The NJP arrived at Takahashi America in TX on Friday afternoon.
After not hearing from them by today (4 working days later), I gave them a call.
They are hard at work on the mount. They replaced the broken Dec bracket (that was causing the Dec setting circle to get gouged).
They are tightening up the plugs on the Temma control box; one of the screws holding them in place had come loose.
They have not yet messed with the speeding RA drive nor the reticle. I told them that if they were sending the reticle to Japan to be fixed, it might as well get updated at the same time; the current reticle only has marks until 2015.
They are moving along with the maintenance, but it is unclear how long it will be before the mount is complete and on its way back to me.
Progress.
It seems that we both had the same problem with the bracket, but I caught mine earlier. Since the mount you are going to sell as soon as you get it back, it does not make since to get the updated reticle. June 2012.
Thanks for the update.
I knew there was something wrong in Dec, but everything looks so burly in there that you wouldn’t believe that bracket could fail. shrug.
Whether I sell the mount or not, it’s worth it to get the new reticle, as long as it’s available. This mount will be running for another 20 years, if treated with even the slightest amount of dignity.
I’m actually hoping that there’s something similar to the broken bracket that’s wrong with the polar scope. Sending parts to Japan sounds tricky an expensive.