Telescope Reviews: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more!

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421664 - 09/14/12 10:04 PM

What's nice, though is it appears to be a driven circle. The pointers are attached to the polar shaft and turn with it, whereas the circle does not. So hopefully it's on a hub attached to the worm gear so it turns with the gear. Like Optical Craftsmen did with their mounts.

-Tim.

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421666 - 09/14/12 10:05 PM Attachment (18 downloads)

I soldered the broken wires to the dec motor. And plugged the power cord in.

Drive works, but slow motions don't.

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421669 - 09/14/12 10:08 PM

Okay, sun went down. Going to go indoors for a few hours, though I might come out and put an eyepiece in the 6".

I still need to scare up a ladder for the 12.5". The "easiest" one to get to is one of those origami things that folds in all sorts of directions so it has really uncomfortable rungs. I've also got a 10' aluminum ladder, but that's a bit too big. I'm thinking a good 6 footer, maybe even a good 4' step ladder with the handrail on it will work. Loaned the 6' I have to my daughter a couple years ago. Haven't seen it since!

-Tim.

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Datapanic
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 10/17/09

Loc: Tucson, Arizona

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421675 - 09/14/12 10:14 PM

Quote:

Okay, sun went down. Going to go indoors for a few hours, though I might come out and put an eyepiece in the 6".

I still need to scare up a ladder for the 12.5". The "easiest" one to get to is one of those origami things that folds in all sorts of directions so it has really uncomfortable rungs. I've also got a 10' aluminum ladder, but that's a bit too big. I'm thinking a good 6 footer, maybe even a good 4' step ladder with the handrail on it will work. Loaned the 6' I have to my daughter a couple years ago. Haven't seen it since!

-Tim.

I usually use a 6' and a smaller 2-step ladder with the 12.5" One of these days, I'm going to make a stand as it's a lot safer and easier than using a ladder in the dark.

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: Datapanic]
#5421920 - 09/15/12 05:54 AM Attachment (26 downloads)

Okay, so first night out under the sky! Jupiter is VERY nice in this thing, and it's only been outside for about an hour, so it hasn't likely equillibrated completely. It's hot at 3am, and I'm a pool of sweat.

Drive is running, but the clutch is too loose. I took the clock cover off to adjust it, and found this massive boston (prolly) ring gear:

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421921 - 09/15/12 05:56 AM

Those 4 bolts are NOT the clutch adjustment though. It appears to be a clamp on the other side of the gear that squeezes the hub onto the shaft on that side. The hub on the north side appears to be brass and has slots in it so it can be squoze. Oddest clutch I think I've ever seen.

The RA circle does indeed mount to the protruding hub you see here, so it is driven with the gear, and the pointers are mounted on the shaft. So the RA circle doesn't need to be set more than once an evening.

-Tim.

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421938 - 09/15/12 07:00 AM Attachment (21 downloads)

Oh wow!

I adjusted the clutch, and figured I'd try the drive corrector again, and everything works! The dec slow mo doesn't always engage, so it seems I've got crusty contacts in the hand paddle or something.

But check this out. Jupiter with my Pt Grey Flea2 color camera. No barlow, just f/7 prime focus! I enlarged the image 2x in processing and stacking, but not too bad for a first try.

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sgorton99
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 04/30/08

Loc: Wisconsin, Madison

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421945 - 09/15/12 07:13 AM

Amazing!

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421946 - 09/15/12 07:13 AM Attachment (21 downloads)

Okay, this time with the 2x shorty barlow, so still only shooting at f/14.

Seeing doesn't appear to be as good as I thought, so I'm going to give it a 4/10, with transparency a 5/5 (it's really clear!).

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421948 - 09/15/12 07:14 AM

But...

This scope is definitely a keeper! I don't think I even need to restore it, just clean it up and repaint stuff like the focuser where the paint's coming off.

-Tim.

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421949 - 09/15/12 07:16 AM

haven't seen a single impact, though!

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tim53
Postmaster

Reged: 12/17/04

Loc: Highland Park, CA

Re: Only had 2 Caves, so bought 2 more! new

[Re: tim53]
#5421951 - 09/15/12 07:24 AM Attachment (20 downloads)

I tweaked the focus, but I think the seeing is worse, because it doesn't look any better even though some of the frames seemed sharper while the video was running.

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