A new focuser from JMI, the NGF-DX1, with motorized control works great. The fine adjustment knob of very helpful for focusing critical imaging jobs.

A new secondary mounting from Protostar is rock solid and stable as a glacier. The collimation screws are easily accessible. I've traveled with the scope in my trunk from the San Francisco area to the top of the White Mountains with no change in collimation (That's 500 miles and 10,000 feet elevation)!

Black flocking paper lines the tube interior and helps a lot compared to the semi glossy finish from the factory.

A Magellan II computer and RA drive help position and location on objects. I had to do some heavy duty fitting just to install the hardware. The motor was under designed and had to replaced multiple times until Meade sent the motor for the 16" model and no problems since. I may rag on Meade quality but they are a volume business and have to skimp to be reasonably priced. I'm very pleased with the customer service provided by Meade (Thanks Paul McDaniel).

I recently added some quality bearings to the polar axis. The main housing and mounting plate were bored out and the bearings mounted by John McNaughton of Machining Unlimited ( San Leandro, CA 510-357-9436 ) for free, thanks again John. The needle roller bearings and tapered roller bearings replaced the original teflon friction bearings and perform magically. The action is very smooth and my tracking accuracy has been extended more than double without guiding.

Leveling mounts for the feet are installed to allow leveling on inclines up to 20 degrees. Leveling is critical for maintaining balance through out the range of motion and for accurate tracking.

I have put a Meade ETX on board as a finder/guide scope. The whole thing rides in 125mm rings by Losmandy.. The recent addition of an electric focuser from JMI helps immeasurably.

Rotating rings from Parallax have replaced the original straps. While more difficult to setup than the straps the rings are great for observing as the eyepiece can always be brought into comfortable position. I'm paranoid of the camera slipping out of the focuser so I rotate the rings such that the camera always rides on top of the OTA.

The Losmandy G-11 mount is in! Man , that thing is big. I still have not had a clear enough night to run the mount through its paces. The polar alignment scope is STILL on back order! It looks very impressive with the 10" Newt and the 90mm ETX riding on the double saddle plate. I'll have to start another page on the exploits of the G-11 since this page is mostly about tweaking the Meade EQ mount.

Modifications on the list to be done ....

A counter weight system to accommodate the many accessories that go along with CCDing. DONE! A dovetail rail with a three and/or 5 pound weight does the trick.

A polar axis drive gear and worm from Cone-trol would be nice put astronomically priced. I'll shop around some more. Maybe Ed Byers has something in his shop that will fit the bill...

A flip mirror and pick-off mirror assembly that doesn't take up too much back focus is high on the list. I'll need this for guiding photos and it helps locating objects a bunch and costs much less than a fancy finder scope.

I've opted to retro fit a Quickcam as an auto-guider instead of using a flip or pick off mirror as there is no way to find enough back focus to use the mirror systems. One could get back focus by moving the main mirror closer to the secondary and using a larger secondary but the loss of resolution is not a price I want to pay.
 
 
 
 
 

Updated 4/21/2000