I buy the large Celestron plate off Amazon. Best price/value I've found. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004KMFO14/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 -- Ron

Yep, I did the switch. The FocusBoss controller, as nice as it is, is no longer used. The UPBv2 drives the HSM35 motor now using a cable I made based on the pinouts provided by Pegasus. It works like

Dale Just to clarify, you *did* switch to their stepper motor driver from the Optec? I have the UPBv2 but i haven't used that part of it. i haven't even considered switching to that because - like you

When I decided to go for the UPBv2, the one thing I was ultra hesitant about was using its built-in stepper motor controller to drive the Starlight/Optec HSM35 motor instead of the rather substantial

Hi Alex Glad the pictures helped. I forgot to include the most important picture - that of the Linx Power Panel. Without this nothing works. Bruce

On Fri, Nov 6, 2020 at 01:37 AM, Dale Ghent wrote: This arrangement worked well, but I didn't particularly care for the mess and weight and cables between all those little boxes and wanted an even

I use a 14" Losmandy D plate on top of the rings, mounted inverted (keystone up), on top of my 130GTX. I did the same thing as you plan to - powerpole and USB hub, dew controller, a homemake

Alex if you are doing a telescope-top plate with all your accessories, you might consider something like a pegsus astro Ultimate powerbox, which includes port-managed USB, power outputs, etc. very

Hi Bruce, Yes, this is very close to what I had envisioned. I could mount the Losmandy plate on top of the scope rings and then mount my hardware to it. Also, thanks for the pictures. They are very

Hi Alex I attached a Losmandy plate on top of my C11" where all of the equipment is on. I have one cable running from the main power supply up through the 1100GTO to the OTA where a LINX Power Panel

Hello, I'm waiting to receive my 130GTX scope (Several weeks) and I currently own a 1100GTO mount. Once I receive my scope, my goal is to mount all of my hardware for connections on top of the OTA.

I have a losmandy 3 legged stand in my dome with Mach1 on it. I might check PA maybe once a year. -- Ron Kramer https://www.facebook.com/Ron.R.Kramer

To stabilize a concrete pier you need to run the concrete pier down below the worst case frost line and attach it to a footing. The pier is not a footing, it is a pier and it will move all around.

My 900GTO 10" Newtonian is on a permanent AP 8" portable pier on three 14?" square stepping stones in vegetable garden with a 365 Telegizmos cover. I attribute my changing polar alignment to moisture

I have a permanent setup in my Florida observatory- lots of sand base. Cement pier goes from 4 feet below ground up 10 ft above ground where an adjustable steel pier is on top of it. Then my AP1100

In SE Arizona at 5000'elevation, where we can have a pretty good heat cycle from day to night, Icheck and adjust polar alignment if needed once a year. If there are anyadjustments needed, they are

I think for the typical backyard observatory, it's going to come down to local soil type, local soil hydraulic nature, and weather more than earthquakes and faults. Even if the footer extends below

Picking up from Mr. Erickson's post -- Palomar Mountain is bounded by major faults on both the northeastern and southwestern sides of the block, and it is, of course, pretty close to the San Andreas

>>>I'm also using SGP 3.1, everything works fine so far and I don't want to experiment. same here. afaik 4.0 doesn't have any new features that are of interest (not sure why it's labeled 4.0) but

I'm also using SGP 3.1, everything works fine so far and I don't want to experiment. Besides, we have to consider that version 4 is still a beta.