jupiter's bands the other morning with this scope at 167X.

I have come to the conclusion that I should get a list of objects to look at in the same general area and plan my session beforehand.

Finally, the 4.5" I have gets out of collimation pretty easily so a combo collimator from Bintel was a good investment.

Have Fun

Bill