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Starman1
Vendor - Scope City
Reged: 06/24/03
Posts: 11086
Loc: Los Angeles
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Re: Intelliscope questions--on balance...
05/19/08 10:47 PM
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Your scope has a lot more friction in the axes than mine has, obviously.
My scope could be pointed at the horizon with a 6 ounce eyepiece on board, and if I removed it, the scope would head for the zenith.
Balance is a matter of stiction. A 2 ounce weight added to my UTA will cause the UTA to head for the ground.
I've seen a lot of dobs where a 6 ounce weight won't do that.
It's about how you want the scope to move. I prefer to track at 365X with one finger on the lip of the UTA. I've viewed through scopes where you had to wrestle the scope to move and then it moved in little jerks (jerk-stick-jerk-stick).
If you find the adjustment of a weight (which only takes a second) to be such a burden, then I guess that's what you have to put up with unless your scope is so large the eyepiece is an insignificant % of the weight of the scope.
My eyepieces vary from 6 to 36 ounces, though, so a weight was mandatory.
Since the weight was mandatory, I took the extra step of reducing the friction on the axes to the point that every eyepiece requires different settings of the weight depending on the altitude of pointing.
I can always tell when someone with tight bearings in their scope sits down at my scope--they way overcorrect and move the scope too far. 
I do notice one downside to low friction, though.....wind. When the wind is blowing, I observe with a tight grip on the UTA. Fortunately, that's not common at my observing site. And light breezes aren't a problem.
One caveat about the lazy susan style bearing--they develop dimples at certain points so that eventually the mount moves almost in "click-steps". You're better off with teflon pads and formica.
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Don Pensack
12.5" Truss Dob, 5" Maksutov
Sustaining Lifetime IDA member, TeleVue junkie
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