CGEM1100 Celestron

[joeman (Joe Turner)]

Hello,
I had some ticking on my RA during tracking. Instead of the gear/belt moving steadily, it LOOKED like it was moving in discreet movements....like it was having touble doing a step...and then backing off. Eventually it sorts itself out...


So, what I decided to do was re-lubricate the big gear for both RA (and DEC for good measure) and so far, I haven't seen the ticking.

I got this telescope in 2017...so been nearly 5 years without service. It did tick about 9 months ago, but I never had the time to look at it.

Is it really possible that this is the issue?

I used Lithium grease - is this a good grease to use? if not, what is beter?
I didn't pull the whole unit apart, I just applied a bit of lithium grease, then move RA, then applied a bit more grease, so on....

[joeman (Joe Turner)]

I've done up some videos of the RA and DEC, after application of grease.

https://youtu.be/6_1cBPLhUCY
DEC

https://youtu.be/j-T_DvGTF48
RA

One other thing that concerned me is that the belt is not 100% on the motor timing gear. It is probably about 80% on, but that is enough to skew it a little.

What do you guys reckon?

The play in the RA motor system was better. I screwed the small (2mm) screw only a little to reduce the play, just a bit.

I'm now going to do a tonne of pretend Alignments and viewing of objects to see if I can reproduce any more ticking. Fingers crossed it doesn't show itself.... and if so, back it will go into the telescope shed.

It will be nice to get back into this Hobby....too long looking at the dust.

[joeman (Joe Turner)]

Oh well. I've done lots of tests this Sunday and I've not seen any more clicking. So I guess it is solved!

So, if you guys have a mount clicking during tracking, consider applying lubricant to the larger gear. Easy to do do (compared to other things we could try doing).

Cheers!

Joe