Asa basic

[Jaspalchadha]

Hello all

 

I am looking to buy a basic asa ddm85 from Ian king second hand.

 

It been used lightly and comes with weights and pier plate

I am trading my az eq6 mount in

 

So total around £6000

 

I understand this isn't the laser polar alignment mount.

 

I will be fixing this to an observatorry.

 

Is this worth the price and is laser nessiecary

[RamaSpaceShip]

Hi,

 

I have a DDM85 standard without a laser for the polar alignment. And I have absolutely no problem with this.

 

The polar alignment laser is particularly useful when you use your mount in a mobile setup to speed up the polar alignment. As you plan to put it in an observatory, you will only have the basic polar alignment problem once, so the laser is not at all necessary.

 

For the price, I can't help you that much, but if you look at the price of a new one, this seems to be a good bargain.

 

Hope this helps anyway.

 

Bernard

[Jaspalchadha]

Bernard

 

Thanks for the reply. Did u have / have any issues setting it up? Is yours setup on a pier?

 

Many thanks

[RamaSpaceShip]

I didn't have any real issues with this mount. I just had a lot to learn and understand to set it up properly. And in particular, it is absolutely mandatory to balance it perfectly on both axes, else you will have troubles. So when starting with this mount, if something goes wrong, first verify that the balance is OK, as it is often the real source of the issue.

 

Once you succeed to setup it up, it works like a charm, and it is the mount that every amateur astronomer is dreaming of.

It is not perfect (not yet ), but work is done to add useful features, taking into account what is said in this forum.

 

 

Is yours setup on a pier?

Yes, my setup in on a homemade equatorial pier to make meridian flip unnecessary.

 

 

Bernard

[Jaspalchadha]

Ah Thanks Bernard.. How's the balancing feature like?

It's between this and the paramount ME II

[RamaSpaceShip]

The mount software provides a screen displaying, for each axis, the current needed to move the scope in both directions. You adjust the balance until the current is the same on both directions. That's it.

 

Bernard

[Jaspalchadha]

Great thanks

[Jaspalchadha]

Do the mount have Hi res encoders

[RamaSpaceShip]

You should download the documentation from the Download area of the ASA site. It will give you all this information: the theoretical resolution of the encoders, which are directly mounted at the axes, is 0.02”.

 

Bernard