Ad Astra Observatory

Trixie needed a new mounting plate in order to get installed and balanced on the NJP.
The Triad bar took a little finagling to get in place; I had to build a new mounting bracket for it. The new bracket went together pretty well, and feels sturdy.

I took the scope out to the observatory, unmounted Veronica, and opened the roof so I could start working on Trixie. Man, that is a whole lot of scope. I hope I don’t have to dismount Trixie for awhile.

Balance in RA went pretty easily. Balance in Dec takes a little more effort. I had to rewire the cable harness to allow the cables to reach up to the focuser. In particular, I had to move the camera power adapter into the “Velcro stack” at the saddle. There was a lot of moving things around involved. Once I got all the wires in place, though, I could test the Dec balance. It’s still a little nose-heavy, and I don’t have a finder installed yet, but I was able to add some counterweight to the mirror cell and get it pretty well balanced in Dec.

I didn’t hear anything that sounded like something failing to hold, so the next step is collimation, and then I’m ready to roll, I think!