Yikes! Made me need to turn on my AC just reading about it! Thanks for the warning!

I'd say 'Hello, Tareq' - but you already know me and I you. And, yes to you-know-who-you-are - I 'press-ganged' another poor, little SGL'er into our evil clutches! Bwahahahahahaha!

Dave

 

Hello Tareq. There are quite a few refugees from SGL here.

 

Forums are useful for discussing astronomy in general. You can learn a lot without realising it. Plus it's always nice to get nerdy talking about equipment and stuff lol.

 

Yeah, it's easy to spend a lot of money on gear. Mostly it's worth it, especially if you enjoy using the stuff you've bought. I don't regret buying many things. The AZ3 mount was one of the things I regretted buying.



It suffered from severe altitude drift. It's a known design flaw on the AZ3. I didn't know about this at the time though. I call it the 'chocolate teapot' because it's about as useful as a teapot made of chocolate lol.

 

I didn't know about the altitude drift problem when I bought it. I tried to return it to TS Optics for a refund but they insisted they could fix it for me.



Basically, this lock washer wasn't doing its job and was slipping.



When they sent it back to me the tripod was broken. It wasn't when I orginally sent it back to them to repair the mount. I don't know if they fixed the lock washer as I replaced it with a Vixen Porta II and a heavy duty tripod. I just threw the AZ3 in the shed without trying it. lol



It was more expensive but it's much better.

 

I'd wondered what the story was/is on the AZ3. So that's very interesting - altitude-drift? Well nothing could possibly top the utter malfeasance displayed by Orion-USA in the sales and design of their AZ-4 mount:

Orion AZ-4 Micro-Motion Altazimuth Mount.pdf

The manual claims a weight-load of 10 lbs. I found even 1 - 2 lbs was enough to make it drop your scope like a flaming-brick. Crash! So Orion changed the manual to give it a capacity of 4 lbs. Nope - Crash! I had already taken mine apart and fixed it to handle at least 10 lbs. The clutch on it consisted of a very smooth steel-drum. To keep it from moving except bythe slow-motion cables - you were supposed to tighten-down a soft alloy-bolt against the smooth surface of the cylindrical steel-drum. Ludicrous! The alloy-bolt just mushed against the smooth steel. So I simply.....

Gorilla-glued a strip of 80-grit sandpaper cut to fit around the steel-drum. Let it set for a few hours. And it holds the 10 lbs. easily. If/when the sandpaper fails, I could glue another strip - or take a diamond-file to it and make it a rough & mottled surface. Either/or.

This mount dropped in price by 1/2, then 2/3rds. Then vanished into history. My 'fix' cost me around a shiny, new nickel - the US 5¢ piece. I tried to get Orion to either publish my instructions, or fix them to my specs. They pretended I didn't exist.

And in place of this AZ-4, the AZ3 was rolled-out. I likely have the only functional AZ-4 from Orion. Still going strong.

Dave




I got rid of the tripod itself and put the mount on the classical designed one barely visible above. More sturdy.

 

To be honest Dave TS Optics may have fixed it. But after discovering the tripod was toast when I got it back I decided to buy the Porta II.

You win some, you lose some.

 

Welcome, Tareq, from N. Texas! Forums such as this exist to not only answer questions~ but to exchange ideas and experiences in astronomy. Participation is very welcome! Glad to have you aboard!

 

Yes indeed! These forums are of as many uses as the people populating them wish.

I'd say forums are for not only getting needed information from, but just as much for sharing your knowledge with others who ask for help getting the information required. It's a two-way street. As well as bouncing ideas off of to see how they can be refined and brought into existence and/or implemented. Not to mention building understanding of other people on a global sense. Diplomacy in action - working where the idiot politicians fall flat on their faces.

I also bought a Vixen Porta II as you likely know, Mak. I got this for my 150mm Maksutov. The 5¢ repair made that silly AZ-4 (named by Orion, not to be confused with the AZ-4 found in Europe & the UK) an excellent mount for smaller scopes like the ST80. But something with a greater load capacity was clearly called for with my 150mm Maksutov. Those Russian-designed scopes weigh a country-ton! No wonder they were used in tank-warfare by the Soviet Red-Army against the German Panzers! If the Red-Army ran out of shells to fire at the German tanks, they could just throw the telescope at 'em! And the Vixen Porta II is handling the Maksutov with grace and alacrity! The design is very similar to the European AZ-4, but the additional slow-motion cables are just what i needed. And now I have the Euro AZ-4 in reserve for the next scope I swore I'd never buy!

Here in the Untied Snakes, equatorial-mounts were what everyone was led to think was the only choice for astronomy purposes. So it's taking awhile for these quite capable AltaAz-mounts to gain a following around here. Considering how simple to use these are compared to Eq-mounts, something tells me they will help usher a lot of new people into the hobby & lifestyle that is astronomy.

Off to see if the clouds have departed yet.....

Later,

Dave

 

Yeah, the Vixen's a totally different kettle of fish. I think the centre of gravity OTA mounting makes a big difference. The AZ mounts have the CoG below the OTA which is bound to be problematical. My 235mm SCT has a similar mount to the Vixen but with a GOTO. It's the only way to mount a large OTA weighing 6 ~ 8 kilo efficiently IMO.

The alt az solves a lot of problems for me with my disability, but for manual tracking at high magnification (150x +) an EQ makes more sense.

 

I have one major peeve with the Vixen Porta II -

When you detach the scope from the mount, it's fine & easy. But when you try to re-mount it to the arm of the Porta II, the mount-arm invariably moves away which makes re-mounting a major pain. It's just won't hold still long enough to get a good contact to tighten the quick-release bolt on.

What it needs is a stop/lock catch to immobilize the mount during re-mounting - or whenever you need it to keep still. So it can be a real PITA in this one detail.

I've taken to just move the whole scope & mount as one-piece. A bit unweildy I admit, but it works. A caveat: If you move it in one-piece, lean over the thing so you can grasp it by one hand on a leg of the tripod, and the other underneath to mount itself. I don't recommend lifting the whole thing by the telescope OTA.

'Ta,

Dave

 

You can tighten the azimuth clutch with an Allen key. I have it set so that I can move the azimuth manually easily enough but it isn't so loose so that it rotates too freely.

I can carry mine in a bag connected to a heavy duty tripod. Although, the Catmobile helps a lot with moving it lol.

I set it up in one piece then add the OTA.

 

That cart looks great, Mak! But it wouldn't be practical for me - I have a few steps to get to my outdoor-perch. Instead I have a long smooth-plastic bench I can slide my Feline over. And a Meade Giant Super-Field-Tripod awaiting. For the 12" Meade LX90 or LX200, Meade's regular Super-Field-Tripod (no 'giant') comes with, and really isn't suitable for the job. A new Meade Giant S-F-T costs $750US. It came with an older 12" LX200GPS telescope back in 2002. And is rock-solid. Rather than supplying these well-suited tripods for their larger scopes - Meade simply only supplied their standard S-F-T. Bloody cheapskates!

The S-F-T is fine for up to a 10" LX-series scope*. But complaints poured in regards the 12" & 14" LX's.

So those Allen-Wrenches hidden away under the black-mat can clamp-down and prevent the mounting from swiveling if I so much as blink my eyes at it, eh? I shall go and investigate this - thank you!

Off to Play!

evaD


* I'm really guessing here. What's really needed is to go back to giving the customer the 'GIANT' S-F-T for all their LX-series. Or at very least starting at the 10" models. I've said before and will say again: The optics on the Meade LX-series are absolutely exceptional. But Meade's mechanical designs are abysmal! It was the Giant S-F-T that stood out as a lone exception to this problem. So Meade closed this gap and took away the Giant! I think they were still supplying them with the 16" observatory models of the LX-series. One of those would crush the daylights out of the S-F-T by itself. All that would be left would be a lumpy Frisbee® of metal and plastic.

 

A lot of companies try to pass off smaller and less expensive mounts and/or tripods for their products. The Big Cat's tripod is an exception in that it is so heavy it could kill you if it dropped on you!

Yeah, the Allen keys/wrenches under the plastic cover should fit the clutches. Don't over tighten though. Tightening also cures any pronounced backlash as well. The altitude can also be tightened/loosened. In fact, Vixen recommend you regularly check the clutches as they will work loose slightly with use.

 

The so-called 'Instruction Manual' Vixen puts out for the Porta II is seriously pathetic. In 16 pages in Pdf. - it contained absolutely no information I could use. Searching the net found nothing concrete regards tensioning the Azimuth-Clutch. I had to approach it using that thing that each subsequent generation seemingly is born with ever decreasing amounts: Common-Sense.

I found the little bolt-hole on the side of the mount and didn't bother with the supplied Allen-Wrenches. I simply guessed it was a 4mm - it was/is - and used my round-tip Pedros' Tools* 4mm Allen-Wrench. These have a very long shaft with a round-tip to aid in locating and seating the wrench firmly in the bolt-head - especially useful when the head of the bolt is hidden in a 'well.' As was the Az-Clutch bolt. I torqued it down with about 35-40 lbs pressure. It had been so loose it turned freely with no resistance whatsoever. If I'd been following the instruction-manual, I think I'd be trying to adjust the lens-assembly in my finder-scope as the next step! If anyone has this manual - do yourself a favor - set it on fire.

I'll haul the beast out as one-piece again, but when it's time to haul it back indoors, I'll detach the OTA from the mount. In case it's still being obstinate, I'll be in a better location to have-at with my tools.

We have clear skies forecast. And Doppler-Radar agrees.

Onwards & Upwards -

Dave


* Pedros' Tools are made especially for bicycle-mechanics and are from Woburn, Massachusetts. They're very good and made to very precise tolerances. Obviously their uses are not limited to bicycle-work.