Cold Out There

Because my big reflector's clock drive suffered an electrical fault (thanks reader Wayne for working on it), I pulled out my Televue-85 and put it on the incredibly cheap EQ1 mount that I have.  The EQ1 is the Yugo or Lada of equatorial mounts.  When I mentioned my plans to put my Televue-85 on it on cloudynights.com,  the reactions were close to using crayons for your "Become a Dutch Master" class.

It would not track.   So I spent some time working on balance.  Equatorial mounts are quite dependent on proper balance in both axes.

This is my public astronomy setup if I need to go somewhere.   I was pleased to get it aimed at the Orion Nebula tonight and even at 60x, it stayed perfectly centered for several minutes,  until it became too cold to stand outside.

Tomorrow night is my last clear night for a while.  I have a superfancy Losmandy G811, a goto mount under the 8" reflector my father and I built in the 1960s.  I have never had much luck on the goto part apparently because it is very demanding about perfect alignment on True North.  The solution is not just a good aim at it, but using the Drift Alignment method to get it into the tenths of a degree alignment.