Sunday, January 18, 2015

Wandering Aimlessly Through the Stars

Bad news, at least for me. My Vixen Super Polaris mount has stopped working.

I was taking pictures of C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy the other night when the mount stopped tracking. I assumed that the batteries were dead, but the power light was still its normal brightness. It has always gotten dimmer when the batteries finally run out of juice.

I put in a fresh set of batteries and went out tonight to try imaging the comet, only to find that the clutch is apparently not engaging with the RA motor.

So, I guess I'll be out of the astrophotography gig for a while, except on the rare occasions that I can make it out to the observatory. I've been thinking about buying a new mount, anyway, but that may be much later than sooner. In the meantime I am going to take a stab at fixing this one. Wish me luck(y stars)!

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