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Showing results for tags 'gear'.
Found 6 results
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My AVX mount is having some issues, and I'm currently working with my retailer to resolve them. I'm curious though if anyone else is aware of similar issues to what I'm seeing? Sometimes during a long slew, the mount "hiccups" as the slew gets momentarily interrupted then continues, with some inaccuracies in slews after this occurs. After a higher-speed slew, the mount starts making ticking noises, that match when the worm spur gear appears to repeatedly jerk as the drive is being taken up for normal tracking - as if the worm is sticking somehow. The motor spur gear has maybe 2-3mm of lateral rocking movement (in the same plane as the gear) seen as drive is reversed. Difficulties with contact over the handset serial port with the current (early Jan '16) firmware revisions on the mount and handset. I have video of these behaviours, but as I'm working with the retailer I won't post them up until after we've worked it out with the UK supplier. I'm interested to see if my issues are one-off and confined to my particular example or fairly typical of this mount as a whole. I'm just hoping that I won't have to exchange another time, or to have to swap to a completely different manufacturer. Note that I'm currently quite happy with how my retailer is dealing with the situation which is why I've no need to name that retailer at the moment, but I'm becoming unhappy at how slow the Celestron upstream supplier is proving at the moment. (I'm trying to use the mount for video astronomy, for video astronomy for outreach, and for the first steps into basic guided astrophotography. These issues make it more difficult to achieve these..)
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Hello All, I found a "fix" for having a damaged worm drive that I thought I would share. Earlier this year I managed to snag the RA slow motion cable on my jacket and snap the end off the brass worm drive. After reading some helpful posts on Stargazers Lounge i removed both worm drive assemblies and switched the RA with the DEC as a short term fix. It is a bit of a pain in practice as its awkward to reach the DEC knob when viewing. Last week I decided to take the plunge and buy a GOTO kit. Just before ordering I realised that the side of the worm drive shaft that is needed for the motor gear is the broken side. After scouring the net, and talking with a few shops, the end result is that it will cost around £30-35 for a new worm drive shaft and approx 4 month wait for it to arrive from China!! It suddenly struck me yesterday that the worm drive turns the scope in both directions and there was a good chance it must be symmetrical. Good news, it is!. It took around 5 minutes to take apart and re-assemble with the worm drive shaft the opposite way around. Very straight forward. I now have some brass shaft on the correct side to mount the motor gears. I hadn't seen this fix suggested anywhere before, it was only after staring at lots of pictures it become an obvious thing to try. I hope this helps someone else out there. Callum
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Should one drink Bruichladdich whilst browsing scope ads?
Polar Bear posted a blog entry in Polar Bear's Blog
It has been a while (June 2012) since I have been on the site. This has been due to a self enforced absence whilst I gave my all to a new career (contrary to popular belief I have not been in jail) Now I am bedded in with my new career I have the time and the finances to take up my stargazing again. As the title of the blog suggests, drinking fine malt whisky and browsing ads in the small hours may lead to some interesting purchases. I last left you having sold my Evostar 120 refractor followed by a brief flirtation with a Skymax 102 which was also quickly sold. I feel now is the time to move up a notch and have been looking at my options. As I am predominantly interested in Planetary observation (with a little webcam imaging) I am looking for focal length. Currently on ebay there is a 10" DKD featuring a Dall relay lens. This rare beast looks magnificent and appears to have been lovingly restored. Huge focal length and one of only four of these scopes ever made so it wins hands down on exclusivity but probably would require an observatory building around it so that is not on my list. Next up an Ultima 8, a respected scope from the 90's but one I may regret lugging about on a dark sky camping trip. Some nice GoTo 10" dobs on the fleabay but again size could be a problem. Short tube refractors are out and long tubes need a huge mount to be useable ! Things may be clearer after another tipple :grin: and I shall report back in a few days the outcome of my whisky induced shopping exploits. Its good to be back..... Paul -
Hie guys... I have just started machining my own equatorial mount. I purchaced an eq5 RA clock motor. But now i have no clue how to get the worm and wormwheel machined. All i know is that it has a ratio of 144:1 . Does anyone know the proper diameter or radius of the wormwheel...??? Could someone please help me out with this as it will save me a lot of time if i get the wormwgeel dia.
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Recently I opened my AZ-EQ5 mount for adjusting and greasing. I did not find any complete tutorial for this nor worm or bearings dimensions. I plan to replace some of those if I have the chance. Meanwhile, I will add some pics of the disassembly process. Open the plastic top case. Please excuse the USB hub attached, I did not remove that. Pull out the cable connectors. Put the top case with the controller board aside. The bolt inside the green circle can help you remembering or adjusting the belt tension. Loosen down the RA motor screws. Remove the belt. Unscrew the bolts. Remove the motor. The bolts inside the green circles can help you remember and adjust the worm distance to the RA main gear. Remove the bolts holding the worm case. Parts: RA main gear, worm case. Remove the screws holding the encoder board. You get access to the nut holding the worm in place. Remove this too. Remove the bolts inside the driving gear attached to the worm. Sorry, not the best pic. You can now proceed to push out the worm and the bearings. No pics for this, sorry. The bearings are 688Z, 16mm outer diameter, 8mm inner diameter, 5mm width. Worm dimensions measured with the caliper: 69mm, 36mm. Hope someone finds this useful. I'd be interested if the worm is identical to the ones used in the HEQ5. Clear skies! Alex
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Hello Everyone, My name is Forest Fernandez. I am a hobbyist Photographer that just started getting interested in Astrophotography. I started last year in 2016 with my current set up, a Canon 5D Mk3 w/ a Rokinon 24mm on Tripod with a shutter release. In my about me section you can go to my facebook where i have some of my photographs that i've taken. I will try to include some of them in this post as well. I went out every night last summer to take photos, really diving in to try to learn as much as i could. I fell in love! I am now interested in buying a Telescope that i can adapt my Canon 5D Mk3 to. Ideally: I'm looking for a telescope that will allow me to photograph Nebulae specifically. Galaxies would be great, but i know that only one or two are visible to beginner to intermediate telescopes. So far this is what i've learned that i need from researching telescopes: LARGE Aperture, more light i can pick up the better. Telescope that can pick up low light objects in the sky, i.e. Nebulae. Equatorial Mount, for the Photography element. Dobsinian i've been told is the way to go for low light Nebulae's and such. ADVICE: I am looking for advice from experienced astrophotographers here on the following things: - Any other factors i need to take into consideration to get what i'm looking for. That would be great. - I'd like to be able to make decently sized prints of these photographs, but i know that often times lower budget telescopes don't have great print quality. Any advice? - Telescope suggestions to pair with my Canon 5d Mk3. I have roughly a budget of 3,000$. I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's input. Thanks!
