Thanks Harry, Good lead for AeroShell Grease-33. May be a bit pricey – I paid $20 Canadian a few years ago, for the same thing, so it should be around US$15. Of course, the shipping would have to be b

Timo, and group ... Here in Toronto, I had a similar problem locating a supplier of AeroShell-33, for my AP-900, and even SHELL OIL Corp. would NOT sell it to me unless I bought a large quantity, perh

Hi Tyrel, I agree with your comments. In fact. as Rolando has said at times, you can even stand the mount on the side of a sloping hill, polar align on Polaris (with some added difficulty in such case

Mike, Have a look at my DYI Bubble Level in this group’s FILES section – Because the bubble’s travel is a “foot long”, it is far more precise than my STARRETT. The “pipette” is already marked out with

Miguel, I think digital levels are less accurate than a bubble, especially when it is cold. They depend on a “swinging pendulum disc” inside, and those can stick in freezing temperatures. If you check

Hi Mike, One thing that always concerns me is whether I can rely on a bubble level – of any precision – to be correct when placed on the counterweight shaft. I have about 60 lbs at the END of mine, an

Bravo, and right on – Ray, Must admire Rolando’s needless patience, and yours as well, with this (appropriately name-tagged) fellow and the now irrelevant exchanges. Would the group moderator, risking

I assume that the AP mount “cable tunnel” is wide enough that the cables are “somewhat slack”, and aren’t all running parallel, packed tightly together, but only touching sporadically along the path.

Hi Rolando, Interesting reply on “bunching focuser and heater cables”, shared with a CCD camera USB cable. So there would be absolutely NO concern with cross-talk between the modulated square wave tha

Looks really good, Rolando. But can you please add a photo, with the mount at Park-4, and the OTA pointing at the south horizon. That’s where my OTA and limited 12-foot cable reaches worst case stretc

Woody, I think your first guess is closer to what GTO stands for. After all, besides his astronomy equipment, Rolando is also a “very serious” sports car fan – so he probably added GTO to the absolute

Ray, Since this question about maintaining or recovering APCC Settings on changing PC’s etc. has come up so often, perhaps there can be a command option to TRANSFER or IMPORT CURRENT APCC SETTINGS. I

Hi Vince, Use a drop of “replaceable” (blue), LOCTITE thread locking seal ? It will hold the screws in place nicely, but can still allow removal or just loosening, if needed. That would be my first ch

Pawel, Don’t forget to SAVE the current PEC curve data first. before doing a fresh one. You never know if your initial one, which can be restored, was better to begin with. Would be nice if PemPro pop

Hi Pawel, The PEC doesn’t need to be redone, as long as you didn’t move the locked RA axle relative to the worm. The worm gear and its worm are still in the same position, and any relative position “m

Rolando, On the matter of your work on a future CP4 “over-current” limiter – would it be possible to use an appropriate in-line fuse in the CP4 power cable? For example, using the cigarette lighter pl

Hi Ray, You wrote: “Unfortunately the weather has not been cooperating. I haven't been able to test much with the unusually rainy and cloudy weather my area has had this winter. “ I don’t understand t

Hi Ron, Regarding your parking idea: (“Maybe my assumptions are wrong? It is even possible to set a "restricted area"? that the amount will take an alternate route to avoid? “) You want a “Zig-zag PAR

Mikko, FTDI website has a chip address setup utility. Could it be that your FTDI adapter has a different Com(x) port number assigned on the two PC’s? FTDI “COM PORT ASSIGNMENT” https://www.ftdichip.co

Wade, Thanks for the info on smartphone battery life, using a planetarium program. Good to know. As for the CP4 versus CP3, the CP4 might be a bit more accurate and run coordinate conversions a lot fa