Posts Made By: Michael Boessen

Hello, All:
About 18 years ago our astronomy club (Central Missouri Amateur Astronomers) fell heir to an early 1900's Warner and Swasey pier and mount with a second generation locally manufactured 8" refractor on it. The instrument had to be moved quickly due to an approaching wrecking ball. A small building was hastily constructed and the instrument moved. In the process it was dismantled. Many pieces are apparently missing. I am currently attempting to undertake a restoration of this instrument. With the help of some club members, I have dismantled it, moved it to my workshop and reassembled it. Google has proved totally useless in finding useable photographs of the mount mechanics or any kind of instructions/engineering diagrams. Does anyone have any idea where I might obtain photos/literature to assist me in this effort? I have figured out how the DEC controls mount and work, and have what parts I have installed. I believe it was possible to operate the RA lock from the eyepiece in similar fashion to the dec controls but I can't imagine how. I have several more control rod pieces, but their function/application is not apparent. I have attempted to attach a few photographs, including a similar instrument currently locaated at Case Western University. Any help would certainly be appreciated.
Thanks!! Mike Boessen 1002 County Road 299, Columbia, MO 65202 [email protected]

Hi, All:

I have built a 16" Newt and placed it on an old 1974 Cave equatorial mount. Apologies to any old Cave enthusiasts, but the ring and worm on this thing are total junk. If you mesh them properly and hook a 1/2" cordless drill on the drive shaft and spin the thing there are 2 terrible spots, including one place about 8 teeth long that will flat out stall the drill. I need a new ring and worm for this thing. Can anyone give me any guidance?

I have a 12" Meade RCX 400 which I have had stored for a couple of years. Got it out last week and it has a problem where when I push a focus button, 2 of the motors work correctly and the third runs crazy for about a second and stops. Someone (meade?) had labeled the motors A, B, and C. B is the crazy one. When I swap the plugs with C, C becomes the crazy one, so problem with the Focus board I presume. I'm a very experienced electronics technician. The board is very logically laid out and I have made hundreds of comparison measurements between the working and non working channels and I can't find any discrepancies. Solder all looks perfect. I presume I need to replace the board but am not having any luck finding one. Blogs and forums have not produced any useful information. I did run the auto cal and restore the collimation defaults as suggested in one older post to no avail. Anyone have any ideas? Someone I can contact? Sources for the part? I have gathered that it is a pretty stock problem, but haven't seen any stock solutions except "send it to Meade". I gather Meade will not sell the part. Sure could use some help with this. Thanks!!

Went crazy and bought this on Craig's list for my RCX 400. Got it and it is not the correct plug. Can anyone tell me what it is for?

Didn't realize I could only attach one photo. I have changed the photo to a picture of the instrument I am attempting to restore. Thanks!!