BC&F Astro Engineering equatorial mount - help needed

[Johnson925]

This is a 'desktop' equatorial mount that I've had for ages in a box. It came from a relative who passed away 10 years ago. I suspect that it's never been used. No instructions. I got it up and running last night, seems to run OK, but has a few issues;

• The scope I used (a 90mm Newtonian) is probably a bit heavy (1.4kg) for the mount. It cannot be balanced with the counterweight and overspeeds the drive.
• The RA axis worm drive appears to have a bent shaft! Needs further investigation, but could be interesting trying to straighten it!
• It has a manufacturers label - BC&F Astro Engineering (Broadhurst, Clarkson & Fuller), but that's all, there is no model number.
• It came with a motor drive, again no labels at all. Looks like a (early?) Skywatcher RA motor drive for EQ2, controlled by a DK-V Single Axis Drive Corrector, which requires DC power - but doesn't say what voltage. I'm currently running it in on 3v, which seems to work, but also seems a bit low (but better than burning out the controller or motor). If it is what I suspect, then it will require 6v.

If anyone is familiar with the mount/motor/drive and can give me some help/info/tips, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Putaendo Patrick]

Looks rather lovely!

The company is alive and well, although not apparently making these anymore. You could drop them an email for more information, and who knows, a replacement for the bent shaft: http://www.astro-engineering.com/page/about-us.html

[Johnson925]

Thanks. I did an internet search and found that company, but the contact email address given doesn't work! I'll try again, but maybe they've 'gone under'?

[Johnson925]

Tried again, I think the method I used to copy the email address was the problem.

Cheers!

[Scott]

I'm not familiar with the mount but it might be a great little mount for a camera/wide angle lens set-up rather than a scope. be grea for milky way images?

[Johnson925]

Yes, very good point!

When Nikon finish repairing my camera , I'll have  a go.

Thanks!

[barkis]

I'm sure a light engineering firm would easily straighten the worm shaft for you.
Is it Brass or Steel ?
It is a nifty looking little Mount, and I hope it is  repairable.
Scott's suggestion to use it as A Wide field Camera drive platform is a good one too.
those star field shots are very impressive, especially when projected by a Digital projection system.
Good Luck with the repairs anyway.
 

[Johnson925]

following Scot's suggestion, I mounted my Nikon D5300 with an 18mm lens on the BCF mount. I tried a number of different exposure times and apertures, the best results were images of about 1 minute at f/8. The focusing is not perfect yet, I need to link the camera to my laptop to get better control, but I was pleased with the results and a bit of simple enhancement brought out more detail. The image direction was south, Altair at the bottom with Deneb and the North American Nebula just visible at the top. The streak on the left is a satellite which faded as it crossed the field of view. Looking forward to more experiments with space imaging, and trying my 300mm lens - a slippery slope I fear!

Apologies for placing a wide field imaging post on the mount forum, but it follows from my earlier tech questions.

Charles