Fraunhoffer

Re-awakening an old thread. .. Does anyone know what size the roller bearings are in the black thingy between the two metal sheets in the AZ bearing arrangement? I noticed peering underneath that I have some play between the lower friction clutch plate housing (held by 4 blind bolts) below the gear wheel and the wooden baseplate. I can only see it matters if the decoder spindle also has some play, but I cant see that with everything in place and thought I would get every thing ready and change the rollers whilst I'm at it. I cant feel any play in the 4 'blind' bolts from underneath - but wish to at least check that out . Thanks

Question - related to looking after my purse. I assume there are no issues using a Barlow with a Morph ? Might look a bit strange towering on top of a barlow I suppose, but optically ? Thx

Great news. Sadly 2 years after getting a shield fitted to a streetlight at the bottom of our garden, the light was changed for a new spangly LED one where the shield no longer fitted 😞

Lovely 🙂

Ah i see where the heater is. What are the rectangular blocks in the second picture?

As Autumn and winter approach, I wondered if anyone had some tried and trusted tips to keep the dew away (apart from copious dew heater patches). Ive read about wrapping the tube in foil or bubble wrap. Does it help to put a blanket on the ground ?

You may be able to find pulleys and belts of the correct ratio at a 'robot' hobby store and keep the drive. (I put the Skywatcher Eq5 goto pack on my Exos 2 - needed a biy of DIY for the Dec axis motor mount - but it works fine - I do mostly visual so cant help with any guiding figures)

At last I found it and was surprised to discover that I could pour on the power without it degrading too much. Even the central star was visible. A filter didn't help me on this. A bit awkward to sketch standing up as it was quite high up. I use a little a6 artists wire bound hard back sketch book and HB and 2H pencils.

I have a little clip light that was (too bright) orang so I covered the light bit with a couple of strips of red insulating tape. Fine now.

Thank you. Very helpful link.

Ive read this about the 14mm several times - what does weakest mean plse, and is it significant. How would it compare to eg. the UFF (various brands) 15mm? Would going from 15mm UFF to 14.5 Morph be a worthwhile/noticeable upgrade for the expense? Thinking of 12 inch f5 dob (+ CC) or c8 (+ f/6.5 focal reducer). Thanks.

Super. Very nice.

Thanks for this post - still very useful and so glad I found it (again). Just about to start tinkering.

Ok - Ive found the link I was looking for .....

It looks like the base is just held on with these 4 bolts. I hope there isn't a great big spring behind these 😕 - nope they just turn freely and after taking the cover off, the other side, this doesn't look like a 5 minute job any more.

As its summer, I thought I would give my dob mount some TLC with a service/tune up. I'm thinking of checking the backlash, greasing the gears, tweaking the slip-clutch friction and the smoothing the bearings on the base. Much like any other mount. I wondered if anyone has done this? I'm not afeared of diving in with the tools having stripped down and rebuilt my EXOS.2 (and stripped down car gearboxes and engines in the past) I'd just like to know what I'm in for and if anyone has any tips. Some time ago I did find a blog but failed to bookmark it and now cant find it. The only thing I can remember is that setting the friction clutch can be a bit fiddly as its adjusted with a locking nut that needs to be just 'so'. If anyone has any links or tips, Id be muchly grateful.

I use a 2inch diagonal and fr on my c8 all the time. It works fine. The only issues ive had are with eyepieces with fl greater than 30mm with vignetting and the centre obstruction becomes visible. I think the tube on my c8 has a 38 mm inside diameter so do anything much larger than eg 30 mm 70 deg ep wil start to be degraded. The fr stays on most of the time to keep the tube sealed. I find the bigger diagonal gives a bit more space between the back and eyepiece making observing more comfortable.

A great weekend of catching some faint fuzzies from camping out at a (much) darker than home site. Oh and a spotty sun too.

I have a cheap little bendy orange night time clip on reading light with extra red insulating tape wrapped around the end. I either clip it to the sketchpad or under the telescope to shine where im sketching and dropping pencils on the floor. Also handy to shine over eyepiece and filters case.

Great sunspots today. It was a nice to get the pencils out after what seems an age.

I found this a very satisfying subject to see from my urban location. It took a while to sketch as I kept blinding myself every time I put pencil to paper. :-)

Great sketches. Sun getting quite active again.

Super sketch. Lots of detail. I going to see the sun today...but clouds.

Lux. model includes peanut butter jar lid and number plate double sided tape. 🙂

A decent focuser right off the bat too. ... Locks up wallet quickly ....