开云体育

On Mon, Aug 26, 2024 at 02:57 PM, Ed Harp wrote:

On Mon, Aug 26, 2024 at 02:05 PM, Chip Louie wrote:

I LOVE my Berlebach Planet!? But I wouldn't want to ruin the black finish by rotating the MA on top to get your mount aligned! You can cut a circle out of a thin sheet of polyethylene to protect the base and make rotation easier.?

I actually disassembled the tripod and machined the top to provide a relatively precise hole for the 1/2" bolt and a smooth flat surface for the Losmandy base plate to rest on. The anodization on the Losmandy base plate will prevent any galling. I happen to have a cnc machine shop in my garage.?

?

Level wise, I do have precision levels. Not sure how I would use them here. I think I get the idea from you two and I really appreciate your advice.

?

And speaking of modeling, I wondered if my mount just needed breaking in a bit when I was having issues with it so I used TheSkyX to run several 160+ target TPoint models. About an hour or slewing each time. It seemed to do well and I seemed to be getting good tracking. I won't be using that regularly.

?

I also want to try PemPro.

?

Hi!

?

You skimmed the top face of the Berlebach tripod head? Wow, you are brave. Having a machine shop you could also make a large diameter ball bearing turntable to make rotating the fully loaded mount easy to rotate during PA but I like the simpler, cheap slippery plastic disc route. Might as well have a slick smooth surface to rotate that mini pier head on.?

?

The idea is to use the precision levels to ensure that the built-in bubbles on the Losmandy base are true. If not you have to dig them out along with the white caulk and clean off the milled seats of any debris to seat the new vials in full contact with the seats. I have checked a few and they have all been true when checked against the base flange seating face so I trust the seats to be parallel with the base seating surface. Invert the base, seat the new vials and caulk them in place and let it cure fully before touching your work. 24 hours later off you go with known good bubbles in the base.??

?

Regarding breaking in the drivetrain, others with new mounts have commented on this and it seems sometimes running them in for a few hours improves them as far as PE and smoothness. Some have not seen this but I think they may not have run them in long enough to see it. I bought a new GM8G from Losmandy in the second year of Covid and just set the mount to exercising at a slewing speed for a week one direction then the other on both axes. But in all honestly that new GM8G worked very well from the get go even before I had it doing 360's for a week straight LOL. So in my case it didn't seem to work either. Who know???

?

--