I attempted my first drift alignment on the weekend and experienced some problems.
1. I found that the screw at the 'back' is very very tight and once it reaches about 52 degrees i need to use my other hand to hold the mount and take opressue off the system. I did loosen the other screw to give the problem screw room-to-move.
2. moving the latitude tended to move the mount/tripod so that the alignment star shifted drastically. Contrast this to the azimuth adjustment, which is smooth.
I do not want to force the latitude adjstment, and in fact, i do not think I can force it much more.
I notice someone else had added new handles for the latitude adjustment to make it a lot easier but I cannot seem to find the photo anymore.
I am also concerned that my entire setup moves when i change latitude.
I have the older style black EQ6 and once loaded with the OTA and balance weights the bolts are indeed difficult to turn. They can also end up bent. They need to work together - loosen one - tighten the other, but you shouldn't need to move them much if you set your latitude as close as possible before adding the OTA etc.
Its recommended to replace them with stainless hex bolts or custom made with handles.
It's normal to have to undo one to tighten the other, as Chris said. They need to work together.
I replaced mine with 10mm (I think) bolts from bunnings. I just use a small rachet with the right sized socket for adjusting them. The rachet stays in my kit.
Thanks, 33South and iceman.
The pictures were on Hagar's EQ6pro. How could I not remember that? I just read the ad the other day!
I have been turning one and lossning the other, in fact loosening both before starting. It just seems extremely hard to move, near impossible. I am just concerned abotu benindbreakign the bolts OR damiging the mount...
I should investigate replacements, or at least look at the bolt option.
The first and most important thing you should realise is that cast aluminium, most aluminium for that matter, is a damn side softer than steel.
It is very easy to force the steel bolt/screw and strip the thread in the aluminium casting.
The more weight the EQ6 carries, including counterweights, the harder the bottom bolt will be to turn, as all the weight rests on that bolt.
My EQ6 is pier mounted and carries a 10" F6 Newtonian and a SWED100. The only way I can adjust, move, the bottom bolt without damaging/stripping the aluminium thread, is by removing the end cap and pole finderscope, inserting a wooden or steel bar, undo the top bolt slightly, take the weight of the bottom bolt by lifting the bar enough to relieve the pressure on the bottom bolt and do the adjustment required.
Ill chime in here too. your not alone buddie, i picked up my eq6 last week, and i too experience that the thred/bolt combo is stupidly tight and i had NO weight on my at the time (i use a digital angle meter to get it almost spot on) and i was at my limit of pushing harder for fear of stripping thred or bending the little twistie handle.
on the up side unless your going 10's of km's away from your normal viewing sight, its going to be pretty much the same every time.
yes, it is insanely tight (especially the back bbolt), even without weight.
I probably will not be going anywhere with the mount, although, is something astronomy-related is happening around melbourne over the long weekend I might have to go there. An inclinometer (?) would be useful.
In the tool section in bunnings, its a little cube about 50mm x 50mm by 25mm, you can measure absolute angle or set a referance angle and then measure from that, also has a level feature and will tell you which side is up which side is down. 39 bucks
I still keep in handy the level to get rough guide straight up but then use that to get it dead eye d1ck! and its correct to the 0.1 degree aka, 32.01 deg yay
basis is that it uses a accelorometer (i think it is) and the gravity moves some liquid or something inside (its a jesus box) and gives a output in Degrees.
In the tool section in bunnings, its a little cube about 50mm x 50mm by 25mm, you can measure absolute angle or set a referance angle and then measure from that, also has a level feature and will tell you which side is up which side is down. 39 bucks
I still keep in handy the level to get rough guide straight up but then use that to get it dead eye d1ck! and its correct to the 0.1 degree aka, 32.01 deg yay
basis is that it uses a accelorometer (i think it is) and the gravity moves some liquid or something inside (its a jesus box) and gives a output in Degrees.
I cant say that i have really taken too much notice of it all. but i from memory, its pretty accurate. Definately not something you could set grenich mean time on but it will land you somewhere in the ball park
Be very carefull with these screews. I wasn't and I bent one of them. Then when I was trying to to get it out for replacement I stripped a thread. As a result I had to buy Keysert Key Lock Thread Inserts just to repair the stripped thread first.
The problem with latitude screws (especially back one) is that they are not ending perpendicular to the surface of internal post which they are supposed to hold in place. The front one is not loaded much (for our latitudes that is.. because the the centre of gravity is well in front of the vertical axis of the mount. It has to be tightened a bit just to keep the whole thing not moving, but in principle we could live without one)... (see drawing attached).
The result of this is the screw is skewed and the thread is under stress downwards (looking from inside of mount), which results in bending or even damaging thread(s) as a worst case.
My solution to this problem-issue was two-fold:
- Replaced original screws with M10 high tension screws (shortened such that they do not protrude more than 15mm from the mount, I do not intend to travel to the equator or Pole so I do not need them to be un-necessary long.
- I added counter nuts and spring-loaded washers, which hold the screw perpendicular into its threaded hole.
- Installed high sensitivity bubble-level (instead of crappy one, supplied by Sinta), so that I adjusted the screws only once. From now on the latitude I adjust by levelling the whole thing with bubble-level, by inserting plastic wedges under two legs (those things that go under the door to keep them open), or simply by placing the mount always in the same place, in the three water-pipe tubes hammered into the ground (later I plan to do it properly by making three concrete slabs, one for each leg.. before I build the concrete pier.
There is no need to align the mount every evening if I use the same observing spot (in the corner of my backyard). Small errors in alignment from night to night (which are smaller than overall PE BTW) will be taken care of by auto-guiding anyway.
EDIT:
At some stage I will re-design the elevation mechanism by welding much thicker post. This will inevitably reduce the mount ability to adjust for any latitude.. but this is not important at all.
Also, I will use M12 screws, driven into steel threaded nuts, inserted from inside of mount, so that there will be no thread into aluminium (very bad idea, Sinta..)
My EQ6 scale is 2 degrees off. It shows almost 40 while the gauge displays 37.80. I'm using the same angle gauge device with only difference that I've bought mine from ebay. Found them after that in bunnings for the same price I paid for mine.
Mine is slightly more accurate than yours, though its still out by a bit, I know i set it to 32d00" now i know that my location is 31d52" (explains the edge of ep ) on the actual mount head its saying 30d50" approximately. Hence the digital angle meter is happy gets me right online.
Oz stockman whats your setup procedure?
-i have made a piece of wood that comes out from the headmount using the location pin for the head mount to get my bearings for true south
-raise the legs 50mm, put the bubble level on 3 different angles associated with the legs, then put the DAM to get it right on.
-Put the head mount on and shoot a level for the Dec of 31.52 degrees
Thanks, bojan. your technical info is welcome.
After reading ozstockman's and your replies have made me wonder about 'replacing' the aluminium thread as you mention. Spring loaded washers sound like the go, as well.
brendan, is the difference of 8 minutes noticeable in images or will further drift alignment for latitude be required?
Im not imaging yet, though it places the object on the edge of my ep. Drift aligning will eliminate this problem to some extent, and further accurate initial alginment.
As for your screws and what not unless you are changing them all the time i don't see a major issue with leaving as is. if your that worried about it you can but untill it presents a major issue i will be leaving mine as is.
I see where bojan is coming from but i would more likely suggest that the cutting of the teeth was extremely tight, as when i lay the head unit on its side, both screws are tight and they don't have any weight or stress on them.
I see where bojan is coming from but i would more likely suggest that the cutting of the teeth was extremely tight, as when i lay the head unit on its side, both screws are tight and they don't have any weight or stress on them.
Brendan,
When you un-fasten the screws and then leave your mount lay on the side, are the screws tight then?
Mine were not - they were actually reasonably loose, as it should be expected of tapping properly done.
Then, what I saw as a potential problem was the fact that adjustment of the screw that was pressured by the mount under load (back screw) was changed with tightening of the opposite one, which should not happen and what I saw as a clear indication that the screws are not perpendicular to the surface of the post, so they were stressed radially, with the potential of damaging the threads by load weight (and even bending the screws under load.. remember, there is potentially 50 kp of load (telescope + counterweight) on one side of the the 200mm lever, held by that screw only 50mm away from pivot point.. which means more than 200kp load on post and screw thread.. a lot, especially if you have additional lateral stress.
So I decided to stiffen the whole thing a bit by adding the nuts. I simply like to have details done properly, no matter how simple or complicated they are
I notice someone else had added new handles for the latitude adjustment to make it a lot easier but I cannot seem to find the photo anymore.
As for handles on latitude scale you can do something like this (vernier): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EQ6/ph...unt=20&dir=asc
However, I do not see the point.. polar finder is much, much more accurate, and as said before, once you adjusted the latitude, there is no need for re-adjustment if you have good bubble level.
yay
