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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 251
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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OK I was going through my box of reclaimed bits and I spotted a couple of goto mounts in there, I connected them both to a known good autostar 497 and they both function, now what I need to know is what is the capacity of these mounts, the meade website gives all the specs for all the scopes they use on this mount, but about all I can find on the mount is the slew speeds, I just want to know how much I can hang off that single arm without straining the mount too much, about the biggest I can see on their site is a 130mm 1000mm f/l newt, now this is about the same sort of weight as my 130mm skywatcher, but can I push this further, though I can also see myself putting a small 70mm refractor on this mount too.
Grendel
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magic612
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/30/08
Posts: 561
Loc: Somewhere south of Chicago, IL
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grendel - I don't know what the max weight those mounts will handle, but what I can tell you is that I took off the 4 pound, Bird-Jones style reflector that came with mine, and replaced it with a 7 pound 4.5" f/8 reflector. Of course, I balanced it so that it's not lifting too much weight one way or the other, but I haven't had much in the way of problems with it. In fact, I've been trying to figure out a way to make a lighter weight set up for my 5" mirror so I could put it on there instead. I don't think I'd want to push it past the 7 pounds I've got on there presently, but that's just me.
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- Celestron C8+, Orion 90mm f/10, Orion ST-80, 5" f/8 Dob, 127mm f/9.4 refractor, 114mm f/8 on DS GoTo, 60mm Sears 6333-A, 127mm f4.4 refractor lens (current project), 12" f/5 mirror (future project)
- Orion Vista 10x50s (5 deg), Sears #6207 7x35 (7 deg), Jason #138 Statesman 7x35 (11.5 deg)
Yes, I'm addicted to telescopes and binoculars. I am getting help. Every time I look at the heavens, it helps.
http://www.eyesonthesky.com
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 251
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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cheers I will have to weigh my 130mm, other than that it willprobably be small refractors, I dont think it will be man enough for a 6" f10 though which is another project I have in the pipeline.
Grendel
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wfj
sage
Reged: 01/10/08
Posts: 260
Loc: California, Santa Cruz County
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There are two kinds - one with roller bearings and one with teflon bushings - look under the batteries, pull up the shaft cap screw and you'll see which it is. Obviously putting too much torque on the bushing one will cause it to wear out faster.
On a lark, I put a 6" f/5 reflector on it, and used that combination for close to a year before it wore out. I then replaced the bushings (don't ask how) and now have a 4" refractor on it.
The problem is off axis torque, and even with a refractor long tubes move the CG too far from center. The problem I also encountered with the 6" was that the CG was offset too far off the side, so as to verge on the unstable - the GOTO's were acceptable but not dead on. However the advantage of the combination was very useful aperture on a light combination - but it just was too fragile and unbalanced.
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 251
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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Looks like its the teflon one, I can see a nut with what appears to be a teflon washer under it. but it looks like I should be able to run my 130mm skywatcher on it as well as my plethora of smaller scopes.
Grendel
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jgraham
Postmaster
Reged: 12/02/04
Posts: 6764
Loc: Dayton, Ohio
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I have the long-tube version of the DS-2130 and I suspect that's about the limit for this mount. The limiting factor seems to be the moment of inertia as it slews from one object to another. The 2130 does fine (mine's several years old) but I wouldn't want to go much heavier. I've also heard you need to clean the greese out of the clutches periodically. I haven't done that yet, but I suspect it's due.
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-John
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Homebuilt scopes from 4.25-16.5"
Meade LXD75-N6/SN6/SC8, DSX-90, ETX-60BB, ETX-125PE, DS-2130
Orion StarBlast, BinoViewers, Coronado PST
Rebel XT/XTi, DSI Pro (I, II, & III), DSI, LPI, Electronic Eyepiece, Phillips SPC900NC
Tasco 60mm Refractors
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 251
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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Yes I tried my 130 skywatcher on it last night, a little excess vibration, but on the unopened legs I have found there are a couple of positions where the mount and tripod tip up and try to throw the scope on the ground, I think I may modify the tripod to splay the legs further apart, which should cure that.
While I was at it I changed out the focuser from the skywatcher for an old meade one, this had a metal drawtube instead of the chromed plastic one on the skywatcher (yes even the rack was chromed plastic), This involved a little modification to my slow motion focus now, in the end I had to swap ends so it bore against the slightly larger diameter of the spider mount.
Grendel
Edited by grendel (09/27/09 09:54 AM)
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