General A Switch

[OhNo]

Is that time of year when I don't know what Imaging train to have on my mount. I decided to swap out the scope for my narrower FOV 8" SkyWatcher Quattro. Sounds simple right!!! Well it is if you don't need to pull the Guiding scope down to the rings and barrel, or move the EAF of one and transplant it on the other focuser. But it was a lot nicer temperature than we'll be having until April.....

My scopes never get brought into the house. They are kept at ambient temperature either in the Observatory of a little motorhome. It seems to be working, so far...

As usual old age is catchin' up and I have issues remembering the idiosyncrasies the transplant has. In addition remembering the details to change in my capture/control program. Once i got the bugs (gremlins) ironed out I chose a target way lower than I normally shoot, M51. It was down about 22 degrees above the horizon. Stacked in PixInSIght WBPP, with old darks (from the same camera in a different scope but like ambient temp. I always shoot with the camera sensor at -15C.

Managed 6 240 second shots with the ASI183MM Pro (gain 70; OS 8)using the Ha filter.

 

[OhNo]

Last night was hardly what you'd call a good night to re-test a imaging train, the day after a full moon never is! I consider this a "Shakedown" of the gear. I discovered I errored again and had my Dec balanced a little to perfectly. Fought with the Dec guiding all night. Now I am ready for the New Moon, hurry up already!

 

[Tracy]

I've got the DEC down on the EQ-35 Pro to a reliable 0.4-0.9 reading. My RA is still a little high, sitting normally around 1.5-1.8 with the occasional bump into the 2.2 range. Think that's more on the mount slightly binding due to old grease than anything so plan on stripping the mount to the base components and clean and then re-grease the gears and bushings.

 

[OhNo]

That glue they call grease is something else. Even alcohol (rubbing kind) doesn't cut it! At -30C it ain't gonna go anywhere!

 

[Tracy]

I used to ride a Goldwing then an FJR1300 sport tourer. Both were shaft drive. I purchased 2 8 ounce tubes of Krytox GPL205 grease to use on the splines of them instead of normal grease since it didn't have the "runny" problem that most greases do and continues to lubricate even when dried out.
The stuff wasn't cheap at the time (and still isn't, being around $150 a tube)... but a little goes a LONG way. It's range is from -36°C through 204°C.
It's what I've been using on the gears for the RA/DEC. I'm not sure how it will do on the shaft of the EQ-35 Pro as it doesn't have any bearings. I'm not sure if a normal grease would do better there or not... I really don't think it would though.

 

[OhNo]

Last time I lubed mine I used lithium grease from Stihl. It is used for their gear boxes on string trimmer and adjustable hedge trimmers.