I'm a noob all over again

[Don Alvarez]

It's been probably more than five months since my last observation. It has been a misery with the weather or being unable to go when the weather was good, so when the astronomy club said the dark site trek for tonight was on, I rushed to get some equipment ready that hasn't seen the light of day (or night) in months. Now, I probably should have just loaded up that which I am familiar, the Dob, but I also have a lot of stuff I picked up months ago that literally has never been used yet so that's what I've decided to bring instead - EP's mostly, but more specific is the LX70 mount. I know how EQ mounts work, but I'm clueless about drift alignment. Can someone in the know give me a quick primer or point me towards one so I can take a crash course and no be totally clueless when I go out there tonight?

Much obliged.

[helicon]

Glad that you will be observing this evening! Sounds like it has been awhile.

[Lady Fraktor]

https://www.backyardastronomy.net/drift ... ial-mount/

Have fun, I hope the weather holds for you

[Don Alvarez]

Thanks Gabby!

This is good. This uses a camera, but it seems I can substitute a reticle eyepiece and use this same process.

[JayTee]

Here's another link that doesn't use a camera, just so you can compare to make sure you have all the info needed to accomplish this.
https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astrono ... alignment/

Cheers,
JT

[Ylem]

Enjoy, it's been real clear all week here, but now that the weekend is here....

Thick clouds

[Don Alvarez]

The trial run went well. I think I got the alignment down pretty good, I'd get a target in the eyepiece then go fiddle with the GT mount and come back and it was still right there centered.

The negative is that every once in a while I'd come back and the target was gone, I'd look to find the DEC clutch nut had somehow worked itself loose. These things are only supposed to be finger tight right? I put a little extra oomph on it but it still kept coming loose. 3 times it did this. Any idea why?

[Don Quixote]

It is good to see you active again, Don !
I usually tighten those clutches pretty tight.

I am looking forward to your postings.

[Don Alvarez]

It is good to see you active again, Don !
I usually tighten those clutches pretty tight.

I am looking forward to your postings.

Thanks Don! I'll try torqueing it down a bit more next time. Its just curious I had that problem on one axis but not the other. I was talking to one of the other gents who was out there imaging and he said seemed odd to him too. Here's the thing though: motor controls on the LX70 are sooooo slooooowww. I find I have to release the clutches to go manual when repositioning and lock them back in again when I have it centered. I find it would be inconvenient if I need to make them super tight each time.

I am just happy to be going again. Hiatus has made me stupid rusty, and what's worse my main objective was equipment testing more so than observing really. Spent way too much time mucking around with the alignment on the GT mount; probably my fault. Two star alignment was a no go, in the end I just did an alignment on Jupiter and that seemed to track well enough. I probably spent less time doing the drift alignment on the LX70. I did finally get a chance to try the 2" Kellner's (E-Lux) in the long frac. I was pleased with what I saw though their intended use for outreach is probably a no-go. They are just too sensitive to eye position, so I may end up selling these. Experiments with the focal reducer on the camera were also a bust - not enough "in" focus. Though I'm not done there yet, in my ineptitude it didn't dawn on me to remove the diagonal to try and shorten the light path, so that'll be back on the table for next session, though I'm already considering perhaps getting a more suitable camera and/or a more suitable OTA. Hopefully winter down here continues to produce good skies.

[Lady Fraktor]

There are a couple of simple things you can try, the lever has a toothed insert in it.
Loosen the lever and move it back one or two teeth. This will give you the ability to put a bit more torque on it when tightening.
The other is to remove the lever, snug the brass insert in the mount a bit and then reinstall the lever.
If there is any slack from factory installation this will remove it and you can put much move torque on the lever without hitting the end stop.

[Don Quixote]

It is good to see you active again, Don !
I usually tighten those clutches pretty tight.

I am looking forward to your postings.

Thanks Don! I'll try torqueing it down a bit more next time. Its just curious I had that problem on one axis but not the other. I was talking to one of the other gents who was out there imaging and he said seemed odd to him too. Here's the thing though: motor controls on the LX70 are sooooo slooooowww. I find I have to release the clutches to go manual when repositioning and lock them back in again when I have it centered. I find it would be inconvenient if I need to make them super tight each time.

I am just happy to be going again. Hiatus has made me stupid rusty, and what's worse my main objective was equipment testing more so than observing really. Spent way too much time mucking around with the alignment on the GT mount; probably my fault. Two star alignment was a no go, in the end I just did an alignment on Jupiter and that seemed to track well enough. I probably spent less time doing the drift alignment on the LX70. I did finally get a chance to try the 2" Kellner's (E-Lux) in the long frac. I was pleased with what I saw though their intended use for outreach is probably a no-go. They are just too sensitive to eye position, so I may end up selling these. Experiments with the focal reducer on the camera were also a bust - not enough "in" focus. Though I'm not done there yet, in my ineptitude it didn't dawn on me to remove the diagonal to try and shorten the light path, so that'll be back on the table for next session, though I'm already considering perhaps getting a more suitable camera and/or a more suitable OTA. Hopefully winter down here continues to produce good skies.

I also enjoy the equipment testing part, Don. I think that is why I have so many different types of telescopes.

DITTO to what Gabby suggested on the clutch issue. I have had to do this on my LXD75 mount. It is an easy adjustment to make.

[Don Alvarez]

There are a couple of simple things you can try, the lever has a toothed insert in it.
Loosen the lever and move it back one or two teeth. This will give you the ability to put a bit more torque on it when tightening.
The other is to remove the lever, snug the brass insert in the mount a bit and then reinstall the lever.
If there is any slack from factory installation this will remove it and you can put much move torque on the lever without hitting the end stop.

I may have incorrectly identified the wrong part. Its not the black clutch levers that are giving me issue, those are fine. Its the silver clutch nut that goes on the adjustment arms when you install the motor kit which allow you to disengage the motors so you can use manual control. That is what is working lose on me.

[Lady Fraktor]

That is a bit strange, mine are normally only snug to work. If I think of something I will post it.

[Don Alvarez]

Thanks. I'm probably going to set it up in the living room and let it run to see if I can tell what's going on by daylight.