Thanks! I'll try cleaning out the contacts and continue as appropriate.

I have not used my AP1200 for more than a year and the power supply I use normally is a trickle charger connected to a 12v automotive battery that is then connected in parallel to the mount. Has worke

Thanks! When the kids are growing up, sometimes they have to face stuff that is "hard" :-) Several years back I read somewhere that at British universities acceptance rates tend to be highest for admi

Perhaps somebody here may be able to help. My 16 year-old daughter has a "mathematical exploration" project on the impact of atmospheric refraction on pointing and tracking near the horizon. While she

Piggybacking 2 large scopes gets unwieldy very quickly. Here's my old side-by-side setup for a C14 and a 150mm aperture camera lens (600mm f4): http://www.pbase.com/samirkharusi/image/59549172 and ano

And what's wrong with simply using Polaris itself? It's not going to move much in the time you are adjusting the reticle, 15 minutes? Anyway, right at the end of the adjustments one can still re-cente

AP stuff is the only astro equipment I like to caress every now and again :-) even though I am not the type who molly-coddles his toys. Anyway, SBIG has been a huge disappointment for me. NB I live 12

Years ago I bought a Van Slyke Slider 2. It is as solid and as well thought out as I could wish for a C14: http://www.observatory.org/slider2.htm Not cheap and its mirror diagonal (the part that slide

Thanks for the offer!

I need about 32" long. The only sources I have managed to find locally are 1. Custom-rolled tubing (expensive, but very professionally done) or 2. Scrap oil-well casing. The latter tends to be rather

Planning a new observatory to go on top of my new home by end this year. I am having problems finding a local source for large-diameter (10" ?), thin-walled steel tubing to use as a pier that will mat

Right now I'm making some of my own accessories in order to save at least some money. I'm making 3 of the stainless steel counter weights + the adapter plate. Somehow stainless steel and saving money

I spent a lot of time looking for deep cycle batteries in Oman, to no avail. Suresh, I'd like to point out that any small-car battery is enough to power the mount. The power hogs are the dewheater, la

Very interested in how you fashioned the top end, i.e. where it mates with the bottom of the mount. Did you use the AP pier adapter or just a thick steel plate and bolts? plus some slop in the bolt ho

Thanks for the heads-up. Indeed I read that paper when I built my first observatory, and then lost the URL :-( All I recalled was not to be stingy with diameter or else to add gussets. Welding gussets

In the initial design stages for my new observatory on top of a new concrete built house. Ran into problems locating a source for a reasonably thick-walled 10" steel tube to use as a pier, so I was th

There is no comparison between the Fastar adapter and the Hyperstar. On a C14 the Hyperstar covers a 27mm diagonal while the Fastar adapter was designed for the tiny ST 237 chip. Reflections from brig

Or you could use a Hyperstar on that C11, 560mm f2.0 or thereabouts. These days I use a C14 Hyperstar on an AP1200, unguided, white light or narrowband, with a modded DSLR even. A3-sized prints are en

Both Astronomik and Baader are excellent, IMHO. I have even checked the passbands on a number of samples. The narrower you go, the more important it is that the passband is well centered, not as much

You are bound to end up one night putting more stuff than what you are planning now, and it's silly to have one counterweight too few. My current practice on an AP1200: use home-made conterweights at