Guest recceranger Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Guys, My wife bought me a new Sky Watcher ED80 for Christmas. I had it out tonight and knocked the mount over. The optics appear fine but the following isnt. The focus tube locks but once unlocked it is loose and slides in and out uncontroled. The dew shield is loose and rotates clock and anti clockwise. One of the guidescopes nylon adjustment screws has snapped off A real nightmare all round My wife bought it from FLO. Does anyone know if the run repairs or anyone who does? Help really appreciated Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 (edited) Ohh dear not good. I saw this post last night before I went to bed, hoping some more knowledgable people would advise. I have no idea how to help but did not want to leave the post unanswered. The only thing I can think of is to give FLO a call/e-mail, their customer service is really good and should be able to help you out. Good luck, let us know how you get on. Edited January 10, 2013 by Daz Type-R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kheldar Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 The focus tube locks but once unlocked it is loose and slides in and out uncontroled.The dew shield is loose and rotates clock and anti clockwise. One of the guidescopes nylon adjustment screws has snapped off Oh dear, what a nightmare Sounds like this could be resolved by tightening the focus tube screws up, might of just knocked them loose - can you post me a picture of the bit under the focuser between the wheels where the 5 or so screws are? Sounds like it might be bent / dinted? Mine is slightly loose, but not to the extent of falling off. Local DIY store and see if you can replace it? Don't think FLO do repairs, but Astronomia might if you drop then an email and explain the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest recceranger Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Guys, Many thanks for the replies. I'm actually down in Surrey on the 22nd of this month so I will see if they can take a look. Aslo going to the Birmingham BBC Stargazing Live event this Sat. Somebody there may be able to take a look and advise. Steve I will take a look at the screws as you suggested and send a picture. Its definitly not dented and I'm now happy with the Dew Shield (I just screwed it up tight!). As for the Guide Scope Screw I think ist easily replaced from any hardware store. The scope was mounted on my HEQ5 at the time (also new!) and it also fell. It was switched of and wasnt tracking as I was stripping it down. The locking levers were in the locked of position but the RA and DA got nudged a few inches out. Would this have caused damage? I have turned it on and done some manual tracking and it seems to work fine, I'm just concerned about the fragility of the cogs etc. Again guys, thanks for the reply. On the plus side, the sky was superb last night and before the drama I had outstanding viewing of the Orion Nebula, Jupiter and M31. What a scope. I really hope its ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perkil8r Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 sorry to hear about this, but fear not, it sounds like you may have got away with it The mount should be fine. What will have happened no doubt, is the axis have slipped on the clutch, so there will be no damage if that is the case (which I strongly believe will be the case). You would be advised to have a cup of tea, relax a little and then look at it with fresh eyes. Set up the mount without weights on for the time being and just run through a few checks to make sure there are no unpleasant crunching noises coming from it as it slews. Worst case is that the worm drives may need adjusting a little, that's easy enough, I suspect your instructions may tell you how to do this if they need adjusting. As Stephen says, with a bit of luck you have just nudged the adjustment on the focuser out of place. Although not exactly the same, the following youtube video may help you understand how to adjust it back up. As I say, it's not exactly the same focuser, but they work the same way and will adjust very much in the same manner or there abouts. The video shows how to improve them, you can ignore that side of things for now, but it shows how to adjust them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Most of your problems are easily fixable - certainly the dew shield and guidescope nylon screw. The focus tube might be a bit of a pain depending on how bad it is - so long as it's not dinted it ought to be straightforward to tune back up. The one thing I think that may give a problem is collimation - that needs checking and sorting. There's only one person on the forum I know who's good at collimating refractors and that's Philj - he did a super job on my Tal100RS and I'm sure he'd be happy to look at yours. Drop him a pm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest recceranger Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Guys, Thats really helpful direction. Starting to feel better already. I will update on progress and promise not to wreck anything else. By the way have a great new year to all. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Hi Richard If the dealer doesnt fix it let me know, as others will tell you Im refractor mad and love messing with them and have sorted quite a few, so Im happy to advise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest recceranger Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Phil, Thanks very much. I am going to try to self help but if I,m stuck I will give you a shout. Cheers for the offer of assistance. I really appreciate it. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest recceranger Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 sorry to hear about this, but fear not, it sounds like you may have got away with it The mount should be fine. What will have happened no doubt, is the axis have slipped on the clutch, so there will be no damage if that is the case (which I strongly believe will be the case). You would be advised to have a cup of tea, relax a little and then look at it with fresh eyes. Set up the mount without weights on for the time being and just run through a few checks to make sure there are no unpleasant crunching noises coming from it as it slews. Worst case is that the worm drives may need adjusting a little, that's easy enough, I suspect your instructions may tell you how to do this if they need adjusting. As Stephen says, with a bit of luck you have just nudged the adjustment on the focuser out of place. Although not exactly the same, the following youtube video may help you understand how to adjust it back up. As I say, it's not exactly the same focuser, but they work the same way and will adjust very much in the same manner or there abouts. The video shows how to improve them, you can ignore that side of things for now, but it shows how to adjust them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest recceranger Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Mike, Thanks for the video link. Problem solved and focus tube running like a dream. A sigh of relief. Now I can attend Stargazing live event with a working scope. Cheers again mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T A WOW Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Good to hear you got it sorted out. Not what you wanted after only having it a couple of weeks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Off topic, but the help in this thread is just superb. I hope you get it sorted Rick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Blimey Rick, that's a heart-stopper. I hope you get it back to full speed soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest recceranger Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Guys, All good. A great video link from Mike and fantastic advice from all members. Really helped me in no small measures. Thanks a lot troops. More care taken from now on me thinks! FAB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Great news! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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