StarryEyed

I was quite surprised how intuitive an AZ is for star hopping after so many years using an EQ. I guess I will end up the same way.

I returned the mini not quite right and bumped to the bigger head. Quite a bit bigger. About the same weight if you include the weights with the mini. I never weighted them. Better all round in every respects. I had a lot of fun hopping around with this last night the 30mm APM UFF making it child's play and I did feel like a kid again. Can hold the scope steady whilst swapping eyepieces and refocusing. Should last longer than my fifteen year old EQ5 which I still have and will use for high power with its motor. But this is a tremendous amount of fun.

An old thread I know. I came across this and thought I should add it here. His last appearance.

Three months and three AZ heads. Enough already.... Arrived today. Suns going down. Not a cloud.

My V dipole and radios are all in bits at the moment. I hope what ever you took that bit of two by two from is still standing!

unlocking the both axis helped reduce vibrations for me. But the tension spring has it's limits and this is easily reached when the axis is locked down.

I made one from a couple of long screws and two bits of wood and two hands to hold and turn it. When tightening it's easier to get the right tension with two hands.

I would add you also want to know the FOV of your likely targets. Your interrsts. You almost want to work back from this.

Minor Planet Centre https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K19/K19RA6.html I got really excited so looked it up in Sky Safari. From SE UK Then I realised how faint it might be and got depressed. Then I thought maybe I would look anyway as it might brighten and got excited again. Bit low down in the sky.

anything near the equator.

wow you can see Jupiter. I can't, not from the house, I have to go to the end of the street for that. Try the moon until your comfortable with the scope and can check it out its a great target for this.

Star hop. It's way more fun and like having a window seat for the journey. You can often be surprised at what you see on the way. As said most setting circles on mounts are not that useful. I would rather be looking at stars and be lost than looking at setting circles and be lost.

From my mid twenties I always wanted an omega speedmaster but could never afford one. For my 50th couple of years ago I was in a situation to be able to afford one and bought a TAK FC100 instead as I have wanted a really good refractor since I was eleven! I looked at the Bulova which I think they reintroduced a couple of years ago. I belive they are a bit tricky to find. There's a great thread on it over at watchuseek.com Wear it in good health.

congratulations!

you could Photoshop out the garden and stick the image of the lens and cell on a t-shirt. Thanks for sharing.

Wow the writing on the lens cell reads like poetry... it's such a good read it's like a great book and you want to re read it straight away.

Excited?

A GSO 8" Dob. There's plenty to photograph without using a mount. A good camera tripod and a fast wide lens. You could add a small goto camera sized mount when you feel ready. There's lots to choose from. Keep the telescope and camera separate for as long as you can.

anything is possible.

Outstanding.

I assume it's not changed. Things do go wrong sometimes. For what its worth the alt axis shaft and end bearing inner bore were within 0.02mm of each other on my calipers. However 19.86mm is too small for a 20.1 extension bar. A simple fix for a CNC lathe to open it up to accept the bar. It didn't look finished so I think it just got forgotten about and slipped through. Frustrating and disappointing but that's all.

I passed on an AZ GTI the week before which was great for travel but not stiff enough for me at higher powers. I might just let the dust settle.

I wonder who owns the design. My FC100DF with a two inch eyepiece and diagonal would have been great with a counter weight which was my intention. If there are issues with the supplier/manafacture not the dealer who have been great to deal with, I hope they get these fixed it's clearly a well thought out head.

Sadly I sent it back. The supplied balance bar would not screw into the other side. Callipers measured the hole at 19.9 with the bar at 20..05. This side the hole was not reamed through and not anodised the other side had been. Without a counter balance this affected the tensioning of the azm axis leaving the azm axis loose lifting the head cause it to rise up out of the base a little. As a whole like this it rattles. It seemed a great solution but down to the finishing, tolerances and appearance this is not what I expected.

count me in. just need to remember my OU password.🤔