These notes summarize my walk through the Ealing over the last month in an attempt to overcome my problems targeting faint fuzzies with that scope. I hope these notes are of use to other Ealing operators. I'll end by making some upgrade recommendations to the SLAS membership and Board intended to make the Ealing easier to target. Difficulty in targeting the Ealing is caused by 1) its inherent small eyepiece TFOVs caused by its long focal length and 2) targeting inaccuracies in the mechanics of the scope. Under standing the sources of Ealing targeting errors allows the operator to compensate and get on target faster. The main sources of targeting errors on the Ealing are: 1) Focuser tube flop. The focuser tube is alway loose in the aged rake and pinion focuser. Compensate for this by retargeting all the finders on a bright star after each meridian flop and realigning the Skywizard. Yes, that's after every meridian flop or slew in declination over 30 degrees. 2) An inherent 0.3 deg RA error in the Skywizard. This is probably a misadjusted encoder. Compensate for this using the Mak 1 deg finder. Undertstand that after a slew from a bright alignment star, the faint fuzzy will inherently not be at the center of the Mak eyepiece TFOV. It will alway be off to one side. 3) Drive motor calibration. The Astrophysics Model 8002 drive controller is usually not calibrated. If you are using the Skywizard to locate objects, about 1 ep TFOV of drift will accumulate in the Skywizard every half hour. Properly calibrate the drive controller on each use to reduce this error. (The calibration setting may change, if you are observing at 60 degrees at opposed to 80 degrees in alt.) 4) Mak targeting index error Because the Mak finder is difficult to align centered on a target, centering the target in the Mak does not center it in the small TFOV of an Ealing eyepiece. Compensate for this error by using the double search and observing flip-mirror eyepiece setup described in prior posts. The Mak 1 deg TFOV will get you near the target, the 52mm search ep acts as a bridge between the Mak 1 deg and the small 20 arcminute TFOV of an Ealing observing ep. The Mak targeting error also can be compensated for partially by using the index error wheel described in prior posts. 5) Double search and observing flip-mirror setups - targeting error. Because flip-mirrors are never exactly 45 degrees when "flipped", they introduce another targeting error. For a small TFOV ep on the Ealing, the targeting error can be enough to hover the object outside the ep field-of-view. Compensate for this error by using the index error wheel described in prior posts or in combination with a reticule ep. (Reticule eps have an miniscule TFOV on the Ealing (less than 7 arcminutes) and are must useful for centering binaries on a camera chip.) About $1,000 to $1,500 in mechanical upgrades to the Ealing can make the scope smartly target faint fuzzies during star parties and make the Ealing an enjoyable experience for club users. The upgrades would also make the Ealing a good learning and teaching platform for astrophotography. First, the old rack and pinon focuser could be replaced with a modern high-end Crayford focuser. If possible, I'd suggest stacking two low profile Moonlight focusers so there are 8 points of support contact bewteen the Crayford rollers and the focuser tube. The low profile focusers will not reduce the available back focus. Second, the Mak finder could be mounted on a slow motion control alt-az head. An Astronomics head is featured on page 36 of July's ST. The Vixen Porta alt-az head might be another option. The Astronomics head could be sawn off, using only part of the support arm, and only the slow motion control head bolted to the Ealing frame. If the Astronomics head is too heavy, I assume there are options other than the existing rigid "U" bar. Third, if SLAS still has the ancient Ealing autoguider floating around, and it still works, it could be moved back to the control room. An offer could be made to Chuck to sell SLAS his contorller. My apologies for the number of posts that I have made about the Ealing over the last month and in particular over the last few days. I hope the info is of use and has not been nuisance listserv posting. Regards - Kurt