"Chris Taylor" wrote in
:

I've unshipped my Nexstar 5 from the goto gubbins -

Out of curiosity; why did you take it from the goto mount? Looking for
equatorial over ALT-AZ, are you looking to do imaging?

No, I'm very much an amateur and newbie, and I though it would help. It
didn't.

a) sitting on a tabletop was not very stable; I didn't want to spen money
on a tripod for it as I was already worried by

b) before I could use it I had to align it every time; slewing it to 3
stars, or 2 stars plus entering time, was very slow, plus taking the
powersupply and extension lead out each time; it eats batteries.

c) it takes ages to slew large angles, even at top speed.

d) when tweaking it in , it's easy to forget to go down to slow speed,
and you're halfway round the sky again and have to find your way back.

e) The handset is smeary and hard to read when it's scrolling, (they
really should have done better)

f )Adjusting from the handset on the alt-az mount is completely non-
intuitional, I never quite know which way it wall go.

g) The backlash was always driving me nutty; prolly something to do with
(f)

Those will do for a start; I think a number of them could be addressed by
mounting on a tripod and wedge....have you seen Celestron's prices?

What will you be doing with the goto mount?

At the moment regarding it balefully; it's undamaged apart from a small
bit of plastic I had to break off to get at the bearing nut; I couldn't
find a hex key to fit the screws, and I've got a wide selection!

Skip it, give it to charity, flog it? (except that wouldn't feel honest,
it's such a pig).

Swop it for a tripod and mounting gubbins? - this ng has resolutely
refused to help me, and I still don't know how to remount it.

Astro clubs? - my only transport is a motorbike. Helpful shops? not
AFAIK in my part of the world.

I know I need a tripod (how big), eq mount (how big), rings? what's a
good finder device?, I there a shop that can help? I've got lotsa probs
apart from how to dispose of the goto.

So If *you've* any suggestions.....


mike