Mounts

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by madtuna

Alex, have you noticed much of a difference before/after?
and was it easy enough to do? ie: basic common sence..what comes out goes back in the same way etc..

cheers,
Steve

I took time mainly for thinking the next step...
The first pull down took hours because I did not want to stuff anything.

Yes after I put it back together and found no bits left over I must say it seemed better ..however I have no graphs so it may be me kidding myself.

But I have always found polishing moving parts effective and sometimes there is something that the factory never intended.. but the gears were better than I expected and sat very nicely with wear indications that they were sitting perfect.. such is not always the case ..I put it back together with no greese and used only light machine oil..on the basis that it will be pulled down often .... also I feel there were some squashed bugs in the gears maybe caught by the greese and so oil was my choice...

The only thing that threw me was removal of the conical bearing on the RA..I thought it was screwed in so I spent hours loosening what I thought was a screw washer but it was part of the bearing..so I was unscrewing something that had no thread... I can now pull it down and put it back together in under five minutes...
alex

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by skwinty

I found that if I moved the dovetail back until the ring was very close to the eq6 head then the dovetail flex disappears leaving only tube flex which should really be minimal unless there are strong winds.
But as I said earlier, still to test the grand theory.
Regards
Steve

Steve I have no rings a bolted the dove tail to the OTA with a piece of timber shaped to meet the curve on the inside of the OTA..this is reasonably efficient however I feel I will reassemble it and add glue to the timber (hard as nails or similar) so as to bed the timber on the inside of the OTA... this should fix the flex however some additional brakets will fix it for sure..I opted for no rings simply to keep the weight down... if I like the set up I intend to build a lighter OTA ..my main concern is that it is so big and at the moment the EP sits such that I have to get on a cahir or ladder to look thru the camera..I can fix this by reconstructing the pier but I builtthe thig so strong it will be a job to cut it down...
Also as strange as this sounds I seemed to get more light than I needed... for the stuff I like to photograph.. 200 seconds (unguided is easy) and a stack of 200 second subs is more than I need.. the dark location lets me get a lot ... but you know how it goes one has to have a go because it is there..but in truth I feel the set up for me finally is a good 100mm refractor and 10 minute guided runs... before the pull down I was getting runs of 9 minutes with little attention to correction of RA and those "bumps" may well be gone after the "blue printing"

alex

[g__day (Matthew)]

Guiding is retrospective, so it minimises tracking errors - they still occur - they just get adjusted continually - after they occur.

Excellent PE stops them from happening - thats why the Paramount ME is a 1 arc second build quality - I've heard of ones that track to 1 arc second an hour precision!

Guiding is like driving round a bend fast and having a safety rail that you keep bouncing off, so the worse PE - the more scratches. Fewer corrections - better shots.


Worse the larger your PE - the more chance it is uneven (irregular) - so the harder it is to guide out - or put another way the higher percentage of time you are gathering photons and you're off target on your shot.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by g__day

Guiding is retrospective, so it minimises tracking errors - they still occur - they just get adjusted continually - after they occur.

Excellent PE stops them from happening - thats why the Paramount ME is a 1 arc second build quality - I've heard of ones that track to 1 arc second an hour precision!

Guiding is like driving round a bend fast and having a safety rail that you keep bouncing off, so the worse PE - the more scratches. Fewer corrections - better shots.


Worse the larger your PE - the more chance it is uneven (irregular) - so the harder it is to guide out - or put another way the higher percentage of time you are gathering photons and you're off target on your shot.

You've hit the nail on the head!! Give your stars as smooth a ride as your wallet will allow and know the limitations of the equipment before you buy. IMHO buying stuff you know you'll grow out of quickly can be less economical than spending more in the first place and certainly more frustrating. Of course, you'll need to match your goals with your wallet. EG: If you're never going to image DSOs at a long FL then you'll probably never need to spend a $squillion on a PME (unless you just like the look of the thing ).

Cheers, Marcus

[Babalyon 5]

Originally Posted by iceman

btw to IceInSpace!

Thankamayou!!!!


20kgs would be nearly all up, which is an LXD55 SN10, guide scope & DSI,s(colour1 & Pro2). Also, with the Envisage and an LX200 command emulator, you dont really need a guide scope. Enjoying the replies, very helpful.

[Babalyon 5]

What other manufacturers of mounts are there? I tried several Googles with differing search titles, however, I don't seem to get too many brand variations.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Originally Posted by Babalyon 5

What other manufacturers of mounts are there? I tried several Googles with differing search titles, however, I don't seem to get too many brand variations.

I don't think there are any other mount manufactuers other than the following.

• Skywatcher
• Losmandy
• Vixen
• Takahashi
• Celestron
• Paramount

It really depends on how much money you are willing to spend. If you have the money to burn, go with the biggest and best mount you can afford.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by Matty P

I don't think there are any other mount manufactuers other than the following.

• Skywatcher
• Losmandy
• Vixen
• Takahashi
• Celestron
• Paramount

It really depends on how much money you are willing to spend. If you have the money to burn, go with the biggest and best mount you can afford.

Don't forget Astro-Physics!! (Mach 1 GTO and 900 GTO)

Cheers, Marcus

[Babalyon 5]

I s'pose what Id really like is a Paramount ME. Being married with kids, Id say it'll be NOT one of them!