Mr_Cat

Last night while sorting the ascom drivers out for the EQ6 and waiting for the clouds to move I had a nice straight Jim Beam Black with a Gurkha Reserve 18 Year Koi Cigar. I'm not adverse to a glass of something while I'm observing.

Behold my lowly post count !!! I came here to see what I could do with a POS telescope and every reply was super helpful and really friendly. It would have been so easy for someone to be condescending or patronising but nope - super helpful. You are a friendly helpful bunch !

Where I live the masons are a good bunch - I've played at quite a few mason functions and quite often end up in the break or before we start chatting to some of the members and largely they seem quite normal.. We held at funeral for a good mate at the masonic hall last year and they re-arranged a lodge meeting as our mate had been a rock guitarist and we wanted to put live music on. On the flip side... When I was selling my POS Jessops scope on facebook one of the Astronomy club member took it upon them selves to message me telling me I that they weren't interested in the scope but I should come along to the astronomy society for advice.. Not a beer, not a chat, not to see the observatory etc - specifically to give me advice So, the freemasons I can drink beer with, the astronomy society want to give me advice.. errr tough choice...

Not the postman but one of my mates collected a EQ6R in the UK for me Set up on the terrace and hoping for some gaps in the clouds tonight (although I have already pointed it quite successfully at the moon..) Makes my 8" orion looks small. Guess I'm going to need a new telescope...

A pretty decent night last night, some cumulous clouds passing through early on but cleared nicely, just fancied some moon time, swapped the 150 onto the mount to get the whole moon in, then back to the 200 for some general meandering round on the surface. A bit of higher level cloud passing over but didn't impact the viewing too badly. Had a play with the camera on both the 150 and the 200 - interesting light with the high level cloud. Didn't correct it as it gave it a nice sepia / vintage feel A very pleasant evening

When I find a second hand mount I'm going to get it sent directly to a mate and he is going to lend it to me for a while as "he's got a new mount" - then a few months later I'll casually mention he's selling it cheap so I might as well keep it

Thanks Bosun ! I've already had to rotate the tube - the trunions came in quite handy as I could loosen the clamps a lot with out worrying about the OTA sliding out - I'd had a look at the rotating rings thread before ordering the tube rings. It came in handy though - sometimes the Mrs struggles to view something I've been looking at (I'm 8" taller than her) but as I'd rotated the tube it was much better placed for her. Definitely a silver lining on that one. I'm looking for a EQR6 Pro with a new tripod - I've got a chunk of cash and on the lookout for a s/h one. Just waiting on some replies from sellers on Uk Astronomy buy & sell

Tube rings for my Orion Xt8.

Decided to buy some tube rings and a dovetail to throw the OTA on my Eq3 to see what it was like.. (I know it's right on the weight limit but I'm looking for an Eq6..) I left the trunions on so it's relatively easy to put it back on the dobs base I hadn't actually realised how much bigger it was than my 150... And it went ok on the mount, I could actually balance it - there is a "tremor" whenever you touch it as it is too big for the mount - but despite that it did work well. Huge difference in usability (IMHO) from the dobs.

Rather than using my tea break to do more traditional things (like make tea...) So - with the 12v battery hooked up to the 4tronix module it draws 70ma and the motor sounds crisp - the power is 0.868 watts With a pp3 battery hooked up to the hand controller it only draws 37ma and the motor sounds laboured - the power is 0.333 watts So it's a combination of voltage and amperage - more of both is good !

That belt drive is nice - might do that on my 8"

Yes, it was fine with the 12v - it seemed similar power / speed as using the 4tronix module - for a laugh I gave this (see photo) a try too.. an extra PP3 in parallel so it's the same voltage but double the possible current - bit more oomph than one 9v but not as good as the 12v (obvs..)

It will be fine - I've just tried the pp3 hand controller with a 12v battery and it powered the motor in / out quite happily except for the speed control not working - it was the same speed regardless of that setting. Opened the case and there isn't much too the circuit - I guess the voltage reduction on the pot is fine with a 9v source but does not drop enough to slow the motor with the 12v source.

When I bought the kit it came with both controllers. I'll put 12 v on the PP3 connector tomorrow and see what happens.. Should be fun, I've not fried something in a while..

It's the 4tronix module that is 9-14v, not sure what the original handset would do with extra voltage - but if you blow the Bottom out of your 9v controller I'll send you mine !

obviously it wouldn't fit inside the case but a bit more amperage for a few quid.. https://www.amazon.com/Corpco-Battery-Holder-Standard-Connector/dp/B07SRDPZ9Z/ref=sr_1_3?crid=26TL3TBAMRIF4&keywords=6+aa+battery+holder+9v&qid=1706564943&sprefix=6+aa+battery+holder+%2Caps%2C216&sr=8-3

Personally I really like mine - I was always going forwards / wait for shake to stop / backwards / wait for shake to stop etc - now I just press the remote button, and watch the change happen. Very very precise with a bahtinov mask.

Get a 12v supply too (I cheated - I found the 12v plug was the same as a set of dead push bike lights I had and I just pinched some crocodile clips from a battery charger..)

I got one about a month ago and after a few fitment issues (I wasn't happy with alignment of the supplied bracket so I made my own) it works perfectly. Also got the 4 tronix remote with the USB PC interface so I can control it from my laptop. I'm powering mine from a 12v motorbike battery which has plenty of "ooomph", something I thought was missing with a PP3 battery

They are PFTE furniture sliders. I've stuck them to the side of the existing bearing so they don't get caught up on the bolts used for the vertical supports. The underside of the top of the mount (the upper bearing surface) isn't smooth - it's slightly crackled or crazed. The centre bolt has been spaced with PFTE washers - so they take most of the weight, I added / removed washers until there was no wobble in mount Testing it afterwards was interesting - I'd say the stiction had been reduced but the sliding friction had increased - which actually is better as it feels more consistent. You don't get that pull / overcome friction / rotate too far / move back cycle...

What do we reckon ? These are 50mm diameter. What will these do to the friction/ stiction on the horizontal rotation on the base??? My original thought was more surface area will spread the load / decrease the friction - but now I'm thinking the extra surface area is going to increase the stiction..

I went for the Baader case too.

DOM..

Yeah - I'm guessing this is nine years old. there is a sticker on the base about formaldehyde

Ace - unfortunately then my cunning plan turned out to be not so cunning but great info - I have ten posts so far so just 15 to go... that seems far more reachable