No dew heater tapes in use? Your thought please

[Stu]

I did try this myself once and didn't need to do any hacksawing. Which bit needed the chop?

[mikeDnight]

3 hours ago, Alan White said:

Is this in place of the AZ5 Mike? 

or is it to run alongside?

I can hear hacksaws being pulled from toolboxes, those poor GP mounts!

 

I think this looks a very sensible mod if you have a suitable donor mount, a real shame to cut about a Vixen mount though, they are too nice build.
But perhaps that's why it works?

Hi Alan,

No the Polaris doesn't replace the AZ5. I saw the Polaris advertised cheap and couldn't resist. I knew there wouldn't be an unresolvable problem with it and it took me just 6 minutes to rectify the backlash. It's buttery smooth in both axes now with zero backlash. I still love the AZ5 for its light weight design with slow motion controls as I can easily carry the whole set-up with no real effort. 

[paulastro]

4 hours ago, Alan White said:

Is this in place of the AZ5 Mike? 

or is it to run alongside?

I can hear hacksaws being pulled from toolboxes, those poor GP mounts!

 

I think this looks a very sensible mod if you have a suitable donor mount, a real shame to cut about a Vixen mount though, they are too nice build.
But perhaps that's why it works?

Alan, the SP (Super Polaris) doesn't need any surgery, but the GP (Great Polaris) does.

The bit that needs to be hacked off is the end of metal stirrup shaped bit of metal you can see in the picture below.  It's the bit of metal sticking out to the right, on the right hand side of the mount above the elastic bands.  It's the bit of metal one of the altitude adjustment bolts is screwed into to retain the altitude.  If the end isn't cut off, you can't move the mount over enough to get the axis in a horizontal position.

The black long bit of metal held in place by the elastic bands is for the stirrup bit of metal to rest on, and stop it going lower on that side if the load and weight are unbalanced, for instance when adding or removing the telescope.

 

[paulastro]

5 hours ago, Stu said:

I did try this myself once and didn't need to do any hacksawing. Which bit needed the chop?

Stu, I hope my previous post answers your question, I meant to mention you at the start of it and forgot!  Sorry, how rude of me.

[iPeace]

Re. the original topic, I have resorted to less dignified measures in the past - it did help a bit. 

[DaveS]

I have *two* heater tapes on my 130 f/7, one on the dew shield and another just below the lens cell. When I piggy back a short 'frac, that gets a heater as well. Still got one spare output on my controller, might use it when I have an exposed flattener.

I also have an electric pet-warmer to keep the 'scope and mount from getting condensation when not in use.

There are four RCD protected, IP68 rated external sockets by my pier.

 

Have I missed the point? .

[Alan White]

8 hours ago, iPeace said:

Re. the original topic, I have resorted to less dignified measures in the past - it did help a bit. 

 

Aha, stealth scopes, 'Undercover Operation' - like it 

[Alan White]

6 hours ago, DaveS said:

Have I missed the point? .

No, not really, your short answer is -NO- I use tapes.

[iPeace]

6 hours ago, DaveS said:

I have *two* heater tapes on my 130 f/7, one on the dew shield and another just below the lens cell. When I piggy back a short 'frac, that gets a heater as well. Still got one spare output on my controller, might use it when I have an exposed flattener.

I also have an electric pet-warmer to keep the 'scope and mount from getting condensation when not in use.

There are four RCD protected, IP68 rated external sockets by my pier.

 

Have I missed the point? .

Ah, those were the days...

[Paz]

I have  heaters for the vx14 but don't use heaters on any other scopes and I do ok.

I use a combination of dew shields and relatively short sessions, and starting at low powers if the scope isn't cool enough at first.