Polar Alignment on static pier

[johnrt]

Thank you for the comments guys, but we seem to be getting very hung up on the design of the pier. The pier is a commercial built unit from Altair Astro, who sell a good number of these every year and they have been around for some time now. Google around on the reviews and user comments and you will find only positive ones. The pier construction is solid and sturdy. I have a train line passing 60/70ft away from my pier at the bottom of the garden and the passing trains have no effect on my imaging.

The pier performs as it should, here is a comet Johnson image from the pier from a couple of weeks ago;

imaged at under 1 arc/sec per pixel, you can see no performance or poor seeing issues there.

 

The mechanism in question is the altitude adjustment on the AZEQ6, the hand turned locking nuts simply do not hold the altitude mechanism tight enough to stop it moving. The Skywatcher manual says you must undo these nuts to adjust altitude, but yet it moves freely with the nuts done up. The movement of polaris in the polar scope is visible with the addition and removal of the counterweights.

So far I have tried some rubber washers, but this actually made the performance of the mechanism worse. Next step is to replace the hand turned nuts with ones I can tighten with a spanner.

Drift alignment is unfortunately out of the question for me due to restricted horizons in every direction, my house to the south and trees to the North, East and West.

 

John.

 

 

 

[Davey-T]

Hi John, Modern Astronomy have the wedge conversion on sale for the EQ6, don't know if it fits the AZEQ6.

Dave

[johnrt]

23 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Hi John, Modern Astronomy have the wedge conversion on sale for the EQ6, don't know if it fits the AZEQ6.

Dave

 

Maybe an option Dave, it looks like it is a very similar system to the AZEQ6 system. I'm going to try some M12 hex nuts next, I will be able to tighten them with a spanner instead of just by hand and see if that holds it firmly enough.

[Jonk]

I've got the same problem, and I've had the mount into as many pieces you can shake a stick at to see if I can improve it.

Maybe some stainless M12 nyloc nuts will suffice, with a large penny washer?

For a permanent setup, this is what I'd go for.

 

[johnrt]

Hmm, this is interesting, that's 4 AZEQ6 owners I know of now all saying the same thing, the altitude mechanism isn't up to the job, I was thinking I had a defective unit but it seems it is a common issue and a weakness in the design. 

[Jonk]

Certainly a weak point, yes.

One thing that does help, is when adjusting the altitude, always wind it so it's lifting the weight of the mount, not dropping it if possible.

Doing this carefully should mean the mount won't droop as much when the correct alt is set.

However, tightening the side nuts / thumb wheels at this stage may knock the alt setting out of position, so have the nuts on the side finger tight first, and slowly tighten them when ready.

But you're right, you're not alone!

[johnrt]

On 07/06/2017 at 13:03, Jonk said:

Maybe some stainless M12 nyloc nuts will suffice, with a large penny washer?

For a permanent setup, this is what I'd go for.

 

Took your advice and added the penny washer & nylock nuts, I have to say it is much, much more sturdy now. I will still store without the weights on the mount, but I'm happier that this will improve things.

In other news I now have 48 nylock nuts going spare if any other AZEQ6 want to beef up their mount too.

John.

[kirkster501]

Mine moves as well John.  It is 60x60cm and 80cm deep block of reinforced concrete.  The 10 feet pieces of rebar that goes up into the pier pipe (which is itself filled with concrete) is hammered six feet into the ground.  The whole lot was done in one concrete pour and consist of over half ton of concrete that i mixed by hand.  Yet, I still get polar alignment shift.  I think it is caused by the clay soil being saturated in winter and bone dry in summer and so the alignment drifts with it.  I have to check it every couple of months - and as we have had last few days - after we have had torrential downpours that will saturate the ground.

[Jonk]

1 hour ago, johnrt said:

Took your advice and added the penny washer & nylock nuts, I have to say it is much, much more sturdy now. I will still store without the weights on the mount, but I'm happier that this will improve things.

Great, I'll do the same once I put it back out and get it set up for August.

If you remove the 2 plastic washers that you've fitted, is it stronger again?

Have you used stainless hardware? You might notice some brown if not!

I'm glad it's improved.

[johnrt]

I've removed the plastic washers too, difficult to tell if it makes much difference, but it certainly can't hurt.

22 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Mine moves as well John.  It is 60x60cm and 80cm deep block of reinforced concrete.  The 10 feet pieces of rebar that goes up into the pier pipe (which is itself filled with concrete) is hammered six feet into the ground.  The whole lot was done in one concrete pour and consist of over half ton of concrete that i mixed by hand.  Yet, I still get polar alignment shift.  I think it is caused by the clay soil being saturated in winter and bone dry in summer and so the alignment drifts with it.  I have to check it every couple of months - and as we have had last few days - after we have had torrential downpours that will saturate the ground.

That sounds like a real pain Steve, but not much you can really do about it!

[kirkster501]

When I say "move" I can still easily find Polaris in the Polar Cam  However, the precise alignment is lost.

This is where Polemaster comes into its own.  I can get the alignment back in a couple of minutes.

[johnrt]

25 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

When I say "move" I can still easily find Polaris in the Polar Cam  However, the precise alignment is lost.

This is where Polemaster comes into its own.  I can get the alignment back in a couple of minutes.

Doesn't sound too bad then, my problem is I can't see polaris for 9 months of the year & can't drift align due to restricted horizons in every direction!

[Davey-T]

Surely someone could implement the 10Micron method, it can't be that hard.

It plate solves a few images and then you image a star from a long list, get crosshairs on the screen and centre it using the bolts and hey presto it's spot on PA.

Won't help the movement when tightening the locking nuts though.

Dave