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MESU/Sitech questions


kirkster501

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After weeks of cloud I managed at long last to get a precious clear one hour under the sky last night (before it clouded over yet again).

I can confirm the "two washers and grease" theory works very, very well.  Still the tiniest of fractions of movement when really clamping down after fine alignment but it is a very small movement, small enough not to matter, not the big jumps I was getting when i tried to Polar Align this before.

I got very good polar alignment with the Pole Master last night.  The seeing was such that Polaris was dancing a little bit so will go through additional iterations of this to get the PA perfect.

So far so good with the MESU - it all works :)  I have had the mount for five weeks now and it has the grand total use of (drum roll.....) 75 minutes of use, such has been the dreadful astronomy conditions of late.  Endless grey overcast for weeks.

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10 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

After weeks of cloud I managed at long last to get a precious clear one hour under the sky last night (before it clouded over yet again).

I can confirm the "two washers and grease" theory works very, very well.  Still the tiniest of fractions of movement when really clamping down after fine alignment but it is a very small movement, small enough not to matter, not the big jumps I was getting when i tried to Polar Align this before.

I got very good polar alignment with the Pole Master last night.  The seeing was such that Polaris was dancing a little bit so will go through additional iterations of this to get the PA perfect.

So far so good with the MESU - it all works :)  I have had the mount for five weeks now and it has the grand total use of (drum roll.....) 75 minutes of use, such has been the dreadful astronomy conditions of late.  Endless grey overcast for weeks.

Hi

75 mins , its no good boasting :)

Well I managed 30 mins and spent that getting the Mesu PA done , small tip for any mesu newbie don't do the PA fully loaded up

you need a grip like Hercules if you do to adjust the knobs , but saying that I did not get any movement when tightening up.

Lets hope for some clear skies soon

harry

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29 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

After weeks of cloud I managed at long last to get a precious clear one hour under the sky last night (before it clouded over yet again).

I can confirm the "two washers and grease" theory works very, very well.  Still the tiniest of fractions of movement when really clamping down after fine alignment but it is a very small movement, small enough not to matter, not the big jumps I was getting when i tried to Polar Align this before.

I got very good polar alignment with the Pole Master last night.  The seeing was such that Polaris was dancing a little bit so will go through additional iterations of this to get the PA perfect.

So far so good with the MESU - it all works :)  I have had the mount for five weeks now and it has the grand total use of (drum roll.....) 75 minutes of use, such has been the dreadful astronomy conditions of late.  Endless grey overcast for weeks.

At last!!!  Congratulations on finally getting something, you must have been so frustrated.

Looking forward to seeing more updates as mine is due next month, so am keeping a close eye on this thread :thumbright:

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It is a very nice mount and weighs a lot - "reassuringly heavy"....  it is also very quiet compared to the NEQ6.  For some reason the PHD2 calibration is very much faster than it was on the NEQ6 too, not sure why but it definitely is.

I am so far very pleased with it.  it certainly makes a statement and looks the part as well.   I think the amount of "tweakability" is vast and I can never see myself touching the sides of what it is capable of.  I'm very much a plate-solve-and-go type of guy...... ;)

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Glad you finally got at least some time to play with the Mesu mount. And also glad you find it pleasing. 

I'm not sure but would the speed of PHD2 be because the Mesu has virtually no backlash ? Where as the NEQ6 may have quite a bit! 

2 hours ago, harry page said:

Hi

small tip for any mesu newbie don't do the PA fully loaded up

you need a grip like Hercules if you do to adjust the knobs , but saying that I did not get any movement when tightening up.

harry

Thanks for that very useful tip Harry. I would have gone and loaded up before PA.

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54 minutes ago, Star101 said:

.....Thanks for that very useful tip Harry. I would have gone and loaded up before PA.

I have to say that I always align fully loaded as I'm not about to mess with a rig that works in order to decrease the weight :) 

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4 minutes ago, swag72 said:

I have to say that I always align fully loaded as I'm not about to mess with a rig that works in order to decrease the weight :) 

Hi

I have 30kg of counterweights plus scopes and did find it difficult to do ( I am a builder and heavy things do not bother me )

unless mine was sticky for some reason , most people would have not been able to do it ( and yes I did undo the lock :headbang:)

the rotation was fine to do

If nobody else has noticed this perhaps its just me :)

Harry

 

 

 

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19 minutes ago, harry page said:

Hi

I have 30kg of counterweights plus scopes and did find it difficult to do ( I am a builder and heavy things do not bother me )

unless mine was sticky for some reason , most people would have not been able to do it ( and yes I did undo the lock :headbang:)

the rotation was fine to do

If nobody else has noticed this perhaps its just me :)

Harry

 

 

 

Agreed, I train a lot with weights and am prretty strong and I agree it is difficult to move in altitude.  When I set up last night I just used  a light setup and 10Kg counterweight.  I also pot a bit of GTX car grease on the threads and it moved OK.  You might need to give it a bit of lift on the counterweight bar Harry to take the weight of it a bit.

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19 minutes ago, swag72 said:

I have to say that I have always found the altitude adjustment much easier than the azimuth! Perhaps my scopes just aren't heavy enough!!! I'm thinking I need another :D 

I have been thinking recently, when my mesu mount arrives, the accuracy of the mount will show the flaws in my C11 SCT. I may be forced ( or easily persuaded ;) ) to purchase a better scope :D

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5 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Agreed, I train a lot with weights and am prretty strong and I agree it is difficult to move in altitude.  When I set up last night I just used  a light setup and 10Kg counterweight.  I also pot a bit of GTX car grease on the threads and it moved OK.  You might need to give it a bit of lift on the counterweight bar Harry to take the weight of it a bit.

Hi

This is what I did , but of course I then moved the Ra in doing so , I then had to restart the polemaster software setup

Mine is a permanent setup ,so not a major problem

Perhaps If I had set the mount to high it would have been easier to let the mount come down with the adjuster

Regards

harry

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Another tip.  Do not remove the altitude eye and bolt (to set the latitude) unless the lock is fully on, otherwise the thing crashes down, you will see when you get the mount what I mean and it is obbvious. However, when occupied at nightime trying to get Polaris in the field of view it is easy to forgetm and I forgot and just caught it.  I don't think it woudl hurt even if you did that but adjust the latitude with UNLOADED mount.  Get it in the vicinty of Polaris UNLOADED first.

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4 hours ago, harry page said:

Hi

75 mins , its no good boasting :)

Well I managed 30 mins and spent that getting the Mesu PA done , small tip for any mesu newbie don't do the PA fully loaded up

you need a grip like Hercules if you do to adjust the knobs , but saying that I did not get any movement when tightening up.

Lets hope for some clear skies soon

harry

I spoke to Lucas about this when I visited him in the summer.  He said, 'You have to help it'.  By this, he meant applying a little pressure in the correct direction on the counterweight bar.  Ever since I have been doing this I have had no problem.  Before, there were times when I couldn't get the wheels to turn.  I've never had an issue with the left/right adjustment.  

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3 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Another tip.  Do not remove the altitude eye and bolt (to set the latitude) unless the lock is fully on, otherwise the thing crashes down, you will see when you get the mount what I mean and it is obbvious. However, when occupied at nightime trying to get Polaris in the field of view it is easy to forgetm and I forgot and just caught it.  I don't think it woudl hurt even if you did that but adjust the latitude with UNLOADED mount.  Get it in the vicinty of Polaris UNLOADED first.

It is for precisely that reason that I had to visit Lucas last summer.  

The washer and grease idea seems sound.  Can you tell me what type of washer you used and what type of grease, Steve?

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1 minute ago, gnomus said:

I spoke to Lucas about this when I visited him in the summer.  He said, 'You have to help it'.  By this, he meant applying a little pressure in the correct direction on the counterweight bar.  Ever since I have been doing this I have had no problem.  Before, there were times when I couldn't get the wheels to turn.  I've never had an issue with the left/right adjustment.  

THat's what I found too Steve.

The trick is to have the central wing nut and Azimuth post tight enough that you can still adjust but not so tight that the thing is immovable.  If you have those tight enough then a slight upwards lift on the counterweight bar to move the altituide should not effect the RA.

I highly recomend the two washers trick.  That really helped me.

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2 minutes ago, gnomus said:

It is for precisely that reason that I had to visit Lucas last summer.  

The washer and grease idea seems sound.  Can you tell me what type of washer you used and what type of grease, Steve?

Hi Steve, just two M12 washers and a bit of general car grease.  The washers cost literally pennies.

PM me your address Steve - I may have it still but resend it to be sure -  and I'll post you two washers, I have a few in my box of bits.

Rgds, Steve

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