Disaster!

[StephenRh]

So one night I am merrily observing away and then I feel my fingers are sticky. Bit of dew perhaps? Or is there a decaying humbug in my pocket? Looked with the old red touch and couldn't see much of anything, but then dabbed with a white tissue. Blood. My blood! Nothing a clean up and sticking plaster wouldn't solve, although the tube had some nice red "go faster" stripes on inspection the next morning. The culprit was the retaining screw on the RA remote control - the head had acquired a sharp edge, which I duly filed off.

This then got me thinking about the mount supplied control knobs (EQ5 Skywatcher). On the Dec axis I have the knob at one ned of the spindle and the remote control at the other. But with the RA axis, the remote control will only attach on one side of the spindle - it fouls the part of the mount on the other. But the control knob itself will not fit on the other side of the spindle, as the amount of spindle projecting is too short. So thinks I, let's have a close up look at the spindle and see if it can be centred to solve the problem. The answer is it can't, but in taking the spindle off I had to remove the RA motor which I dropped and broke the cable connector. Now superglued back to some kind of working order.

On putting the remote control back on the spindle, the retaining screw head decided to break, so I had to drill the shank of the screw out. By now my dander was very ,much up, so off I marched to my local hardware shop (think Fork Handles but with contactless payments) and purchased some grub screws of the requisite dimensions.

They work a treat. I have also ordered another set of remote control handles so each axis will have one either side of the spindle.

All good fun eh?

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by StephenRh

[PeterCPC]

We all get nights like that. Glad you managed to fix it up ok.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Had to watch it again after that comment.

 

Steve