Fingers crossed for tonight, what might I see, what should I use? Now - observation diary

[JOC]

Well we looked clear last night so I dumped the gear outside about 8pm.  By about 21:20 I was just about getting Jupiter with three nice stripes - I don't think there was a moon shadow transit to see.  It took a while before I got enough in the sky to Callibrate the Goto.  I'd put all the dew shields back on and again had problems with it driving vertically.  I took off the rigid astrozap shield at the open end of the OTA and it was a bit better, but it's still not 100% and it still took a couple of attempts before I was happy.  I've been trying 'brightest star' and using Arcturus in the SE as the first star as this seems fairly un-missable, but despite starting at Polaris North it never seems to hit anywhere near the second star without me re-adjusting it.  However, it is still not sqeaking (hurrah!) and once on an object appears to track imperceptibly and well. 

Whilst I waited for full darkness I took my cheap EP webcam and portable outside.  I have proved the theory that I can get a picture onto the PC and that I could theoretically find Jupiter and get a blob on the screen.  However, reaching a decent focus was not easy.  I wonder if this is the fault of the cheap webcam or a focal tube length issue?  Do I continue to experiment with what I have or splurge on a better EP webcam?  What I do know is that any webcam will have to be fairly lightweight for the mount to cope.  Anyway, I was just starting to experiment when the portable ran out of battery - note for next time, run the mains extension lead and plug in the portable.  However, the theory that this approach now looks a possibility remains - I will probably only want to try for an image of the planets and maybe the moon - the Dob will probably not let me go beyond that, but it will be fun to try for the planets.  As you may have seen I think I have got passable pictures of the Moon and the Sun with my DSLR so I think I must stand the chance of cracking these webcam issues.

Once I had the Goto sort of sorted I had a bash at M13 again.  Not such a good result as last time I was there.  I found it easily, but it wouldn't resolve in the same EP as well as last time.  However, I may have just discovered why - I'd left the colour filter on that I'd used for Jupiter.  In fact I'd had some degree of success with a filter on Jupiter to take out some of the glare - last time I'd tried a 82A - I meant to put it on last night as it had made a slight positive difference.  However, I've just looked at what I have just unscrewed from my 8mm EP and I'd actually been using a yellow tinted number 11 - when I put it on (in now realised error) last night I do recall thinking  - 'Oh, the filter is working better on Jupy this time' - I'll have to try them one after the other next time and see what works best, but at the moment I am impressed with the discovery that the number 11 seemed to work better than the 82A on Jupiter, and I can confirm that it does absolutely scupper M13!

The Veil before midnight hides behind my brother's shed - or so the Goto reckons.

I tried for Albeiro (sp?) I wasn't sure the Goto had it right - lots of smaller stars in the EP, but I found a couple that looked close enough to be deemed a pair (there was still quite a gap though), one was lighter than the other, but I wouldn't say that they were stunningly different.  I need to go back another night and check that I don't have a stray filter screwed to the EP though!

Then I kept checking the time - 11:30 - a distinct chance now exists.......Stellarium confirms the Big Daddy should be above the horizon.  Just how high will it need to be before it clears my trees?  The goto kept insisting it was very low (with the vertical driving problem though there was a chance it was not 100% correct) so I kept looking.  A faint looking golden-y orange object had appeared in the V between two bushes in direction the too low telescope was pointing.  What was there to lose - lets take a look and see what that object is.........I lifted the scope vertically - it dropped into the RDF, the RACI let me put it into the EP, it was well out of focus...................but it certainly wasn't a 'point' of light - this had substance.............quick where's the focus wheels................roll..........roll.................and gradually a miniature Saturn developed in front of me (wasn't I happy bunny), The 8mm (probably with that damn filter on it) resolved a disk, and a very clear gap and a ring, that you could almost see was separate even as it passed in front of the disk.  For moments at a time it held steady.  Then for some reason the shape of the ring would fluctuate one side or another, then it would steady again (could this be caused by heat rising from the earth?), but it was Saturn - a real miniature Saturn held in the grasp of my telescope and I watched it for a good while.

I thought then I'd try for the Veil again - the Goto reckoned it had just cleared the shed, but when I reached for my O-111 it was covered in Dew.  Saturn had drifted beyond the hedge gap and was gone for a fair while and it was midnight so I called a halt and packed up.  However, I reckon it hadn't been a half bad couple of hours :-D

Note for next time - take filters off EP's that you are going to use again for something different!

 

 

[SilverAstro]

On 25/05/2017 at 12:06, JOC said:

note for next time, run the mains extension lead and plug in the portable.

Great interesting report, good news that the squeak has gone and that you are now having considerable fun in the dark of the night

I also need to consider power at the scope, not least for dew prevention + laptop etc. so I was thinking along the lines of a low voltage feed, like 19v or whatever the laptop needs (from a laptop type supply indoors) and adjust the dew control requirement ( pwm module of some sort) to suit. Thus avoiding the perils of the mains  in damp (or worse - rain ! ) , cct-breakers, qualified whatsits etc&etc

What think ?

Apart from a thicker cable than would be needed at mains voltage (to mitigate volt drop / current carrying capacity) which may limit flex of cabling are there any other disadvantages I wonder ?

[JOC]

I guess it depends on how close to power you are.  In my garden I am within 5-10m of an enclosed source that I can run an extension cord from.  A bit further back we have a garden seating structure and I leave an extension lead permanantly in place that runs from inside a dry shed and I put the 4 gang base into one of those approved outdoor weather protected boxes and the kids can plug their laptops into that.  Given that rain would do laptops and dew controllers much good and I expect you'd bring them in anyway, a similar box and standard 3 pin plugs on everything might work better if all you need is a home solution.  Otherwise I think folks tend to recommend these 'leisure' batteries.  To just power the goto I have a 17amp/hr car jump start from Maplin. Hth.

[SilverAstro]

On 27/05/2017 at 08:11, JOC said:

 Given that rain would do laptops and dew controllers much good and I expect you'd bring them in anyway,

Well obviously ! But have you never been caught out by the unexpected shower when just popping indoors for a mo. to 'do something' ! ?

I was forgetting that not everyones households 'lecky is wired like mine - - one sensitive trip on the incoming, (required 40y ago by the then power company because of the  earthing needs and an otherwise unprotected twin feed) so any fault plunges the whole house into darkness as well as no power rings and thus a  less than gentle/graceful shut-down of computals I must get round to re-doing the lighting cct at least

[JOC]

On ‎28‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 19:08, SilverAstro said:

one sensitive trip on the incoming, (required 40y ago by the then power company because of the  earthing needs and an otherwise unprotected twin feed) so any fault plunges the whole house into darkness as well as no power rings and thus a  less than gentle/graceful shut-down of computals

SilverAstro - it sounds like you need one of these:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101393

I run a business from home in an area notorious for power-cuts (and on no priority out in the country for re-connection either!)  I lost the entire hard drive to an outage just a few years ago - it caused me chaos, the cost of a new computer, the loss of data, enormous problems with data-loss as many of my back-ups had failed too (I have since fixed that loop-hole), 10 days to get a new system useable again and to be honest more aggrevation than I ever want to live though again.  The product in that link looks pricey, but it is absolutely top-class and has already paid for itself - it has already prevented two total unexpected power outages from crashing my system.  I just rewired some leads with 'kettle' lead type plugs and also have the monitor plugged in to help with a shutdown, I also run the modem through it and it also has a neat auto-shut down system which cuts power to anything plugged in on that side of it and takes all and sundry off of standby which I swear has helped the 'leccy' bill.  I wouldn't be without it.

[JOC]

So it was looking clear last night and I had the time so out the gear went.  Luna was up quite early and we took a nice look - it's been a while since we had a chance to look at her and she never disappoints.  Then I remembered what folks had been saying about viewing Jupiter during the day so I turned around and at about 9pm while it was still quite bright there was a tiny dot in the sky.  I got the scope on it and sure enough Jupiter appeared in the EP.  Now I think her stripes are far easier to see when its still light in the sky.  She doesn't seem as bright against the sky and I think the stripes are easier to see.  3 moons up last night as most of you will know.  I tried my webcam, but it won't focus - I've been getting some advice on that and will try it again with a Barlow. 

Then it got properly dark and I got enough stars up to think about calibrating.   I had taken power out so did the goto and used the brightest object route.  To my surprise it suggested Jupiter - talk about make the process easy!  It finished with Vega, which surprise, surprise was where I was headed next to try and find the Double Double.  I spotted them straight away - in the same view as I was holding Vega.  So I spent some time with them.  Do you think I could split them?  Not likely - I went through 10mm, Barlowed my 15mm, tried the 8mm TMB clone, went to a 6mm TMB clone I could tell there was more than one in each spot, but they wouldn't budge apart.  In the finish and with not much hope I put on a 4mm TMB clone - in my view the top pair just about shifted, but there was no clear empty gap.  I wonder if the atmosphere had anything to do with the failure - there was a huge light 'halo' around the moon.  I shall come back to them. 

What next, well I had the high mags kicking around so I went for M13 again - the 6mm TMB clone gave me another nice view - couldn't get anywhere with M92 though.  Getting bold now - lets go nebula chasing.  O-III on - I am sure the veil is a figment of the imagination, put on the UHC and decided the same for the ring and the dumbbell.  The Andromeda whirlpool was also non-existent.  Getting teed off with this, hello what's that golden glow appearing in the view between my trees at about 10:40?  Saturn, getting earlier and bolder, but that early was very low in the sky and was no-where near as 'crisp' as I had seen it the other night.  I did get to show mum though before she went to bed.  I stayed with Saturn until it moved behind the trees - if I am to get a better longer view I will need to move into the main field where I won't have as many trees in the way - it's a pity is isn't higher in the sky.  I went back and had another go at those Double Double's, but they still wouldn't shift apart.  I wanted to finish on a win and the plough was high in the sky so I thought I'd have a nice look at Mizar to finish and true to expectation this was an easy win.  I packed up around 12pm after a night successes and failures.

[JOC]

The Synscan and I are going to end up coming to blows.  I always take the the setup data off of Synscan Init2 app. On my phone.  The times I tried calibrating  it.  It kept on finding stuff around 180 degrees out.  I'm going nuts, it has to be me!!!  So I check the i initial setup and realise my butter fingers have shown me that the sky wiĺl look most odd in 8017!!

[JOC]

So as you can see I was out last night for the first time in literally ages.  The dozy prat driving the system cost about an hour+ of time before she worked out that it would be worth checking the initial settings.  I was also having problems identifying some stars to calibrate on.  Polaris I found, but I am going to have to spend some time studying the current sky as a lot of the easy to find things have moved relative to where I am.  Cassiopeia I can find (currently North-Eastish), but Hercules has gone walkabout and now appears to be in the west (according to Stellarium), but that is my not-as-good direction and I am going to need to study form to find it and M13 up there - I had it when it appeared in the East earlier this year.  Arcturus seems to be my best bet at the moment I'm reasonably certain that what was the brightest star low in the west-ish direction about 9pm ish last night was Arcturus, but it needs to stay put for a while as I am so close to losing it behind the trees.  However, the time of darkness is much better for me - its dark enough around 9pm and that's quite convenient. 

Last night we had a party for my daughter's older teenage friends (mixed group) and it clashed with some reasonably clear weather - at least until about 11-ish pm.  As you know I lost the first part of the evening to my own stupidity, but as folks had arrived they had seen me setting up and several had shown an interest - so when I did get things moving I cast around for something reasonably easy and spectacular to show - and one of the most splendid objects was just sitting there begging to be looked at (moon usefully behind the house at that point) - Saturn and as clear as a bell around 9.30pm two of the teens that had shown an earlier interest chose that moment to wander up and ask what could be seen.  'Lets have a look at that dot over there' suggested me, 'Is it a star or a planet?' came the question 'Have a look - I think you might work that out for yourselves'.  Cue dropped jaws 'Wow, you can even see the planet separated from the ring'.  The young man that had looked was hooked - how much to enter the arena - I said what mine had cost and then told him what a manual one would cost and said a 150P was even cheaper - he was hooked - thought mine would be a couple of thousand to buy and was stunned that it wasn't.  His young lady was also suitably impressed.  Later on another 4 came out to view Saturn - thought it wasn't up for long and I don't think the later viewers had such a good view, but they were still impressed.  Then what the moon came round I stuck in a 10mm and focused on the leading edge caters and called the first pair back, we then backed off and look at the entirety.  I tend to think I might have a couple of converts.  Though I didn't see much else before the clouds came over I hope I gave those that looked a novel experience and it was really nice from my perspective to share the views with such enthusiastic viewers.  I had quite a good night even though I never looked at much.

[Stu]

A great evening by the sounds of it. With the moon around it's not so easy and if your skies were like mine they it was a bit murky up there at times!

Have you had a look for the asteroid which is around currently? It is called 3122 Florence and is fairly easy to find. You can see it moving slowly past any nearby stars. It is between Delphinus and Cygnus currently.

[JOC]

Hi Stu, 'Murky', yes, I get that, I think - when I zoomed in close on the Moon's craters the clarity of the view shifted almost as I looked at it parts of each crater area seemed to shift in and out of focus almost as though the density of the air I was viewing them through was changing but only through part of the EP image at any time.  That and the eventual nasty black clouds made things less than simple.

3122 Florence - I hadn't heard of it so far, but certainly worth a hunt the next time I get a clear night (I'll search the forum, bound to be a thread on it somewhere). :-D

[JOC]

So it looked clear with just the odd cloud going by.  I've dumped all the gear outside.  Just gone out to calibrate and there is a miles wide bar of sludge obscuring everything.  Have left the kit outside in the hope it disappears in the wind.

Edit: the cloud disappears - not the telescope!

[JOC]

Happiness is a Novice Astronomer, on a clear night with a calibrated Goto!! 

Someone wrote on my other thread that bad nights sometimes precede good ones.  Tonight was a good night!

That layer of cloud disappeared around 20:00+ I still had my observing list from the other night, and decided that tonight I would lay in mains power from dad's shed (I have the correct lead for doing that if I want to), just because I didn't want to have a failure of the power just as I got underway as it looked so promising outside once that cloud had dematerialised.

I tried two goes at two star calibration and still couldn't get back to Altair - I have decided that this isn't the best route for me.  In the finish I tried brightest star calibration starting from a horizontal North and using Altair - then it wanted to find Mirfak - I located this in Stellarium, almost dead below the central star in Cassiopeia.....I can do this......Yup, found it :-)   I let it do its thing, it was slightly off so I pushed it onto target and hit the 'done' button.  Now could it find its way back to Altair - YES!!  straight back on target and I was in business - calibrated and on the clearest bit of sky that we've had in ages. 

Now, maybe a Goto is sort of cheating - I guess 'real astronomers' that know their sky and star hop will be a bit dismissive of this list, but I've had the best night for a long time.

Uranus - had to wait until it cleared the garage, rather un-inspiring, but def. a planet disk, very small even at about 150x sort of dirty coloured and not a crisp edged disc any EP, but I've def. seen it.

M57 - the ring nebula, this has to be the jewel of the night.  It isn't crisp around the edges, but isn't it a rather neat thing to find in the sky?  I found that blinking makes it a bit clearer to see the ring in the middle, and I got on better with no filters, I went back to it 3 times and finished on it, just because it was rather neat, I could see it through most of my EP's the 12mm (100x) brought it up best, at this magnification its kind of a pea in a small saucepan size - I think this is a 'proper' astronomy target!

M27 - the dumbbell nebula, found this too - again better with no filters - could also see the shape of this one

NGC6543 - the cats eye nebula - hit a duck with this one - couldn't see it - tried with a UHC on too and still no joy - decided not to waste too much time trying when there were probably other wins still out there.

NGC7662 - blue snowball nebula - found this - def. a dirty blue snowball - nice to have a coloured object to view

The veil - this is still eluding me even with the UHC on (I hadn't taken the 0-III out with me)

M13 - for some reason lucked out on this one, but have found it in the past - only odd loss on a good night.

Alberio - finally a Yes, with this pair.  Found them easily the colours disappear when they are in perfect focus, but nudge them just off focus until they split into tiny rings and the blue and gold are just lovely

Andromeda galaxy - Was def. onto this one - a dense area of nebulosity denser in the middle, no clear arms and no improvement with the UHC, but its a large object - larger than I was expecting and def. no doubt once I was on it.

Pleides - always a joy to look at, views best in the finderscope!!  Although I went and got my 10x50 binoculars out and I reckon they probably view it even better - it's a large object cluster and I hadn't thought of using the bins for it previously.  Errr......don't need the goto to find this one ;-)

Lyra's double double, found easily - still can't produce enough maginifcation to split them, but can def. tell that each pair is more than a single star

 

So the take away from this session is to try the brightest star method of calibration next time.  I also discovered that the Dob is difficult to nudge when more vertical, however I've realised that the goto device has left/right and up/down buttons on it and if I use these when the manual movement gets difficult then fine positioning of the tube is much easier.  Another discovery is that if I can get the goto working that I will enjoy being a 'cheating' astronomer - I also, experimented with the deep sky tour before deciding to come in and that def. has possibilities for another night.

So after a great session, maybe I shall continue to persevere with things. :-D

 

[Knighty2112]

I don’t consider goto as cheating. Star hoping doesn’t work always on some objects well, so I see goto as enhancing my observations greatly, rather than limiting my observations because it takes ages to find an object. I’m surprised you never got better views of M27with either your UHC or OIII filter. My two filters always bring it out very well. In fact so much so on some occasions that it almost looks like a 3D object hanging in space! One thing that might make your goto accuracy a little bettter is when you align on a star always finish off the centralisation alignment of the star by slewing to the right, and then upwards whilst doing this. With my goto mount this produces a better alignment most of the time. Also, if you can afford to get one at some stage get an EP with a cross hair reticule so that you can get stars exactly in the center of the FOV when aligning. 

[JOC]

5 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

One thing that might make your goto accuracy a little bettter is when you align on a star always finish off the centralisation alignment of the star by slewing to the right, and then upwards whilst doing this.

That sounds a tip and a half and well worth a try, I'll try and remember to try this the next time I'm out.

7 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

an EP with a cross hair reticule so that you can get stars exactly in the center of the FOV

Yes, I can see that this would help.  I will take a look and see what it is possible to buy, musing......... I wonder if they make a something like the 1.25" screw on filters that comes with cross hairs in it - though I guess it might need to be illuminated cross hairs to see properly against the dark......

10 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

I’m surprised you never got better views of M27with either your UHC or OIII filter. My two filters always bring it out very well. In fact so much so on some occasions that it almost looks like a 3D object hanging in space!

I'll have to try with them again, maybe the O-III will be more effective.  Now I know what I'm looking for returning for a longer experiment should be possible if the clouds should part again for long enough!

 

[Astro Imp]

Well done, I've been following your journey and have been with you all the way, so pleased to hear you're cracking it.

GOTO definitely is not cheating, the aim of getting out under the stars is to enjoy observing not to show how superior you are.

Once again well done, keep up the good work.

[JOC]

13 minutes ago, Astro Imp said:

so pleased to hear you're cracking it

Thanks Alan, and all those who have bolstered me with similar encouragement.  Last night the ring Nebula was the first tricky thing I went after.  To begin with it still felt a bit of vain hope, and I think I initially didn't hold out any more hope than other nights.  I probably had the 32mm plossl on board to try and give the largest field to look in once the goto had done its stuff.  Of course there wasn't much magnification going on, and I looked for a few moments when suddenly I thought I had sight of an odder looking light source which merited further examination.  I centred the EP over the target and thought 'def. something going on here' and reached for the new Meade 5000 12mm, twiddled the focus for a tad and thought 'YES!'  I was all by myself, but I think I might have had a silly smile on my face and maybe even did a little jumpy thing (just for a moment, you understand, I am normally a fairly sensible creature, but I'd waited a long while to see one of these more 'unusual' distant objects :-D  ).  I don't know if all astronomers have 'YES!' moments, but I certainly did last night and I have to admit I am still rather chuffed, esp. following it with the dumbbell, the blue snowball and Andromeda galaxy, it will be a while I am sure before I have such a good night again the alignment of clear skies, time and a calibrated goto is a potent combination indeed  :-D.

[Astro Imp]

2 hours ago, JOC said:

I don't know if all astronomers have 'YES!' moments,

Definitely, over the years I've had a few, if we didn't get excited there wouldn't be a lot of point being out there.

I'm sure you will have many more such moments, me I'm just waiting for a clear sky.

[Knighty2112]

2 hours ago, JOC said:

I don't know if all astronomers have 'YES!' moments, but I certainly did last night and I have to admit I am still rather chuffed, 

I’m pretty sure we all have those ‘Yes!’ moments. I certainly do when seeing a new object for the first time, or if it s in excellent detail. Last one I had was at the SGL SP just gone where I managed to see the eastern and western Veil for the first time, and a brief but very detailed observation of M42.  

[JOC]

So on Wednesday night it was suddenly clear - I'd waited until late and then got into something on the TV, but around 9pm thought - well I could get an hour in, why not?  The telescope was sitting in the unheated porch so I lugged it all outside and even wandered out with the power pack and had a go at callibrating the goto.  I'm still not convinced by the Goto callibration - even when it appears to work I still have problems getting it to drive to the locations - horizontally it seems OK, but weight wise it still seems to struggle driving it along the vertical axis.  Sometimes if I give it a shove it will drive upwards, but it's not brilliant.

Anyhow, what did and didn't I see?  Well Orion was as clear as a bell, but I still swear that there are no more than 4 stars in that Trapezium - I even got it in the Pentax XW 5mm and couldn't see more than 4 separate stars.  I don't need the Goto to find that LOL!  Then what to try next - it was about 21:30-22:15 that I viewed for.  I tried every planet and there was not one above the horizon, so that was a waste of 10 minutes.  The goto advertised 'deep sky tour' - I reasoned that might include targets relative to time and date so I dipped into that to see what sounded interesting.  The goto showed a number of messier targets that I hadn't tried.  Some I tried and I think the Goto failed, but in the finish I got a smudge in the EP that should have been a target - M53.  I upped the magnification and the smudge started to get bigger, but even with the 5mm XW it wouldn't resolve into separate stars.    What did give me loads of stars in a huge star field was a target called M38, I put the new Hyperion 31mm into the 1.25" slot and the stars filled the view - lovely sight.  Pleiades I managed without the Goto, and Sirius was doing the usual 'monster raving party star' thing, but that was about it.  All the targets I then tried were either North behind the close by trees - I hadn't taken the scope to the field.  Or behind the house.  So all in all it wasn't a wholly successful night by the standards of my greatest night out when I saw most of the targets I wanted to.  I came in frozen and mum told me her temp.  guage was down to 1.5C so that explained that!

I did go out last night with baby Vixen for the first time and managed to see Venus and Mercury which was quite fun, but they weren't huge and without the Goto and a bit more darkness there was no way I was going to get Neptune to play ball before I had to go out.  Still I suppose it's a couple of sessions out vs. a dearth of sessions lately so it makes me feel as though I haven't lost interest.

[Stu]

Nice one  

M38 is a lovely one, try nearby M37 and 36. M35 is not far away and also a nice bright open cluster.

It sounds like your mount may be struggling with front to back balance of your scope. Do you have any adjustment you can make to ensure it is balanced? Move the scope in its tube rings or the dovetail in the mount clamp for example?

[JOC]

8 minutes ago, Stu said:

M38 is a lovely one, try nearby M37 and 36. M35 is not far away and also a nice bright open cluster.

It sounds like your mount may be struggling with front to back balance of your scope. Do you have any adjustment you can make to ensure it is balanced? Move the scope in its tube rings or the dovetail in the mount clamp for example?

Thanks for the ideas of what to view I'll add them into my book to check for next time.  I've started to run a little book to see if a few notes help.

The mounting point of the Goto scope isn't like those of tubes with rings.  My tube doesn't have 'rings'.  Instead Two big plastic mounting points sit on either side of the tube, one contains a 'dovetail' type arrangement, but the mounting point on the stand seems fairly integrated into the rotation mechanism and there doesn't seem any way of moving the mounting point to adjust the COG - unless there is something I haven't spotted.  I did try putting a heavy magnet on one end, but forgot about it and it fell off and cracked when I lugged in back inside one night.  The way I'm handling it at the moment is to assume that it has the rotation axis correct and if I can't get it to drive even after a nudge I assume that the target is somewhere along the 'Y' up/down axis and nudge it up and down to see if I can find something plausible.   However, for the cash I spent on the Goto it is rather disappointing.  I guess what I could use is a ring that would fit around the tube that might hold an adjustable weight, the difficulty is that with the mechanism holding the tube quite firmly when it is not being driven it might be difficult to find a balance point when something doesn't move as freely as a set of scales, and it seems to change as I change EP's too!

[Stu]

Ah yes, sorry, I am on my mobile (as always!) and could not see your sig.

This thread may give you some pointers, it seems there is some adjustment on the clutches for your scope which may help it perform better.

 There is a .pdf linked to which I think has some instructions in it.

[JOC]

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

This thread may give you some pointers

Hi Stu, there is nothing like someone who has been somewhere for a long while and recalls certain threads is there?  Yes, that sounds exactly my problem.  Unfortunately the thread is sufficiently old that that the attachments and linked files no longer exist at their locations, but the photos and information therein are very useful - I might give the indicated nut a tweak and see if I can improve things.  Maybe also try a counterweight attachment.  1.5Kg is mentioned which seems a lot almost enough to suggest that the scope then might drive downwards OK!  LOL  NB.  I do own a pro set of Halfords spanners and sockets and their pro screwdrivers - about the only way to find stuff in this household when I want to do a job is to own things like that and hide them in my front room until needed!

[Stu]

What....you sayin' I'm old?  

More than one way to skin a cat, try this link  

EDIT Bear with me caller, that didn't work. I'll be right back!

Try this...

http://www.eacocon.it/dobsoniani/FlexTubeGoTo.pdf

[domstar]

Sorry to jump in on this and I don't have any expertise here, but is your scope under guarantee? Could the retailer help? Shouldn't it still work without being pushed? I don't mean to poke my nose in.