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Last year during planetary season, I added my 10"LX200 OTA to my G11G mount which contains my SW120ED. I used this combination for few months and had good tracking. By December with the temps dropping, I removed the LX200 and just used the single scope for winter imaging. Now that we are approaching planetary season again, I am considering putting the OTA back on the scope and use the dual scope through the rest of the year. Curious to know if anyone else using the G11G in a dual scope role and does it cause any issues with the mount??? Russ

I still use my G11 for outreach. A problem I have is that, particularly as the parts cool during the evening, the counterweights have a tendency to break free and slide to the bottom of the shaft. No amount of manual tightening is sufficient to prevent this, and then there's the problem that the plastic wingnuts on the counterweight screws fatigue and break after too many years of hard usage. Many years ago I contacted Scott L. to find out if they had, say, a collar that could be put on the CW shaft to keep the counterweights in place. Short answer: No. And he had no intention of offering one. Does anyone have a permanent solution?

I am contemplating upgrading my RA axis to create a G11T. This will give me a little more capacity. I have my G11G mount with the RA extension kit in the observatory now. The observatory is automated, but I do still have to be out there from time to time to make adjustments. Before ordering the new RA axis, I want to make sure it would fit within my small observatory in a way that would still allow the range of movement I require in some situations. Does anyone have a measurement of the RA axis of the G11T? This would be a measurement from the bolt where the RA axis attaches to and pivots on the latitude base to where it attaches to the dec axis. I want to know how much the Titan RA axis juts out from the MA adapter compared to the G11G that I have. George

Hello. Im looking for some general information about the G11 mount I recently purchased. It was bought new in 2020 and is in excellent condition. Does anyone know what kind of grease Losmandy uses, and also if they use teflon spacers or washers in their assembly? I have an approximately 25 year old G11 that I'm going to be selling as I upgrade to my newer mount. I'm a long time highly satisfied Losmandy user. Thanks for this excellent users group and for any information anyone offers. Charles Martindell

Hi everyone, Just thought I would post my experience with renewing the main DEC shaft bearings on my G11 I have here in Australia. Its an older unit (2004) and originally a Celestron branded unit but is pretty much the same mount that was made direct by Losmandy at that time and similar to std product (even now). I have been bringing the mount up to scratch over the last few weeks. Generally its in good condition but a bit 'tired'. Updates so far:- 1 - Replaced gearbox 2 - Replaced oldham coupler 3 - Replaced Worm with Brass high grade worm and also the OPW housing. 4 - Added the DEC/RA, extension removal pieces 5 - Knew clutch knobs with teardrop. Each time got an improvement in Guiding, but hit a brick, wall. at around +/-5 Arc and it did not seem to be 'cyclic' but appeared more like 'noise', very random. RA was very good but DEC was poor in comparison. I have cleaned (flushed) all bearings and re greased (slight improvement). finally I took a very close look at the DEC needle bearings on the main axis. after removing all the grease it was clear the lower bearing had some 'rust' on the needle rollers. You could not see it with grease on. Main shaft looked ok. I ordered the bearings from Losmandy which were not too expensive. Checked the web for anyone doing this before and couldn't really find anything. Here was my process. Isolate the lower DEC assembly. Remove Gearbox/Motor/Worm drive assy Remove the rear clutch tensioning nut and spacer bearings etc. withdraw the main DEC shaft. I additionally removed the worm drive mounting plate to make handling the tube assembly easier. You can see the two needle bearings, the lower bearing is basically flush (or just under) to the bottom of the tube and the upper bearing is at the bottom of the brass bearing on the upper side of the tube. Thinking which one to remove I thought I would pull out the lower bearing with a 'pilot' bearing puller and the Push out the upper Bearing/Brass assy with a press and dolly. (from the underside) After a bit of fiddling and getting a good grip on the lower edge, the lower bearing it came out. I 3D printed a 'dolly' which fitted down the tube and had a shoulder on it to pick up on the upper bearing. Inverted the tube and pressed out the bearing which basically pressed out the brass tube with it. So I had the bearing inside the brass tube. After making Making another dolly (3D printed) and drop I pressed out the bearing from the brass bearing tube. Now both bearings are out I cleaned up all the assemblies and basically assembled in reverse. CAUTIONS...... NOTE THE BEARINGS ARE NOT BI DIRECTIONAL. there is a bevel on one end and a flat on the other, I am assuming that the 'FLAT' is there to make it easier for a puller to grip so make sure you get it the correct way around. ( if you want to remove it at a later date). Bevel faces out. When pressing in the lower bearing do not go more than flush or just under to the bottom of the tube. Internally there is an undercut to assist with removal. if you push it in too far you will have great difficulty in removing it with a puller as you wont be able to get 'under' the bearing. 1 - So I pressed in the new upper bearing into the brass tube first (another 3D printed dolly') and made it just under the edge. Again make sure you get it the correct way around. 2 - cleaned the upper recess for the brass tube and then lightly lubricate and press in the brass tube until it hits the internal shoulder. 3 - Flip the tube and then press in the lower bearing just below the lower edge. (get it the correct way around) To do this job I purchased a 'PILOT bearing puller' which was approx $35. I also bought myself a 12T hydraulic press form local trade tools outlet for $150. ( Decided to bite the bullet on one as I needed one and every year I end up trying to press bearings.) 3 x 3D Printed ABS dollys (which worked better than I thought). Having just finished thought I would record it as it may be useful for others..... Pictures Old removed bearings and ABS printed 'Dollys' Close up of old bearing showing surface 'rust' contamination. Extracted lower bearing using Pilot Bearing Puller Upper Bearing and brass removed from main tube Pressing the New bearing into the brass tube./bearing. Showing dolly used All the best to everyone. Pete

With the moon up, I decided to tweak my G11G mount and completed a new PEC curve with PEMPRO and uploaded it to the mount. Tracking via PHD2 looks good (apologizes I don't have the numbers) and prior to PEC I also nailed my polar alignment to be spot. My question is that although my PHD2 tracking looks good I did notice there were a lot of RA corrections being made and I was curious if this was normal? I would assume if PEC was on and working there really should be too many RA adjustments showing up in PHD2 graph, but these adjustments were being made it appears every 2.5 sec guide capture.

This week I updated to L6, and tonight was my first night out. Immediately I encounter an odd error that I previously had when I first got my mount. This was best emphasized in N.I.N.A. when I attempted to slew to M81 through the framing tool. First I start getting this error "DEC coordinate is invalid or inaccessible". To be honest I was messing around so much I do not know what I changed that got rid of this error. But what came next has me perplexed, and this is what I was experiencing when I first got my mount: So M81 is RA 09 & DEC +69 (per Cartes du Ciel). In Framing tool NINA reports the same. But what NINA slews to is this: 05/18/2024 23:28:31 09:58:45 49° 24' 17" 19° 47' 52" -00:03:46 19° 47' 33" -2390.23 50267.75 179.38612877930223 Cartes is showing the cursor right over M81, yet plate solving is way off. Better yet it does slew to correct and I get this: 05/18/2024 23:28:05 09:25:10 89° 21' 45" 20° 10' 27" 00:03:42 -20° 10' 27" 2347.97 -51221.63 171.84309889679707 And it goes right back to where it started and 05/18/2024 23:27:39 09:49:14 48° 36' 51" 20° 35' 31" 00:05:44 20° 34' 48" 3640.97 52263.55 179.40811750502564 I restarted Gemini multiple times, even did "Reset SRAM to Factory Defaults". I went to Gemini site and double checked my address to get the coordinates Latitude & Longitude: 45:03:52 -94:02:40 From the mount: Longitude -94°02'40 Latitude +45°03'52 I even tried messing with the time zone offset changing from -5 to -6. This was the problem I had when I first got the mount. I would slew to a target and I would be off as if my time was off my 3-4 hours. Stranger still when I slewed to M101 up around Meridian at this time, my telescope was pointing south when, as if my location was off. Another strange sign was when I slewed to Alp Lyr which was about 35 degrees yet the telescope started to slew as if it was something odd like 5 degrees altitude. I do have a NTP server, and it does appear to sync. The mount currently reports accurately the time from the web UI. One thing to note that I do not believe would have been a factor. I did get the side by side but I don't see how that would have affected anything except if some weird bug in new L6 firmware when rotating DEC.

I recently upgraded to Level 6 (6.02) and decided to run new PE measurements and generate a PEC curve. I've run into a toothy/jagged PE measurement. I had this issue before with L5 and the solution for this was to adjust ADU values for the star used for the measurement. It is not working in this case. I am using the latest version available of PEMPro (v3.10.07). Things I attempted: Adjust exposure above and below 2 minutes (images below are from 0.5 seconds and show the same pattern as they do at 2 seconds) Choose Losmandy G11 rather than Gemini 4/5/6 as the mount type Choose worm cycles at 2x and 1x within Gemini. Adjusted ADU minimum ADU values as low as 3,000 and maximums as high as 20,000 (5000 for low and 15,000 for high had been original settings) I ran calibration wizard though settings and angles are unchanged from my previous successful measurements. Considering the work that went into getting PEMPro v3 functional for L6, I suspect something related to user error (v2.0) is going on here. An interesting side note, I loaded my old PEMPro-generated PEC curve into Level 6 and have run it for two sessions since updating from L5 to L6. These have been my two best guided sessions ever with this mount. Admittedly, two sessions do not equal evidence of better real-world guiding performance with L6 since there are so many variables that can influence guiding. They are still well within the realm of coincidence, but it is a coincidence that I am liking. George

Hi all. Haven't posted here in a long while, mostly because my G11 and Gemini have been working like a dream mount. I've had the mount for 10 years, and made a few upgrades that have improved it substantially. My question is with regard to the Garmin GPS that Losmandy sold with the level 1.04. I tried to use it last night, and it connected with the Gemini just fine, but once the time/date, and location were updated, I noticed that the time and date were wrong. I tried it a second time, with the same results. The lat/long coordinates were correct. I know that there has been a recent glitch with GPS units all over, so I was wondering if this might be the cause. And if so, what remedy is available to me. Thanks in advance for any help I can get from the group. Ron Yates

I own a Losmandy G11-Gemini 1. As AAVSO member I’m working in variable stars. My last session was two nights ago. The work was fine in the first night: connect to TheSkyXPro via “ATEN USB –Serial Bridge”, using ASCOM v6.6 as mount, find the star, slew to it, taking images, and so on. But during the second night it was impossible to connect the mount to the planetarium of PC (Windows 10, ic7) through the “ATEN USB –Serial Bridge”. The PC showed that the bridge was connected. I restarted the computer without results. I used NINA and Stellarium, nothing. After I chose GM-11-G Equatorial Mount instead of ASCOM, nothing. I changed the ATEN, with the same result. Finally, I used other PC, the same. If the problem is not the planetarium, the PC, the cable, the conclusion is that the problem is in the RS-232 port. Are you agree? All the other devices connect without problem. I would greatly appreciate your advices. If the RS-232 port is damaged are there solutions? Thanks. Luis Barneo Oviedo, Spain

Hi everyone. I'm back from the eclipse trip, happily imaging with my GM811G at L6. For the most part everything is going great. Seeing has been really good lately and I've seen total RMS dip into the 0.2's which is the best that I've ever seen. The issue is that RA is usually higher than DEC, something like 1.5 x to 2 x, and I can see really good data, but the stars are elongated. I don't see the elongation very much when the seeing is not quite so good. When RMS tends to be around 0.5 to 0.4, the random jitters from the atmosphere seem to average out better and I get round stars. Data is not nearly so beautiful, but the elongation is not apparent. Any idea how I can tame the RA when seeing is exceptional? I have successfully trained PEC with PEMPro and it seems to work, but it does not make much difference to the guiding performance. First world problems, I know, but does anyone have an idea about how I can tame RA when seeing is exceptional? -- jamie.amendolagine@... https://astropifi.blogspot.com/ https://telescopius.com/profile/james_amendolagine