Yeah, and not a particularly smart orangutan at that lol. It's probably easier than it looks. Maybe ...

 

I bet the Moon looks good at 100x with the ST80. It's a nice lunar magnification. You can see a fantastic amount of detail and it isn't rocketing past too fast lol.

 

I tend to set the alt az so the Moon rises or, after transit, descends into view. less slo mo tweaking then. I've been thinking about the Skymax finder position problem.



So, I've ordered a Telrad with an additional dew shield/90° mirror. This could solve the finder problem. I could use it like an RACI with the mirror. I'll have to see exactly what position I'll place it first. I'm thinking of vertically on top of the OTA gun sight fashion. Bloody thing's 20cm long! I only have about 22.5cm space on the Skymax's OTA lol.

 

I've checked and there should be room for the dew shield to fit. The heated element needs to be near the objective. I'll have to experiment a bit before I commit to a position on the OTA. It might be too high off the OTA. I had to try something though.


I got this picture off the Net. I don't know how big this scope is. It looks about 127mm to me. If I decide not to use it there's always the Rigel I suppose.

 

I find that with my disability an RACI is the only way to find anything above the plane of the ecliptic. In fact, they're useful for finding anything whilst seated. The Bazooka is peculiar in that a reflex is easier to point the objective roughly at the target, although an RACI is easier when seated mostly, and definitely needed for accuracy. A combination is what's really needed on Newtonians 13cm and above. If the Telrad doesn't work for the Skymax I'll put it onto the Bazooka.

Thing is, the Skymax is just sitting there unused. I could always put it on its EQ mount, but that's another pile of problems lol. I just want a finder for it that works without going supernova ROTFL!

 

Hey Ray -

If you ordered these from Agena, then they are the same as ScopeStuff's cables:

http://agenaastro.com/agena-flexible-slow-motion-cable-with-rosette-handle-13-5.html

ScopeStuff's cost $24.00 for a pair now. They were $20 when I ordered them. Now Agena has the better price. Good to know. Another + for Agena is they offer different lengths. ScopeStuff's are the 13" only (which is what I needed anywho). I'll certainly post some images once I lazily complete (thats' a laugh! - I never stop tweaking & improving!) my mount-tricks.

I bought the Vixen Porta II for my 150mm Maksutov - because it has the control-cables for tracking objects. Where the AZ-4/VersaGo II (Orion) did not. And the Mak is too heavy for the Orion AZ-4 Micro-Motion AltAzimuth Mount (Manual + description below in Pdf.), which does have cables:

Orion AZ-4 Mount.pdf

Now the manual doesn't want to be downloaded here. Why am I not surprised? EVERYTHING about that mount is booby-trapped! Even the bloody instructions! After I tore it apart to fix the clutch problem which made it drop anything whatsoever, it now does a great job on my ST80. But a 150mm Maksutov, at 11-lbs. bare, is way too much still. I would have simply swapped-out for the scope I was using that night.

If Orion had one of these AltAz-Mounts that actually did what it was supposed to do, they would likely never started selling these "VersaGo II" mounts. So the disaster that was these AZ-4 was a mixed-blessing. Looking around in CrowdedFights for these AZ-4 Orion mentioned, servedto show me that tons of people bought these wrecks. So I posted my 'fix' while thinking it would make many people happy. The result? Hardly anyone mentioned the fix, and fewer still ventured to utter a 'thank you' for making their mess actually work as it was supposed to work. Too busy beating each other up with boards with nails driven through them.....

And this convinced me to check out AstronomyConnect, and work to get this place up & running in a way that was antithetical to the CN sociological-nightmare requiring a 'whip & chair' to maneuver about within. So these disaster-mounts from Orion are to blame for everything! And I ordered the cables from ScopeStuff because one of the (so far) cables on the thing promptly broke - with the end that attaches to the mount separating brom the cable itself. But (of course!) the cables you and I bought, Ray, wouldn't fit the Orion-wreck. It has a proprietary fitting! Who'd a thunk it? I finally managed to build a fitting from an older Orion-mount with a lot of work involving much work! Good thing I'm a mechanic, otherwise I would likely have set that thing up on the high-speed rail on my local train-tracks and waited for 9:15 fright-train to take it to Valhalla once-and-for-all.

Anyway: If you ever see one of these mounts for real cheap, now you know why. Hence, you could get one for virtually nothing. Which would work in your favor - like it ended-up being for me - and I'd suggest you snatch it up. Then ask me for the 'Fix.' Make it work quite well for about 5¢. Very simple to do. About the same mechanical skill level as turning a screwdriver and/or changing a lightbulb. Re: Anyone can do it! Even Mak's 'Good Buddy' - Pud!

Back to play!

Dave

 

To be honest Dave I think the AZ3 design is flawed whoever markets it, be it Orion, Celestron or Sky-Watcher. I reckon Ray's right and the lockwasher is deficient in some way causing altitude drift. I'm assuming that your Orion VersaGo II is the same or similar. It's possible it can be fixed by the customer, like you did. For all I know TS Optics fixed the chocolate teapot. Unfortunately I'll never know now as they managed to trash the tripod after allegedly fixing the mount and it was broken when I got it back from Germany. So I put the mount and tripod in the shed. The slo mo controls and tripod tray are worth about 45 quid together if I bought them separately and I use them on the Porta. So I've only lost about 35 quid in real terms. Well, if I try to be optimistic about it. lol

 

OK, after some thought and playing about with a tape measure, I've decided to make plans for a Rigel lol. Any insights into using the Rigel Ray? Does it have any quirks or anything? I take it the base fits to the OTA well enough.


So I've ordered this as well. I'm determined to use the Skymax on the Vixen mount. I'll put the Telrad on the Bazooka. It really needs combined reflex and RACI sights. The Rigel will not be any good for the zenith but I have the ST80 and StarMax for that. This way I can use the Skymax for plane of the ecliptic (and a bit higher). At least I'll have a mount/tripod combination that can be used with both Mak's and the ST80.

 

To make it more confusing, Mak - the slipping of altitude was what was going on with the AZ-4 that preceeded the VersaGo II/AZ-4. Here's an image of the Orion AZ-4 with the slipping-clutch problem:



The AZ-4 that you have in the UK is this:




Confused yet? Or, as an old pal of mine would say:




'Ta,

Dave

 

That Sky-Watcher/Celestron AZ4 would be great if it had slo mo! The less said about the AZ3 the better.

 

OK thanks Ray. I'll have to experiment a bit with it before I attach it I suppose. How about battery life? I believe it has a standard CR2032 Lithium but can have an extra battery pack. I think the CR2032 is the little round disc type, often referred to as 'hearing aid' batteries here lol.

 

Most large pharmacy chain-stores here, Ray, have a battery display. My nearest Rite Aid does up here. When I need a CR2032, which is what several of my lasers' use, I go there to get such. Or I'll buy a whole sheet of them off the 'net.' Cheaper that way if you have many things that eat these - such as the little computers some of us put on our bicycles to measure speed, distance, time, etc, etc. Those lil' devils eat these up fast!

Oh yeah - I have managed to tear down the Vixen Porta II to move the azimuth out of my way. Ignoring the directions - I just took it apart myself. Worked a charm.

As for the AZ-3, the image below is what an AZ-3 is here:





I agree with you - if the VersaGo II had control-cables for altitude & azimuth, the VersaGo II (in the UK it's called the AZ-4 or AZ4) would be absolutely perfect! A few more $$$ or £££, all of this could have been un-necessary.

Skywatcher/Synta, or whomsoever, shot themselves in both feet by not bothering to do such a major improvement that would have cost them next-to-nothing.

'til later -

Dave

EDIT! Some how my files got crossed. I had posted an image of the older AZ-4 that I fixed the clutch on. Here's a new image showing a small frac. on the AZ-3 pictured!

Ever have 'one of those days?

 

I would probably have tried to do the same with my Porta but it would possibly be difficult for me. The controls are easy for me to reach with my left hand. The altitude is a but more awkward, but if I raise the tripod height so that the OTA is at a comfortable eye-level (seated) position pointing at the zenith, I can reach both controls seated to the left after rotating the diagonal. In this way, without much effort, I can view zenith to azimuth fairly easily.

 

My large ('large' in Maksutov's at least) 150mm F12 Maksutov reaches zenith just fine as is - including the Dual-Focus Crayford with my 2" William Optics 'DURA-BRIGHT' (di-electric) Diagonal! Right-out-of-box, no less! I took that as a good omen.

On the SGL-Front, the war drags on with the Mod-Squad. They come piling into my profile page, so I see 'em. The last was with the initials - CV - which I figure as odd. I don't recall having any conversations with him..... I think they lack the software to remove their traces in members' profiles.

On a lighter not, a relative new member created a thread 'What Gives Us the Ranks?' People complained on this as the Powers-That-Be had no answer to anyone. Only that they'd removed the option for us senior-members that they can no longer change the idiotic & insulting feature. One is now stuck where the thing has us locked-in with what it says they are according to the system. Or locked into the last titles we created: 'Little Green Man' in my case. Now I'll always be that - which is fine by me. So of course I had to make an appearence in the thread. My post simply read: "No Comment."

I thought you should be aware of this change-over.

Back to my fine-tuning gig.....

Dave & Raul.