Mah haws gone dead

[Ags]

It looks like my four year old 4se mount is dieing under me... Slewing rates are patchy and jerky and I have to wiggle the button to get it to switch on. Maybe I could strip down the mount and give it an oiling, or silicone greasing (I dunno what's best) but I dread opening it up, assuming I can. And assuming I can close it up again afterwards.

Assuming it dies, then I would need a new mount on strictly limited funds - I am thinking of an AZ4, but I'm not sure how well they work at planetary mags (150x - 220x).

[htj]

Hi

If the 4SE mount is already failing, there isn't that much to loose by opening it up and trying to re-grease it. However it also sounds as if the electrical components are a bit wonky. Be careful and take it slow if you do.

Regarding the AZ4 stability, it matters greatly what you put on it. I don't think there will be any problems with an 4SE or ST80 though. Weight and length of the OTA has a huge influence on the stability. With those telescopes you could probably also get away with the cheaper AZ4 with aluminium legs, but the steel legged version will handle a bigger OTA much better, if you get one of those later.

It might be possible to use the legs from the nexstar mount with the AZ4 head. They don't sell the head alone, but alu version is a bit cheaper, saving you a bit of cash. If you are lucky it might be possible to sell the alu legs as well. Not sure if the nexstar tripod is better than the alu tripod though.

One thing you should you think about is if you are okay with a manual mount for planetary. At high magnifications it does require regular adjustments, especially if you narrow eyepieces like Abbe Orthos or Plössls. I typically use a 100ED on manual mount and I'm okay with it, but I typically use a 7 mm XW 70 degree eyepiece at around 130x and let it slide across the FOV, but not everyone has such eyepieces (though you could get the ES82 11 mm relatively cheap - given the quality of the eyepiece).

[Ags]

I think I will wait until the thing's proper broke before I try to fix it :-)

The SE tripod is very stable - tubular steel legs - but I doubt that the AZ4 head would fit on.