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I Could Have Kicked Myself!


Ian McCallum

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Rather than do things in my normal way, I decided to remove the mount from the tripod. 🙄

My new EQ5 Deluxe mount took a dive into the dirt! 😱

I nearly had a laxative moment, but thankfully there was nothing damaged, just my pride! 

Nothing was bend or broken and I very carefully took apart and cleaned the polar scope. 😮

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Edited by Ian McCallum
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Oh no!

They're pretty robust and sturdy things. The part to be mindful of if they do take a tumble is the ends of the worm shafts. They are soft metal and easily bent and if they get bent they will not turn properly.

ps. Did you leave the counterweight on when undoing the tripod bolt? I've done that before and it's best to remove them.

Edited by Franklin
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2 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Oh no!

They're pretty robust and sturdy things. The part to be mindful of if they do take a tumble is the ends of the worm shafts. They are soft metal and easily bent and if they get bent they will not turn properly.

The RA and DEC knobs turn freely and the bendy bolts aren't bent! 🙄

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7 minutes ago, Franklin said:

You won't be doing that again!

I've done it in the past and nearly broke my foot!

That's not good. I'll need to re centre the polar scope, mind you, it may not have been centred in the first place. 

I saw a YouTube video on it, just the other day.  What a coincidence! 😮

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Glad that all is well with no damage Ian, it’s always a bit of a shocker when things like this happen. Mounts can be pretty unwieldy things, especially with the counterweights still attached.

Anyway, lesson learned and no harm done so all is good 👍

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Phew, that's good news that no damage was done! I knocked over a tripod and mount in the early days indoors and bent those bendy bolts! I was gutted at the time, though we did move on to more expensive setups anyway, so long term there was little damage.

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On 10/12/2021 at 14:24, Ian McCallum said:

Rather than do things in my normal way, I decided to remove the mount from the tripod. 🙄

My new EQ5 Deluxe mount took a dive into the dirt! 😱

I nearly had a laxative moment, but thankfully there was nothing damaged, just my pride! 

Nothing was bend or broken and I very carefully took apart and cleaned the polar scope. 😮

Been there... done that...

I bought a new Celestron AVX computerized mount and I still have not used it much. The second night out, taking things back inside, after bringing my telescope in,  I loosened the center bolt connecting the mount to the tripod before I took out the counter-weight. The mount took a dive. As you said, "Nothing was damaged, just my pride." 

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I was going over the mount, in detail afterwards. I think I've noticed little quirks that were already there, but I never noticed before. 

One is when the RA clutch knob is fully released and resting on the stop, it tends to hit off the plastic box below it. The box has one or two minor scrapes on it, but doesn't seem to be deformed. 

I'm probably being too picky. 🙄

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14 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

I was going over the mount, in detail afterwards. I think I've noticed little quirks that were already there, but I never noticed before. 

One is when the RA clutch knob is fully released and resting on the stop, it tends to hit off the plastic box below it. The box has one or two minor scrapes on it, but doesn't seem to be deformed. 

I'm probably being too picky.

I think that you can solve that quite easily.

There is a bolt holding clutch in place - if you undo it, you'll be able to pull away plastic leaver lever that you can then put back on at a different angle and fasten bolt again.

Look at strip down guide somewhere - it should show clutch leaver lever removal.

 

 

Edited by vlaiv
No one is leaving! :D
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4 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I think that you can solve that quite easily.

There is a bolt holding clutch in place - if you undo it, you'll be able to pull away plastic leaver that you can then put back on at a different angle and fasten bolt again.

Look at strip down guide somewhere - it should show clutch leaver removal.

 

 

I can remove the lever and shift it to another position, but it will still rest against the metal stop and scrap along the plastic box.

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5 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

I can remove the lever and shift it to another position, but it will still rest against the metal stop and scrap along the plastic box.

Not sure that I follow.

If you rotate lever by 90° - it will pointing "up" (in your video) when fully disengaged. How will it then hit plastic box?

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12 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

After removing the lever and rotating it by 90 degrees, I get the same result.

Yes, excellent point - once you undo it - you can "keep" undoing it :D (until you unscrew it completely).

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1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

Yes, excellent point - once you undo it - you can "keep" undoing it :D (until you unscrew it completely).

I'm probably being petty, it being a relatively 'cheap' Chinese mount - but I just like things not to be so rough.  Perhaps I should have invested in a more expensive mount or another brand?  It's just that I can't justify any more money on a mount.

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1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

IThere is a bolt holding clutch in place - if you undo it, you'll be able to pull away plastic leaver lever that you can then put back on at a different angle and fasten bolt again. 

I had the same problem and same easy solution for another mount, the Celetron AVX. I hate taking things apart because they are harder to get back together, but it seems that it really should be part of one's procedures for all new gear to really inspect everything indoors during the day to figure how they work.

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2 hours ago, Ian McCallum said:

I'm probably being petty, it being a relatively 'cheap' Chinese mount - but I just like things not to be so rough.  Perhaps I should have invested in a more expensive mount or another brand?  It's just that I can't justify any more money on a mount.

You aint had a good couple of days have you. How the hell did you do that ? I often loosen slightly the central bolt to allow polar alignment. But never keep turning it. I always move around with legs attached. If i had to take it off the tripod. Always remove the weights 

I just checked mine yes the latch brushes against the box. But never been a problem in the slightest. Any mount at this price point that can track unguided a 10" Newtonian at 1000ms with a cheap RA drive.

Must be doing something right. Mine has performed better than i could have hoped for.

Orion neb under poor seeing the other day 10" Newtonian at 1000ms exposure 1600mm focal length. Stars not perfect. But unguided at 1600mm FL not awful by any standards

It sounds like the mud softened the blow. And hasnt caused any damage. When your drive arrives try very high power and see how well it tracks. if once polar aligned its drifting only very very slowly over a few minuets then its fine. How will you be polar aligning. i use a phone app. Which seems quite accurate

Orion with Orion 10.png

Edited by neil phillips
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@neil phillipsif you're talking about how the mount hit the dirt, that was due to me removing the mount from the tripod, instead of leaving it on and folding the legs up.  I forgot to remove the counterweigh and the mount toppled from the top of the tripod.  I did try to catch it, but only broke it's fall somewhat.  I was very, very lucky, as a bit earlier I was observing on concrete.  I had moved it onto the grass, so that I could get a better view of Polaris.

When the RA clutch lever is tightened up, it won't be a problem.  It's just that I thought I had bent or bust something, but there's absolutely no sign of that. All the spindles, bolts, etc. are perfectly straight, thank goodness!  The RA clutch lever probably scraps off the plastic before the fall, I must have missed it till I had a good close up look at everything, after the incident.🙄

Next time it goes on a trip, I'm going to ask the mount to send me a postcard!.🤣

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5 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

@neil phillipsif you're talking about how the mount hit the dirt, that was due to me removing the mount from the tripod, instead of leaving it on and folding the legs up.  I forgot to remove the counterweigh and the mount toppled from the top of the tripod.  I did try to catch it, but only broke it's fall somewhat.  I was very, very lucky, as a bit earlier I was observing on concrete.  I had moved it onto the grass, so that I could get a better view of Polaris.

When the RA clutch lever is tightened up, it won't be a problem.  It's just that I thought I had bent or bust something, but there's absolutely no sign of that. All the spindles, bolts, etc. are perfectly straight, thank goodness!  The RA clutch lever probably scraps off the plastic before the fall, I must have missed it till I had a good close up look at everything, after the incident.🙄

Next time it goes on a trip, I'm going to ask the mount to send me a postcard!.🤣

Well as i said mine brushes the box too so its normal you havent bent it. In the daytime check the polar scope hasnt been knocked out. Do you know how to check for that ? 

Edited by neil phillips
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