First Image for 2017

The Moon on Jan 7, 2017. Televue TV-85 at F/7, Aptina AR0130 color planetary cam, 40 frames out of 291.

It is not much of an image, but it was done with my trusty TV-85 and my Atlas EQ-G tracking mount, instead of that dobsonian I’ve been stuck using.

I managed to get those two items back into my possession recently.   Unfortunately, the Atlas mount needed lots of work just to get it barely running again.  There is a burnt out motor on one of the drive axis.   It was the RA motor, so I swapped it with the DEC motor to just get the tracking going.   During testing I was able to take a one minute video with decent tracking, which yielded just over 290 frames with the planetary cam I used.

I ordered some stepper motors for cheap from Amazon to replace the originals, which are both shot.  I’ll also have to get some new bearings for the mount and it needs a new power switch.   I might just get a hypertune kit with the ceramic bearings and possibly a belt-drive upgrade.   It definitely needs some TLC before it will be able to do any serious imaging.  🙁

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