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Hi folks. I am seriously considering buying the GM-8, and have two
questions.


1. It seems it has no slow-motion controls. Do the slewing
capabilities effectively act as slow-motion controls?

2. I am planning to build an `observatory'; four walls and a deck, no
roof (bless the neighbors, but curse their lights). How will the
GM-8's head hold up under weather? At my site it can get into the
high
nineties in Summer (humid,too), close to zero in Winter. Would one of
these `Desert Storm' bags do the trick? Or maybe enclosing the pier
and head in a hinged box. Anyhow, I want to leave the thing set up.
So
I guess this question is a more general one about eq. heads and how
they react to the elements.


Thanks for any help.

--- steve ott <steveo@...> wrote:

1. It seems it has no slow-motion controls. Do the slewing
capabilities effectively act as slow-motion controls?

There are no manual slow-motion controls. The Losmandy "digital drive" has
slewing speeds up to 32x sidereal. See their website at www.losmandy.com.

2. I am planning to build an `observatory'; four walls and a deck, no
roof (bless the neighbors, but curse their lights). How will the
GM-8's head hold up under weather? At my site it can get into the
high nineties in Summer (humid,too), close to zero in Winter. Would one

of

these `Desert Storm' bags do the trick? Or maybe enclosing the pier
and head in a hinged box. Anyhow, I want to leave the thing set up.
So I guess this question is a more general one about eq. heads and how
they react to the elements.

I don't know for sure, but I would suspect that the most important thing
would be to keep the mount completely dry and moisture-free. Also,
temperature extremes could ruin the grease and possibly also cause internal
stress problems in the metals?

Paul Sterngold

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"steve ott" <steveo@...> wrote:

1. It seems it has no slow-motion controls. Do the slewing
capabilities effectively act as slow-motion controls?

Yes, you can push it by hand or slew it at 32x sidereal, the G11 has a top speed
of 16x and it takes forever to slew. I often starhopped with an 8*50 finder and
the 32x speed of the GM8

2. I am planning to build an `observatory'; four walls and a deck, no
roof (bless the neighbors, but curse their lights). How will the
GM-8's head hold up under weather?

It will hold up real well, there is nothing in the mount that will corrode.
Since you plan on a permanent setup you may consider just buying the head, no
tripod..and setting up a pier. Also, you would not need the polar scope.

A Dessert Storm cover would work well, also an upside down trash can..try to
keep a 25w light bulb on at all times inside the cover..this will keep the mount
warm and prevent condensation as the metal cools at night. You could even make a
rigid cover out of Sonotube and some plywood.

Why not put a roll-on roof on the observatory?, very convenient as you can leave
the ota mounted too.

Herm
Astropics