Check your dob wings! (rockers)

[pipnina]

I bought my Skywatcher 250PX dob about 2 and a half years ago now, and while the experience has been very good with it during that time, I always thought the mount was a bit sub-par mechanically. When I would try to center the eyepiece on an object, I might push the tube up a little only for it to fall back down to the same spot again, causing much frustration when trying to observe tricky targets!

Only today, when I had just done a "summer cleaning" (I missed spring cleaning this year) on the dob, I noticed that the dob "wings" or "rockers" that the telescope uses to sit on the dob base's teflon pads were not screwed in tight! Having the tube stood upright and holding a wing with both hands and twisting produced rather large slip. Tightening the screws was not easy as I needed to wield a spanner and screwdriver at the same time to tighten it and I am using a closed-tube dob, but after it was comfortably tight I put it back on the dob base and tightened the handles, lo and behold the infernal altitude wobble is gone!

I'm not sure if this has happened over time or if my scope merely came with a few screws loose out the factory, but hopefully I should have an easier time with it now!

Hope this helps someone else with the same issue.

[Stu]

Thats annoying having put up with the problem for so long, but at least you have found it and sorted it now. Hopefully you will enjoy the scope even more now!

[Beulah]

As an owner of 3 skywatcher dobs, it's part of the routine maintenance...they were firmly secured out of the box and work loose after much usage.