NEQ6 sloppy DEC

[Roy@Aldermaston]

I'd be grateful for any thoughts on how to cure this. When locked there is movement in the NEQ6 DEC axis, which causes the scope to slump. Not a great deal of movement, but enough to make star centring difficult when doing an alignment and also affect the GOTO accuracy as the scope slews. I've also noticed that when the DEC clutch is tightened the axis rotates slightly, so that if a star is being centred in the Telrad it needs to be placed off-centre to allow for the movement as the clutch is tightened.

I hope this makes sense.

Roy

[foundaplanet]

Hello Roy,

I'm sure you will have checked this but I had to tighten up the dovetail shoe when I first got the mount, could it have worked slightly loose?

I have the same problem when locking the dec clutch and although it is only a small amount it is a little annoying. I assumed that they are all like this? Would be good to hear from other owners to find out.

Hope you can get this sorted.

[cgarry]

Hello Roy,

I have the same problem when locking the dec clutch and although it is only a small amount it is a little annoying. I assumed that they are all like this? Would be good to hear from other owners to find out.

Yes, my NEQ6 has the shift while the dec clutch is tightened problem too. Very annoying but not the end of the world I guess.

Cheers,

Chris

[TFC]

My HEQ5 pro has backlash in the dec axis too - I bias the balance so that it's eyepiece end slightly heavy.

Tony

[Roy@Aldermaston]

I hadn't though of checking the dovetail shoe, that could be the cause. I agree the movement is slight at the dovetail end, but that results in increased angular movement at the eyepiece end. I suspect that you're right and that all of these mounts suffer from some float, and I imagine that making the OTA eyepiece heavy is the only solution, short of stripping down and fine-tuning the mount.

Roy