TheSkySearchers

LDW47 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:50 pm 4307FA5F-5EAD-45E5-84EB-E12A00558303.jpeg[/image]This is a great write but luckily with my newly arrived yesterday and with my largest refractor, an 80mm, f11.4, that I will ever mount on it attached I am not, initially, having any performance problems as described here ! Just lucky I guess but I will keep watching for anything to arise.

Glad to hear you like the mount. That looks like a Celestron "FirstScope", and made in Japan by Vixen. Is it in fact? If so, it's a beaut, and with a fine crown-and-flint doublet.

What I had noticed almost immediately about the altitudinal-axis what that it was a bit gritty and jerky in its motions; and I then found out why upon taking it apart.

Sky Tinker wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:23 am

LDW47 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:21 pm

Sky Tinker wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:39 am

Oh, yes, the "steering wheel". It was bent upon arrival...

guiding rod.jpg

I took a small, butane torch, and straightened it.

Hopefully when you straightened it with the heat you didn’t cause fatiguing in that cheap metal ? It may come back to haunt but really with the lighter scopes you don’t need those handles to operate !

I thought I had tempered the metal with the torch, and you're saying that I didn't? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. But no matter, as that handle would be good only for guiding something smaller and light in weight; a pair of binoculars, or a camera, perhaps.

You are right it sure isn’t much of a handle, lol ! Its the most flimsy one I have ever seen !

Sky Tinker wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:43 am

LDW47 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:50 pm 4307FA5F-5EAD-45E5-84EB-E12A00558303.jpeg[/image]This is a great write but luckily with my newly arrived yesterday and with my largest refractor, an 80mm, f11.4, that I will ever mount on it attached I am not, initially, having any performance problems as described here ! Just lucky I guess but I will keep watching for anything to arise.

Glad to hear you like the mount. That looks like a Celestron "FirstScope", and made in Japan by Vixen. Is it in fact? If so, it's a beaut, and with a fine crown-and-flint doublet.

What I had noticed almost immediately about the altitudinal-axis what that it was a bit gritty and jerky in its motions; and I then found out why upon taking it apart.

It is a FirstScope that I bought complete for $100 C about 5-6 yrs ago. Last year I also bought a complete, wooden case and all, in near mint condition a 1959 Tasco Model 304 60mm refractor from a couple for $150 C. The 304 was determined by the experts on CN to precede all the Tasco refractors put out after 1960, I am one lucky guy ! They both perform flawlessly in my opinion. So you can see the types incl. several ST refractors and the size of scopes that I will be using that mount with, I sure won’t be overloading it. Its just, hopefully, a nice size G&G mount for those quick sessions along with my Celestron Omni, one will stay at my home and one at my remote camp and the nice thing is I’m not out a lot of $. I will keep your post as a back up just in case, for the future !