56 replies to this topic

[Omally]

Seems like the other way 'round: the clutch is too loose allowing the motor to run without turning the worm wheel.

I'll give that a try when it's not raining, thanks!

[Omally]

 

Attempted Star hopping for the first time. Didn’t have as much luck eyeballing it as I’d hoped. I’m thinking of picking up a proper star atlas...

I'm quite fond of Stellarium, it's very useable on any platform and has a red-light mode. Very handy on my iPad by the scope for example. Also gives you all the Dec and RA figures you need to dial in on whatever you want to look at. Oh yes, and it's free!

https://stellarium.org/

[Grounddweller]

So working during the summertime on the coast is brutal on the time off, even with a pandemic in place. That means that this project will be slow-going. This is the exploded view of the 8” I picked up a few weeks ago. It looks like there has been some mods done to the tube, adding a small cooling fan behind the cell. I do not know if the black plastic base cover is original but it looks like the hole cut out of the centre is a homemade mod. The mirror was heavily covered in dust & dirt, but a quick sloshing in plain water removed a couple of layers. The secondary is not as heavily covered, though the interior of the sonotube has a good coating throughout. The focuser seems like it came out of a gum ball machine and is not fit for use, as it seems like Meade concentrated on the optics and cheapened every other aspect ( thankfully for that aspect at least). 

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[Grounddweller]

Here is the mount. It looks to be in good shape despite missing one of the legs. It seems that the power cord has been removed (?) but the battery compartment is still operational and does turn the unit on. A good cleaning and rust removal should provide a big difference in the appearance, though finding a matching leg could be very hard indeed.

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[Grounddweller]

Mirrors cleaned up nicely. A small occlusion on the secondary about 1/4 inch from the bottom edge but overall they look very nice. A prosthetic is being sent from another CNer. Project on hold until after surviving the Independence Day holiday.

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Edited by Grounddweller, 30 June 2020 - 07:08 PM.

[Bomber Bob]

Here is the mount. It looks to be in good shape despite missing one of the legs. It seems that the power cord has been removed (?) but the battery compartment is still operational and does turn the unit on. A good cleaning and rust removal should provide a big difference in the appearance, though finding a matching leg could be very hard indeed.

I think I used the external AC adapter once with my 2 SF mounts, just to test it.  A big plus for me with these mounts is the built-in battery compartment.  I keep at least 2 packs of 9V transistor batteries on hand, in case I run short of AA batteries.  IME, the 9Vs will keep it running steady for at least 15 hours.  The AAs go much longer -- a couple of months.

[bjkaras]

Some of those old high quality newts like the Cave, Meade or Criterion were really excellent. Any of those would give an Apo a run for its money. When I had my Cave 6” I would have stacked it up against anything.