Dept store refractor mount DEC drive upgrade?

Started by James Lehr Miller, 10/20/2011 04:39AM
Posted 10/20/2011 04:39AM Opening Post
You know all those import small refractors, the vintage ones, even new ones, all seem to have that stupid DEC sector drive which is mostly worthless and impossible to fix once broken or stripped out. Why can't someone come up with a retrofit device that can replace those that works well, is 360 degree turnable, clutched well and it's control cable does not always get in the way while working the controls at night???!!!!! I love those little refractors but I hate that stupid DEC sector drive!
Is there a way to come up with something better? Usually, those mounts are made out of cheepo pot aluminum and will break or snap off if monkeyed with too much.
Help me Augie-Ben-Doggie; your my only hope!
Posted 10/20/2011 08:12AM | Edited 10/20/2011 08:13AM #1
James:

I know of no easy solution. The difficulties are in the design and in general, the mounts sit on spindly, wobbly tripods. I know some of the modern, inexpensive Meade 60mm and 70mm scopes have slow motion controls but I don't know how well the actually work.

Of the older 60mm scopes, the best mount I have owned is the Asahi-Pentax mount for the 60mm x 800mm scopes. The tripod legs are larger than the 3 inch scopes of the era and they use pivoted gearing on both the azimuth and altitude axises, real time focusing at 200x...

Jon



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