Great video. I have an AZ-EQ 6 and it needed quite a bit of tweaking. The backlash in DEC was too much for my liking but after careful adjustment is virtually gone. I like your EdgeHD 9.25. I have the standard 9.25. At the time it was a coin toss between that and the EdgeHD 8. I have the focal reducer / corrector from Starizona for it and that works ok. I get over to Tucson twice a year, December and March and visit Starizona each time so if you need something picked up and brought back to Oz hit me up then. Save on shipping costs. All the best.
Wow! Thank you Wolfie, that is a very generous offer. I will definitely consider that. Sorry to have to break this to you but the earth is Flat. To prove it I put a spirit level on the ground in both hemispheres and it was flat. Can't argue with that LOL!!
Thanks for a great video Don- very helpful. @wolfie6020 - I have an AZ-EQ6GT but can’t work out how to get it apart on either RA or Dec. On Dec I removed the 3 grub screws but couldn’t loosen the silver ring. And on RA, where are the screws? And sizes? I found some hidden behind the polar scope but found nothing that fitted in order to loosen them 🥲.
@@donstronomy7606 Thats a power of work you have done building that observatory. I have been looking around a heap of videos on ideas to build mine. I have a farm I will be retiring too about 50km west of Bundaberg it is Bortle 1. I took my scope there for the first time to shoot...OMG what a difference. I shoot currently 40km noth of Brisbane in Bortle 5/6...I was stunned to see the difference. I have a Saxon (skywatcher) AZ_EQ6-GT it is somewhat different but I recently redid mine and the difference in guiding is now really great
@@SimjetAU Hi Mark, sounds like an awesome spot you have there. You probably don't get as much cloudy weather we have down south . Good luck with the move.
Very useful video. Is any slight tightness in the RA and Dec going to make a difference to slewing and tracking? I read somewhere that a slight resistance in RA tracking can be a positive thing. I have no idea whether a loose or slightly tight axis is the most preferable. I can imagine both having their plus points.
Sorry for the late reply and thank you. I make sure there is no play at all in either axis. It's a bit of a pain as you have to keep adjusting many times. Also I find when you get the weight back on the mount you may have to re adjust. Generally if you are too lose in RA or Dec, you will be able to hear it when it tracks. This has to be done with the mount loaded to detect any noise. In my case i needed to adjust because my axis was so tight that it was difficult to balance the telescope. If you cant balance the scope then you will have big guiding issues. Another thing to keep your eye on is the tracking curve. If you notice repeating curves in your graph, you may need to adjust your mount. Good luck. CS Don
@@donstronomy7606 Hi. Thanks for that. Just bought an EQ6-R Pro and the RA axis was stiff to the point where it would not balance correctly. Ordered a rubber strap wrench and got the axis loosened by one-eighth turn. That did the trick. Have to say I am impressed how good these EQ6 mounts now are. I bought an original back in year 2001 and that was dreadful in every way. On first clear night with this new mount I polar aligned it to near perfection using the handset polar align feature, and the 3 star align dropped all targets after alignment into the center of the eyepiece field at 214x magnification all night long.
Hello, I follow your installation from the beginning and I start to make the plans to make me the same kind of observatory. And I wonder about indoor humidity. Could you tell us a little bit about this aspect in the design of your observatory? Thank you in advance
The roof has an overlap of about 40mm all round. This is to ensure that the roof does not come in contact with the observatory walls when rotating. The roof shutter opening also sits on 15mm roller wheels. This all means it is not tightly sealed so the humidity is fairly similar to outside. I do get some condensation which sits on the metal ceiling and can drip onto the telescope. This could be fixed with insulation which I hope to do in the future. Good luck with your design. Hope it all goes well for you. Cheers Don
Good job, no stupid music just appropriate dialogue, thank you.
Your welcome Woody. Though I do like some stupid music occassionaly. Lol.
Great video. I have an AZ-EQ 6 and it needed quite a bit of tweaking. The backlash in DEC was too much for my liking but after careful adjustment is virtually gone.
I like your EdgeHD 9.25. I have the standard 9.25. At the time it was a coin toss between that and the EdgeHD 8.
I have the focal reducer / corrector from Starizona for it and that works ok.
I get over to Tucson twice a year, December and March and visit Starizona each time so if you need something picked up and brought back to Oz hit me up then. Save on shipping costs. All the best.
Wow! Thank you Wolfie, that is a very generous offer. I will definitely consider that.
Sorry to have to break this to you but the earth is Flat. To prove it I put a spirit level on the ground in both hemispheres and it was flat. Can't argue with that LOL!!
Thanks for a great video Don- very helpful.
@wolfie6020 - I have an AZ-EQ6GT but can’t work out how to get it apart on either RA or Dec. On Dec I removed the 3 grub screws but couldn’t loosen the silver ring. And on RA, where are the screws? And sizes? I found some hidden behind the polar scope but found nothing that fitted in order to loosen them 🥲.
On the RA nut are two holes underneath. I used two screws and a piece of bar stock to leverage the nut
Nice one! I took the polar scope cover off and had another look.
Sometimes even that is not enough. If the mount is new, this invalidates the warranty.
Great video Don...Also fantastic pics on the other videos as well...
Thank you very much Mark. Glad you liked the pics.
@@donstronomy7606 Thats a power of work you have done building that observatory. I have been looking around a heap of videos on ideas to build mine. I have a farm I will be retiring too about 50km west of Bundaberg it is Bortle 1. I took my scope there for the first time to shoot...OMG what a difference. I shoot currently 40km noth of Brisbane in Bortle 5/6...I was stunned to see the difference. I have a Saxon (skywatcher) AZ_EQ6-GT it is somewhat different but I recently redid mine and the difference in guiding is now really great
@@SimjetAU Hi Mark, sounds like an awesome spot you have there. You probably don't get as much cloudy weather we have down south . Good luck with the move.
Good video Don, thanks.
Thank you Stephen.
Thank you Stephen.😊
I used a cheap bicycle tool to undo the RA nut: parktool spa-1
I just looked that tool up, That would do the job nicely!
Very useful video. Is any slight tightness in the RA and Dec going to make a difference to slewing and tracking? I read somewhere that a slight resistance in RA tracking can be a positive thing. I have no idea whether a loose or slightly tight axis is the most preferable. I can imagine both having their plus points.
Sorry for the late reply and thank you. I make sure there is no play at all in either axis. It's a bit of a pain as you have to keep adjusting many times. Also I find when you get the weight back on the mount you may have to re adjust. Generally if you are too lose in RA or Dec, you will be able to hear it when it tracks. This has to be done with the mount loaded to detect any noise.
In my case i needed to adjust because my axis was so tight that it was difficult to balance the telescope. If you cant balance the scope then you will have big guiding issues. Another thing to keep your eye on is the tracking curve. If you notice repeating curves in your graph, you may need to adjust your mount.
Good luck.
CS Don
@@donstronomy7606 Hi. Thanks for that. Just bought an EQ6-R Pro and the RA axis was stiff to the point where it would not balance correctly. Ordered a rubber strap wrench and got the axis loosened by one-eighth turn. That did the trick. Have to say I am impressed how good these EQ6 mounts now are. I bought an original back in year 2001 and that was dreadful in every way. On first clear night with this new mount I polar aligned it to near perfection using the handset polar align feature, and the 3 star align dropped all targets after alignment into the center of the eyepiece field at 214x magnification all night long.
Nice. Do you have a link for that rat cage assembly?
LOL! Do you mean the observatory?
Hello, I follow your installation from the beginning and I start to make the plans to make me the same kind of observatory. And I wonder about indoor humidity. Could you tell us a little bit about this aspect in the design of your observatory? Thank you in advance
The roof has an overlap of about 40mm all round. This is to ensure that the roof does not come in contact with the observatory walls when rotating. The roof shutter opening also sits on 15mm roller wheels. This all means it is not tightly sealed so the humidity is fairly similar to outside. I do get some condensation which sits on the metal ceiling and can drip onto the telescope. This could be fixed with insulation which I hope to do in the future.
Good luck with your design. Hope it all goes well for you.
Cheers Don