"craig510a3" wrote in message
oups.com...
Jan,

Thanks again for you help with my corroded mirror thread a few weeks
ago. I sent my telescope to Meade and should have it back in two more
weeks with new optics. Very excited.

To answer your questions the Motor is humming, and I am usually pretty
level. After reading your response I know that I have been off on the
polar alignment. My yard has so many trees that it has been very
difficult to polar align with any precision. The image drifts left to
right. I guess still in the learning curve.

Another question: What do you recommend for padding vibrations?


Hi, Craig,

Frankly, I don't use anything. My scope damps out pretty quickly. But
the various brands of vibration suppression pads are decent investments.
They work as advertised. Still, unless you are specifically having a
problem with excess vibration, I'd go with the scope as is... I tend to
upgrade my scopes to the hilt, but that isn't one of the things I ever
felt I *had* to have...

Better is to just make sure that everything in the mount and wedge is
*tight*, and that the spreader is locked tightly against the tripod
legs...

I used Motofocus units for years, and later added a JMI NGF-S focuser
(using both together, in recent years), to minimize hand-induced
vibrations during focusing, while allowing critical focusing without
moving the mirror. But a simpler solution to smooth focusing may be the
Peterson Engineering EZ Focus kit. I recently installed one on my 10",
and I like it a lot...

Jan