Ugly Hedgehog - Photography Forum
Home Active Topics Newest Pictures Search Login Register
Astronomical Photography Forum
Well I did it !
May 24, 2018 08:44:10   #
stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast
 
I grew some and against my better judgement , I gave my lxd55 DEC axes a tune-up and re- grease every moving part. The large dec gear came out so much easier than going back in , the kicking and screaming at my mount didn't help in go in either. Five days in a week period to get this done and though it moves like slicing butter, only testing on astronomical targets will tell if it fixed my problem with my dec drive. I had stiction and now I don't either turning it by hand or with the OTA mounted and adjusting those tension screws was a real time consumer but, while taking the worm housing off I observed where the threads were and jotted that down so I new where it had been and had to decide where to set it to get rid of the backlash. I haven't had any time out under the stars for more than 3 weeks and hopefully this will not persist much longer. This mount did ok on lunar and planetary before but, it's not up to par for longer exposures hoping that this will improve . If nothing improves , it was a learning experience .

Reply
May 24, 2018 09:56:49   #
SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA
 
Well, it can't hurt to do the maintenance.
Now you know that everything that needs lubed, is lubed, and the grease is all fresh.
Kicking and screaming at the mount. Welcome to the world of Maintenance which is a world away from someone at the factory who, Pick up da piece, put it in dair, as the line moves along.

We are having some of the most frustrating skies here. The talking heads on TV call it May Gray, like they have a clue. But it's really June Gloom come early.
Then some years lately, June has been the scorcher month. Not long ago 100°'s + for more than 20 days out of the month.
The evenings start out looking promising, then a Marine Layer (high altitude fog) closes the skies. Great for alignment training. But Unh-Unh for targets I have to wait for. I seem to have about a 2 hour window where alignment is banged out, and the sky turns into a curtain.
So I'm waiting for the Low Pressure weather to go away, and the High Pressure which is our hot and clear dayz, and equally clear nights, to come around.

I hope your weather cooperates so you can get some scope time in now.

Reply
May 24, 2018 18:12:07   #
stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast
 
Thanks Sonny , It hasn't been worth a crap and what better time to totally screw my mount up or not. I just hope that it can get me through another year or so . I was really not wanting to try anything like this but, I had to do something . I got fed up when I was trying to stack my subs from the late Winter on m81 and 82, that's the kick in the pants that got me going Sonny.

Reply
 
 
Jun 5, 2018 17:38:48   #
stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast
 
So far so good , it at least goes to my target on the camera sensor without having to figure out which way to go with the control. I call it a successful improvement and without backlash , I don't know how I pulled that off. I've still got to do a sequence , to see if my dec in phd has improved . My glasses broke right after she told me that she pulled the trigger on a surprise ! incredible ! there wasn't any through the roof stuff wanting to cancel the order or anything after that . I didn't really care for the {no line bifocals} that broke. It has been so crappy for a month to the day and I'm still working on data trying to get my luminous to line up with my rgb stack and I'm learning that I better get my key straight or I'll have to go through all this hell again. It's all a learning process in this hobby.

Reply
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.
Astronomical Photography Forum
UglyHedgehog.com - Forum
Copyright 2011-2024 Ugly Hedgehog, Inc.