AE Mount refurb complete - Yay!

[skybadger]

Hi all

I have finally finished the mount refurb and moved it into the obbo, with telescopes on, balanced and driven and now polar aligned.

Its a AE Systems Class C mount to which I have fixed Vixen Skysensor drives to, made a new telescope carrier to carry the original 10" Newt and a Vixen GP plate for multiple scopes and slapped on the new pier. I have even polar aligned the beast, with a buffer crash to my embarassment.

it looks like this now..

The bag on the end is the counter-weight - its a shaft hub, the original counterweight was just too heavy.

The shiny brass couplings are large bore plumbing adapters used to compress the clutch spring.

The shiny steel ring on the dec shaft is the single piece shaft clamp, i replaced for the grub-screw shaft clamp which leaves marks all over the place and makes it hard to remove close-tolerance bits when the grub screw has chewed the shaft.

The dec worm wheel is the original 192 tooth, twin start worm, giving 1:96 reduction. It is driven by a Vixen MT-4 motor through a pair of 10mmx2.5mm pitch pulleys mounted straight off the worm bracket.

At the other end of the dec shaft, the telescope carrier plate is another hub carrier, mounting a larger plate for larger scopes and carrying a Vixen Visac and a ED80.

The main RA worm is a 10" 360 tooth gear, driven by the SS2K Mt$ motor through the pulleys.

I'll post some pics of the PE when I get it.

There is a web page at SkyBadger::Equipment::Astro Systems Mount

There is a page on the new pier too at SkyBadger::Equipment::Observatory Pier.

Fairly chuffed myself. Looking for worm covers now as the final addition, but a cloth will do for now.

Mike

[Rob]

Ooo... thats a nice refurb there. Looks great

Rob

[Astrokev]

Nice job you've done there Mike. Looks a really solid mount.

Kev

[Astro_Baby]

Always impressed with people efforts - bet it was a right cow of a mount to refurb.