Report - well, kind of

[turboscrew]

To make a Dobsonian track, an equatorial platform is the cheapest way. They don't have to be super accurate to eliminate the need for bumping. One disadvantage is that analog setting circles cannot be used. But for star hopping that should be no problem.

I would have made the same choice, get a large light bucket, a solid mount and see if it can be made to work for visual and AP. In fact I have that now but for some strange reason I don't need a ladder. I'm 1.90 m (6'3) and I can turn the 12" Newt in its rings to face down or horizontal. My mount is a G11S on an HD tripod that I use with half extended legs. I think your pier can be adjusted a bit lower, and with turning the OTA that might just do the trick.

If you have trouble emptying that garage, there is a TV show in the US about hoarders. Maybe watching one episode will motivate you to clean up. Or if you are not married, dating helps too. Indirectly of course, and you may or may not like it! Well, you said "bring it on"...

Yes, I've seen some episods of "Hoarders". And I'm a widower.
The main problem with the garage is a set of cupboards, but that's a long story. I should get rid of them.

[OzEclipse]

Picture of the 18"f5.5 parked in the corner of my studio

The rocker box alone of my 18" dob weighs about 90kg (200lbs). It has a wheelbarrow style transport system with 10 inch pneumatic wheels and moving it into position and setting it up is pretty easy even with my chonic lower back pain issues.

It takes a couple of minutes to wheel the base outside, perhaps 10 mins to attach the trusses and the secondary cage. Then if I do that in the light, I have to wait for twilight to laser collimate (<5 mins) and star calibrate the Nexus system to the encoders(2-3 mins). The wheelbarrow style handles mean that I am leg lifting a fraction of the 90kg rocker box weight. The trusses are light and the secondary cage is also only a few kg's.

I also have an equatorial mount. Although the head of my EM200 mount weighs 17kg, it isn't an awkward lift. I don't think I could regularly handle Turboscrew's big scope setup and certainly not do it a single lift.

Joe

[Juno16]

That is definitely a report!

These are the kind of nights that we all go through and learn from each “issue”. It does sound like you have a challenging rig to setup, but man, it sounds awesome!

[turboscrew]

Picture of the 18"f5.5 parked in the corner of my studio

The rocker box alone of my 18" dob weighs about 90kg (200lbs). It has a wheelbarrow style transport system with 10 inch pneumatic wheels and moving it into position and setting it up is pretty easy even with my chonic lower back pain issues.

It takes a couple of minutes to wheel the base outside, perhaps 10 mins to attach the trusses and the secondary cage. Then if I do that in the light, I have to wait for twilight to laser collimate (<5 mins) and star calibrate the Nexus system to the encoders(2-3 mins). The wheelbarrow style handles mean that I am leg lifting a fraction of the 90kg rocker box weight. The trusses are light and the secondary cage is also only a few kg's.

I also have an equatorial mount. Although the head of my EM200 mount weighs 17kg, it isn't an awkward lift. I don't think I could regularly handle Turboscrew's big scope setup and certainly not do it a single lift.

Joe

You have quite a "star cannon"! My setup is small compared to yours.
90 kg - that would be a LOT to carry upstairs, and I guess your OTA doesn't belong into the fether-series either.
18" mirror is quite some glass.

[mikemarotta]

Not dark enough at 10:00 PM in April. You are far north. And I thought that I have it rough now that I have to wait until 8:00 PM for dark, even though I start sighting (Moon, for example) from 7 or 7:30. By 8 o'clock, Sirius and some others are clearly visible for alignment.

In any case, I am not alone in sharing your pain. I had the perfect spot in my. backyard for years and it is still good. But the other night, my neighbor's lights went on, so I moved to the other side of the yard and everthing rolled off my table. Oh... that's why I do not set up here... I remember now...

[turboscrew]

Yesterday I figured out something to somewhat balance the scope (I hope). I also figured out a north-south line on my yard. I put an iron bar in one place I thought it might be good, and tried to get it vertical. Then brought a concrete ring with a hole in a middle (I have no clue what it's made for) and a pipe, that fits the hole, to a place close to the guessed line. At 10.01 PM I then moved the concrete ring with the pipe such, that the pipe, iron bar and Regulus were in line. It was quite light, but I could tell Regulus. At 11:08 PM, I re-checked with Zosma. (Regulus and Zosma were supposed to be south at the mentioned times).

[turboscrew]

Now I got the setup balanced. I don't know if that's my final solution, though.

Funny that the Losmandy saddle of the CEM120 is 250g heavier then the front. It's the connector box I presume. I balanced it with a beam shoe like this:

And the counter weight for the finder (~450 g):

[turboscrew]

Made a better place for the setup. Now it the Tri-pier should be somewhat aligned in the north-south direction.
I probably could have done better with leveling the tiles.

Also, found a bit better counterweight for the Losmandy saddle. I needed to add one more plate, though. I did check that it doesn't restrict the movements of the mount in any way. It's small enough.

Now ready for new frustrations tonight.
I don't know if there is still pinching. I haven't got a chance to check since I tried to fix that.
I even remembered to align the RACI.

[Greenman]

Sounds like a great first time out!

Just one minor point, you might want to put the counter weights on before the OTA.

Regards

Graeme

Good point Graeme, I forgot the other night and just caught my scope as it swung down rapidly towards the tripod legs.

[turboscrew]

This nights report:

It started well. Got the setup polar aligned well enough, and then aligned the goto (single star, with Regulus). The goto was initially astonishingly much off. It wasn't really dark yet, but I didn't want to waste the good weather now, when it finally appeared. I started at about 10:30 PM when the polaris started to be seen well enough for polar alignment.

First to M48 which appeared to be just behind some treetops.

Then to M44. It looked lovely through my Omegon SWAN 26 mm / 70°.
So did M67.

Then to Leo. Tried M95, M96, M105. Nothing. Probably still too light.
Next M65 and M66. I _think_ I saw one of them, but not sure which. I barely made it, but I took several looks, and the little haze was always same way at the same place - I don't think I imagined it.

At that point I thought it's too easy.

Next I went for M106, and found out that it was too easy. At the end of slew, I heard terrible rattle, and it looked like the movement around DEC axis stopped. Turned the goto off. disengaged the gear and checked if it was stuck. No moved just fine. Tried to go back to M66. and that went well.

Then I tried M99, and it happened again - the rattling sound. I think some gear was jumping over.
It went to the zero position well, however.
It was 11:30 PM. I didn't dare to try anything more. That was it for the "night".

DARN!
I just can't believe my luck!

Any idea what to do now? Do I dare to look inside the mount? Or is it better to send it to repair, and wait a couple more months? (As if I didn't get to wait enough already.)
I think it's still under warranty.

[turboscrew]

Things may not be that bad after all. In the web I found this:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6806 ... odd-sound/
In the video clip, the sound is similar.

I contacted ioptron support, here was their response:

"The sound should be motor was skipping steps. It is a protection mechanism and no harm to the system. Make sure the mount is balanced and no cable is dragging the DEC.

If it keeps occurring, try to adjust the DEC meshing, may be loosening a bit (1/8 turn) first."

I guess it's safe to do that, because the instructions are given in the CEM120 user manual.

I did some slewing tests (quite similar than the problematic cases last night) with and without the tube on.
I couldn't reproduce the problem. The tube + gear made about 15.5 kg (34 lb).
The only difference I can think of is that last night it was about +2°C (36°F), now +14°C (57°F).
.