PortableAstronomer

I've decided to go ahead and do the mod on my EQ6.

Just received the parts, but during the manufacturing of the 12T pulleys, the holes were not centered. I received wobbly pulleys from the factory.

Hopefully it was just a one-off, and that others on here recieve good parts.

I am going to see if I can send it back and get it exchanged. Annoying because I have it post it back from Netherlands to UK.

I'll let you know how my mod goes when I've finished.

By the way, did anyone use a reamer to get the bore diameter to fit snugly on the shaft, or did most of you just use a standard drill bit on a lathe?

Clear skies

Thanks again to Steve & James at FLO.

Last purchase was some Helios Apollo binoculars. Was good to speak to Steve on the phone and the shipping to Netherlands was very good and reasonably priced.

Keep up the good work.

Chris

I could remove that digger arm and mount a big dobsonian on that!

Funny, I thought exactly the same thing when I saw that pic.

Clear skies

Chris

I bought my first scope from him back in the 80's, when he was working under the name of AstroSystems. When I upgraded my scope a couple of years later he offered to drive over and personally deliver it to the house, and part exchange my old scope. Had amazing service from him back then. Good to hear he's going strong.

Join a club; particularly the London clubs you will find people just like you who live in urban areas or apartments and rely on safety in numbers to meet-up somewhere semi-dark. WOLAS even do weekend trips away to somewhere rural.

At the moment I'm with Guildford AS; although they do lots of great outreach work and connecting with the public, unlike the London clubs most members at Guildford AS tend to live in better houses and many have their own private observatories at home. Their guest speakers are great but come with an assumption that you can 'go home afterwards and continue your observing/imaging there'; so they don't cater really for the urban astronomer or apartment dweller (but very nice people though). Yes they do arrange observing nights in the Surrey hills but they're often spoiled by teenagers in their noisy Vauxhall Novas with huge exhausts, flashing their lights at us for fun, and we've had visits from the police because idiots have called in to say there are suspicious things going on in the dark. They have an observatory in Holmbury St Mary but that's quite a long drive from West Londob.

If I were you I would definately join a London club, somewhere where more of the members in your situation (i.e. needing somewhere safe & semi-dark to use your scope), and don't mind driving there to do it.

Regards, Chris