Sadly, I learned over the weekend that Ed Byers' wife passed-away late last week. She had been ill for a number of years and in hospice care. Many of you know or have met Ed, a giant in the field of telescope drives and mounts for many decades. Ed has been selling-off his remaining stock of high-precision telescope drives at almost give-away prices, mostly on eBay. These are known as the most precise, periodic-error-free gear sets made. Some of you own or have owned Byers mounts, no more of those will be made. Ed is 86 years old and we've been lucky that he has kept making products for as long as he has, well past the age when most of us would be too happy to retire. He has no more employees and is running the shop solo until everything saleable is gone, and it's time to lock the doors for the last time. I've picked up 3 Byers drives in the last couple of months for future projects. The 10" Cave that I bought from Don Colton in June has a Byers drive retro-fitted to it and it is extremely precise. Ed also has some gear/worm combinations for those who want a full 360-degree DEC. gear, again at bargain prices. He offers all drives with your choice of either AC synchronous motor or stepper motor. His products have not just gone to amateur astronomers, but government, industry, professional observatories, NASA, and the military. People have been known to buy older, used Celestron and Meade scopes, just to scavenge the Byers gear sets from them, from the time when he was producing those gears under contract. If you have ever wanted a Byers drive for your mount, now is the time to get one since there will be no-more once his existing stock is gone. Our prayers and condolences go out to Ed at this time, for his tremendous loss.