That's MUCH easier!

[DemonicOmelette]

I've jsut discovered something that makes pottering about the sky MUCH easier with my EQ2 mount. It has, as do many EQ mounts, long slow-motion control knobs. Now, whenever I am eye-to-the-sky, looking through the scope, and want to move it, I inevitably grab the wrong control, and wind up moving off in the wrong direction. Especially if I am viewing in the quadrant of the sky where due to the position of the scope, but the knobs are hanging off in more or less the same direction.

Now, maybe you all already do this, but last night it came as an absolute revelation: Remove the RA control knob. That's right, take it right off. Now, to do slo-mo on RA, you just twist the big sprocket that the motor would drive! It makes it about a million times easier, as the sprocket is always in the same place, and you never grab the wrong control! Lovely!

Anyhow, it's made my viewing so much better. Added bonus, the two extended knob (oo-er!) cables never get tangled!

-e

[daz]

Is there not a place to mount the RA slo-mo on the other end of the axis? Many EQ type mounts have this....

[DemonicOmelette]

Nope. There's only one place to mount it. But the whole point anyway is to get rid of the long dangly cable! It catches on you as you move around the scope, it's hard to find in the dark, etc. Just much easier to get rid of it!

[ringz]

This is the reason I bought a couple of control knobs from Maplins and put those on in place of the long controls.

It makes it much easier to know where you have to reach to adjust the mount.

--

Martyn

[barkis]

The simplest solutions are usually the best.

Ron.