I'm continually impressed with the level of sophistication and craftsmanship some of you bring to this wonderful hobby! Kudos Chuck, this is impressive. /R ________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 8:33 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Updating a 40 year old equatorial mount My old Jaegers 1" shaft GEM is solid as a battleship, but it came from the factory with a cast aluminum universal saddle that was meant to bolt-on tubes from 3" to 8" OD. Today we use dovetail plates to attach telescopes to German equatorial mounts, a much better system as it allows easily adjustable balance, and easier use of multiple OTA's on the same mount. This summer I converted that old Jaegers mount to use Losmandy style dovetail plates, just as my modern CGEM mount uses. It will breathe new life into that old mount. I plan further upgrades as time permits, such as a DEC slo-motion, and a better RA drive gear. But for now it's already much more user-friendly than it was, and more versatile. Here's the thread I posted tonight over on CN: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/6044004/pag... Comments welcome, both on this board and CN. Thanks for looking! _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".