Mount ooze.

[Swoop1]

No- not a newly discovered soft topographical feature!

Whilst clearing down after doing a bit of solar today, I noticed dark streaks from around the dec. axis of my HEQ5PRO.

Is this just the grease sweating off a bit in the heat? It does feel a bit oily.

 

[laudropb]

I have had this with a couple of Skywatcher mounts. I cleaned off the copious amounts of grease on the gears and replaced it with a small amount of Aeroshell 33 and it has never occurred again.

Edited June 14, 2023 by laudropb
Misspell

[Franklin]

Synta grease aint the best grease around. The inside of your mount must have got very hot and the grease couldn't cope with those temperatures. The opposite thing happens at sub-zero temperatures when the grease can stiffen up causing binding issues. Regrease with a quality product that can cope with temperature extremes.

[CraigT82]

The thick and sticky Synta OE grease serves a dual purpose: to help hide slack manufacturing tolerances and to stay in place for a long long time (I opened up a 20yr old EQ6 and found the original grease all still in place and working as it should). I replaced it with Baader #1 machine grease which is also very thick and sticky (good for budget mounts Baader say) but with better lubricanting properties and better temp range. Good for between -15 and +55 centigrade according to them…. Should be ok for solar usage.

Failing that might eb worth to try and shade the mount whilst using for solar, might help prevent the want getting too warm and running off?