Asymmetrical balancing of setup

[Ewan]

I think that's the correct term i am thinking of, in short on my C8 i have the Altair 10 x 60 finder (which is 2Kg).

I put my Atik on the scope to balance the setup, i placed the DMK (0.5Kg) in the finder as i use it to guide with & when i balance it flops to one side because of the weight on one side of the tube, i do have a piggy back mount on the opposite side to the finder & was thinking to get better balance i may get a chunk of steel (or other) threaded & screw this onto the piggy back mounting to equalise the weight ratio as best as possible, approx 2.5Kg.

Will this work ?

Has anyone else tried this or an alternative idea ?

On my AZEQ6 i feel the DEC axis is a little too stiff, it doesn't rotate as smooth as the RA, i have read this can be down to balance to a degree, maybe it's a little stiffer on all the AZ's i don't know, as its brand new & been outside twice i don't want to start fiddling with it internally.

I would appreciate any advice on this topic, guiding has been very good the 2 times i have tried it out so maybe im looking at 'problems' that don't exist.

[ollypenrice]

If you have very good guiding the one thing you should not do is change anything...

lly

[Ewan]

I do understand Olly. like i said maybe it's a 'problem' that doesn't really exist.

This mount has only had two quick ventures outside so testing the setup / performance has not really been available to me yet, the RA axis movement is very slick, smooth & steady just with a finger, the DEC axis on the otherhand seemed to be a fair bit stiffer, if i unlock the DEC clutch & touch the front of the tube it would not budge, needed quite a bit of force actually.

I did a rebalance / test again yesterday afternoon whilst running EQMod, this time the DEC axis was pretty smooth in both directions so maybe it was down to a slight adjustment or indeed the tempreture when it's outside.

[Dave_D]

I wish i could find an easy way to balance mine. My mount is a Vixen GP with no RA or Dec bearings and from reading many threads on various sites, it's a 'little stiff' compared to a lot of mounts. My scope can be well out of balance before it shows any movement at all. 

[ChrisLX200]

It's 'dynamic' balancing - you aim to achieve balance in any position on any axis. It is better to visualise each axis of movement individually and one at a time whilst aiming to equalise the weight distribution either side of it. Start with the OTA alone (front-back, side-side) then the DEC axis, then finaly the RA axis.

ChrisH