From: "Milton Aupperle" <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: January 14, 2009 11:09:49 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Cold weather imaging..

Hi folks;

For the last 2 winters I have been struggling with my HEQ 5 jamming

gears at below -30° centigrade conditions when slewing at high speeds

for alignment and too objects. I have tried all sorts of things

(replaced black junk grease with low temp lithium, adjusting gear /

worm tension and position etc) to remedy it, but have only found one

thing that works reliably.

Basically wrap a heating pad around the RA axis and set it to medium

heat. That keeps the grease and gears warm enough that they don't lock

up anymore, even at -36° or colder centigrade  (with wind chill it was

-48°) or colder temperatures.

Here is a shot of the $20 CDN Heating Pad on my HEQ5 this Christmas:

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Scope04.jpg

It was -32°C during the day and I had just finished taking flat frames

for a night of imaging when I took this shot.

All you need is a standard size heating pad that is in it's cloth bag

covering. I put 4 holes on the corners of the cloth covering, then tie

some string to two of the corner holes. Wrap the RA axis with the

heating pad and then run the loose string through the two remaining

holes. Pull it tight enough to hold in place so it makes contact with

the RA axis. Don't pull it too tight or it could start interfering

with the Dec axis.

Hope that helps someone..

PS: Although I solved all my mount / scope problems, my laptop would

freeze solid and shut down after 10 minutes of exposure to -37°C

weather (-49 °C with wind chill), even with a heating pad on the LCD

and under body. It simply lost too much heat when open over the key

pad, so that the PRAM battery would stop outputting power and the Mac

shut down. No permanent damage (it needed 3 hours to warm up inside),

but that was my last night for DSO's and I got skunked this winter at

my dark site over Christmas.

Milton Aupperle

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/AstroIndex.html