EQ6 Drift..

[JohnP]

OK playing with telescope for first time in ages... (really pleasant night). I decided to measure periodic error. Used drift explorer in K3ccdtools (still love this prog) - My guidecamera & scope where correctly setup so vertical axis is drift in arcsec & horizontal axis is time...

How crap does this look? Am I thinking it is time to start stripping mount or is this fairly normal looking?

As you can see from DEC line my Polar Alignment was off...

I'd appreciate any comments.

Cheers,  John

[MarkS]

I'll happily swap.

My EQ6 is 30 arcsec peak to peak in RA and just as spikey.

Mark

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi John,

The uneveness is the adjustment on the worm, I would recommend replacing these bearings anyway, they cost £7.50 for a vastly uprated set.  The drift is just life, what was you using to polary align.

Chris

[JohnP]

Chris - As you know I dont have a permament setup so effectively have to polat align everytime I image - All I do is use the polar alignment scope on EQ6... Gets close enough & guiding takes care of rest - Is there anypoint spending ages trying to get it flat line when I normally guide in RA & DEC anyway.

What bearings - Are these easy to change or is it a total strip job...

[RobertM]

John,  There's no point trying to get a flat line but there is an advantage in making the curve smoother and that's what Chris means when he  says replace the bearings (I think).

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi,

Ok this was my mount out of the BOX was +18 -15, after the rebuild with the new bearings its +- 7, I'll get the graphs up later.  The change was only in the RA and DEC bearings, from simply bearings and they are the sealed ones, can't remember the size but I'll dig it out.

Its a complete stripdown to replace, easy to do and takes about 3 hours, I have all the tools and some spare shims if you fancy a go?

Chris

[Rocket Pooch]

EQ6 Rebuild by chrissuddell, on Flickr
Some examples here.

[JohnP]

OK thks - this looks like a good webpage:

http://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6%20rebuild%20guide/EQ6%20Strip%20Down%20Home.htm

[Rocket Pooch]

Hey they have even put the shim calculation in there!  All good stuff...