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Meet The Beast...

ollypenrice

By ollypenrice
in Member Equipment Reviews

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Yves arrived a few days ago with a rather nice collection of items in his car. Briefly put, a Mesu 2 friction drive mount (capable of guiding a small Harley Davidson), an ODK 14 inch F6.8, a Starlight Xpress H36 full format CCD, a Mac, an OAG and all the trimmings. He found me in a useless condition having put my back out fixing a woodburner so he had to do the build up entirely himself, but all went incredibly well and by the second night the setup was able to knock out thirty minute subs at a focal length of 2.4 metres with perfectly round stars in awful seeing and in blustery wind; call it a success! Oh, and it did fit in the new observatory after all...

Full assessments will follow but the Mesu is very impressive on first sight. it is entirely styling free and all the more beautiful for it with simple, elegant, generously specified construction from end to end. It looks like quality and when is slews it sounds expensive! For a mount of this accuracy and payload it is quite the opposite, though, at less than half the price of a Paramount or AP1200. I want one. It's controlled by Argo Navis, the Australian system, and Servo Cat. These are easy to like.

The ODK is darned impressive, too. The flat field is huge, the stars perfect across the full frame chip and at F6.8 (and used, at this FL, in bin2) it is astonishingly fast, as some quick Horseheads confirmed. This really did surprise me because at smaller apertures the effects of binning strike me as being far less dramatic.

Anyway take a peek, starting with the proud father! Here's Yves.

YVES-M.jpg

No worm, no backlash?

FRICTION-DRIVE-M.jpg

Polar alignment adjusters designed to work for the next five hundred years...

ALTITUDE-M.jpg

Simple is good; vee blocks and gravity.

SIMPLE-M.jpg

And a handset stand. Now why didn't I think of that? I will be building one next week, no messing!

HANDSTAND-X2.jpg

My life being the hard, relentless thing that it is, it will be my onerous duty to spend much of my time taking pictures with this little lot for some time to come. Tough, I know. I feel your pity, good friends and thank you for it. I'll bear up as best I can...

Olly

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rfdesigner

rfdesigner

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That is some mount

About the only thing I've seen that comes close to my MkIV for brute strength (by the looks of things) but clearly far more refined.

The OTA looks stunning too.

You of course now have a duty to make the most of this kit.:(

Derek

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barkis

barkis

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How do the drives connect to both axis Olly?

You say friction, but that black cover suggests there could be a toothed belt beneath it. Much like a cam belt?

It sure does look a quality piece of equipment. A look that spells out great engineering.

Ron.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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How do the drives connect to both axis Olly?

You say friction, but that black cover suggests there could be a toothed belt beneath it. Much like a cam belt?

It sure does look a quality piece of equipment. A look that spells out great engineering.

Ron.

A steel roller presses on the edge of a steel disc. Surprizing (to me) but true. The Mesu website discusses the pros and cons of different drive mechanisms and Lucas Mesu explains why he chose this over the other possibilities. His article is considered and honest and bears no relation to a piece of marketing spiel. It's a good read:

Newsworthy Articles

It seems the mount is selling very strongly and since I paid

about the same for the small Takahashi EM200 I can see why. Clearly the Mesu2 is observatory only, or it would be for me, at least!

If anyone is interested then I strongly recommend that they PM me for one or two bits of additional information.

This morning Yves stacked some half hour subs in an x-y only routine and there was no perceptible field rotation. Since we did the drift alignment in about ten minutes flat we are both a little dumbfounded by this and suspect the presence of divine intervention!!

Get that big bright thing out of the way and let's get started!

Olly

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rfdesigner

rfdesigner

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coefficient of friction: Steel-Steel 0,78

so long as it's perfectly clean... if not then it drops off a cliff, so I wouldn't be taking those covers off even just for a peek.

Derek

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Anweniel

Anweniel

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Expect no excuses now Olly, only perfection will be acceptable!

When you realise that its a piece of junk I'll send you my address and I'll make sure it gets 'disposed' of properly :(

In all honesty I don't really think I would know where to start with it! Good job its in some very skilled hands, cant wait to see what you guys get out of it

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RobH

RobH

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I'll be very interested to see if the mount is performing as well as it seems to be currently in a years time once a bit of damp has got to the stainless steel surfaces. They've been around for a couple of years now....how are they holding up over time?

Rob

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Peter Drew

Peter Drew

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I have a friction drive as the final drive to a stainless steel polar disc on my 220mm refractor. Damp has not yet affected the friction possibly due to the weight of the system. The N roller bearings are enclosed as much as is possible and felt wiper pads keep the surfaces clean.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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But Olly, that's pretty much the way a C R A Y F O R D works!

Coat, Taxi! - fast exit, portable parapet, South America visa, bullet proof vest .....

I pretty much knew someone would get me with that one and I had a strong feeling Mr Photon Counter would be the one!! A free pint for you there, Steve...:(

There are differences: one half of the Crayford is a flat strip, exposed to the air and frequently cosmetically coated with something about as abrasive as Teflon in a chip shop. It is carried as draw tube often supported by felt pads, not on an accurate axle with accurate bearings.

My attitude to Crayfords is that in reality they usually play up. Whether in a while the Mesu will play up I simply don't know and I'm not going to leap up and say it can't happen. But the small roller will surely wear first and shouldn't be too difficult to replace and reload. As Rob says, they have been working for a while now but let's wait and see.

Someone mentioned 'damp.' I've been down here for a few years now and I do remember this English word. Damp...? Damp...? Nope, sorry, it's gone but maybe it'll come back.:o

Olly

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RobH

RobH

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Someone mentioned 'damp.' I've been down here for a few years now and I do remember this English word. Damp...? Damp...? Nope, sorry, it's gone but maybe it'll come back.:(

Olly

Don't rub it in Olly :o:D:D

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vdb

vdb

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Back home after a full day drive, tired but happy. (and a bit sad too :o)

So yes that's me in the picture :(, I never thought this crazy idea would work out but apparently it did, ok, ok we still need to see a real picture, but that is a matter of time I hope/think. I still am in doubt if all is working, driving down 1100 km setting the whole thing up and taken pictures the same night ... Can't believe it.

The polar alignment is either a mystery or is as easy as it was thanks to the easy system, probably a mix of both and I still doubt it.

The telescope, well I bought it begin this summer and during that time till now I started to begin doubting as I could not even get a decent collimation procedure. Olly and I did a quick secondary align and it's ok for 99% someone with the same system claims we need to collimate the primary mirror as well but I think we leave it as is for the moment ...

But stars are round corner to corner on a full frame chip better then my Tak?!

I wil refrein posting samples for the moment as they where taken under windy and not collimated conditions which would do the setup no justice ... I think we will wait till the master has gathered some quality lights ...

About the mount, don't worry about the wear on friction drive or corrosion, I know a dutch guy who is using Mesu 1 since some time now under evil damp dutch conditions. The mechanism is robust no corrosion (if you don't use it for a year who knows) using it is polishing the whole thing over and over again making it better all the time ...

Here is his setup:

Astrophotography by Rob kantelberg

Yves.

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