开云体育

On Wed, Jan 29, 2025 at 05:58 PM, Thomas Kallenbach wrote:

Thanks guys.? Do you think I would just be ahead to send the mount into Losmandy and let them figure it out?? I could have them do the tucked in motors at the same time.? I'm not sure I am comfortable with what may be necessary.? That is why I still use the asiair, it hides a lot of the complexity.

?

Where is the tip jar?

?

?

To follow up on my previous post Losmandy is an outstanding company in that the people really do their best to support the Losmandy community.? Losmandy fully, and I mean FULLY supports every mount new and used they have ever produced including the Celestron branded mounts.? I mean nobody, NOBODY will take a mount in they made 30+ years ago and rebuild it to the current specs for that mount no matter how fancy the brand is considered today.? Sure it's not free but you cannot get this from any other mount maker in the normal course of business period.??Losmandy knows the value of their mounts, it just goes to show you what all the other telescope mount makers think of their work and your investment.? ?

?

All it takes is money on your part.? Does it always make economic sense?? In my experience no,? but it can be done for those mounts with a special attachment or special history.? I've done it and IME it was well worth the additional cost when it was all said and done.? But also I think I need to say that unless you bought the mount for peanuts it will not really be time or cost effective to have the old mount updated to current specs.? At least you already have a Gemini (2??) so that makes it closer to cost effective.??

?

I will say that as an owner of several G11 and GM8 mounts as well as my original 20+ YO G11"s" model that over a few years I upgraded through the full 30+ year progression from the original model G11s PUSH-TO #492 Digital Drive mount which I fully disassembled to rebuild and lube the internal bearings, then installing High Precision worms, aligning the gearbox output shaft so the Oldham coupler connection to the worm was as straight as possible, modifying the bearing blocks to encourage full worm bearing rotation and remove worm endplay using Belleville springs, adding a new modern era double clamp 8" Losmandy dual D/V saddle, experimentally making a one piece worm block with Belleville springs to use the bearings to preload the worms (this worked very well so I told Scott about it who then showed me what he was working on in secret which caused me to wait for over a year for the coming Losmandy spring loaded OPW) installing a Gemini 1 controller, building a regulated multi-voltage (13.5v & 17.5v) multi-bank power pack to support portable field use for visual and imaging work for 2 Losmandy Gemini mounts, installing a Gemini 2 system and then having Scott do the full update to the new OPWs, RA extension etc. then at a later date once finalized Scott added the spring loaded feature.? It has been a journey but what fun we had!? So was it worth it?? As I said for me it most certainly was.??

?

To answer the ASIAIR question it has been my experience that the ASIAIR is not quite as good at autoguiding as using a laptop and PHD2 on the same mount and imaging rig.? I say this because I relied on ASCOM and PHD2 and SGP for imaging and 5 years ago PHD2 produced excellent guiding on the same 20+ YO mount using the same guide scope and ASI120MM mini and ASI290MM mini.? The numbers are just not as good in absolute terms but what I have seen is that if you are guiding well under 0.5" total error and then the ASIAIR comes along and is guiding at 0.7" total error and I cannot see any advantage to putting up with all the extra trouble of using a laptop and a dozen cables to make it work I'm just not going to bother.? Give me the elegance of the ASIAIR solution anyday.

?

Here is the small driveway imaging rig clamped to an old school Losmandy S-B-S dovetail on the even older G11G, LWT and Wheelie Bar.? The small imaging rig is an Askar FRA500 90mm f.5.6 Petzval working @ f/3.9, ASIAIR Plus 256GB v3, ASI2600MC-Pro main camera, EFW 2"x5, EFA w/temp probe, ASI678MM guide camera on Stellarvue 50mm f/4 guide scope, Deep Sky Dad Flat Panel and a Stellarvue 50mm visual finder.? Waiting for the CAA to show up, should be any day now LOL.? All of the components and most cables are on the scope and move with the scope except for 2 independent power cords and an Ethernet cord.? The ASIAIR Plus and Gemini 2 talk to each other through a high performance Slate AX1800 travel router via Ethernet and the tablet or phone use the Slate to connect over Wi-Fi.? ? ? ? ? ?

?

?

--

?

?

?