ETX PREMIER EDITION TECHNICAL TIPS Last updated: 18 March 2005

Meade 884 Tripod enhancement (maybe) for declination adjustment

Sent:	Thursday, March 17, 2005 05:36:54
From:	Jim Holland (jholland12@comcast.net)
Someone may have already thought of this and posted, but I did not see it.

regards

Jim Holland


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A simple declination fine adjustment enhancement for Meade's 884 tripod
when using polar alignment.

1)  Remove the Declination adjustment rod from the tripod by remove the
set screw from the pivot point
2)  Use a 7/16 die to cut threads up the rod as far as you like.
3)  Replace the rod using two washers and a nut (a wing nut would work
best), the washers successively larger.

I've attached a couple of digital photos of what I did.






I am at 30 N so my base plate is tilted over at 60 degrees, which makes
the OTA/drive base want to tend to fall to the floor. The arrangement of
washers/nuts will keep it from falling all the way. Use the nut for fine
tuning your declination.

I found that on my tripod the scale on the rod for the declination is
off. I suppose you could thread the rod from top to bottom, and use two
sets of washers/nuts. One set on top and one set on the bottom of where
the locking mechanism is located. But for my Latitude the one of the
bottom works well. If you used two sets, you would lose your ability to
use the leveling pin that is part of the declination rod. You would have
to use the tripod legs adjustment to obtain leveling for Alt/Az mode.

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