Posts Made By: Mark Pacini

I am considering the purchase of a Meade 395 (90mm x 1000 fl) scope and want to put it on my CG-3 mount. Does anybody know it the moount is sufficient for such a scope?

Posted earlier, but no response... please somebody! I am trying to soon purchase a Meade 395 (90mm, 1000mm f.l.) from an Astromarter and have a Celestron CG-3 mount. I have no experience with much of this stuff and want to know if the mount is sufficient for such a scope. Can anybody offer any advice for me????

Thanks

I just purchased another Nexstar 5 from a fellow astromarter. It arrived with excessive backlash and I can't seem to fix the problem. I have an identical Nexstar 5 for comparison purposes, so I know what it should do. The backlash settings arrived at zero, so I played with them and fixed the "Az" problem with a setting of 60, but even when I set the "Alt" setting to the maximum of 99, I still experience a 5 second delay when using the slew speed setting of 5. In fact, it delays and then jumps when it is ready to move, even at the slew speed of 5. I did open plate under the hand control unit and noticed that the declination motor assembly had all three screws loose and the whole thing would jump from the torque as soon as the power was applied to the declination motor. Tightening them of course fixed the apparent jump of the motor, but did not seem to change anything through the eyepiece. I am wondering if running the scope with them loose for a long period might have prematurely worn the gears to a point where they now need a greater backlash setting than the scope will allow for in its system.

Any ideas for me? I hate to return the scope, but as it is, the "Alt" backlash is unacceptable.

Mark Pacini

My Nexstar 5 works well for a few minutes and then decides to slew on its own in one direction and nothing will stop it other than to power off completely. Of course, this is annoying as you have to realign everything. I have read some talk on this in other places and most point to the connection point from the power supply, but that really does not seem to be the problem as I have played with that, tightening the spring that contacts the input pin. This problem happens with both the AC and DC power supplies. I have also traded out the hand control unit and that does not seem to fix the problem either. Celestron suggests that it is probably then the motor control board (which they no longer have available for the original Nexstar 5 of course). They are willing to upgrade it to a GPS unit for $600 plus shipping (more than the price of a used Nexstar 5 typically). I am not pleased with Celestron for not having parts for a scope that is not all that old. Any suggestions from anyone having a similar problem? Please advise.

Thanks,
Mark Pacini

Bill,

Aren't you afraid of theft in keeping your scope in such a thing as this? Also, how easy is the roof to remove or have you micky-moused it perhpas so that it is easier for your needs somewhow? I want to do something similar, but am afraid to go ahead without asking all the right questions first. Any advise will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark