My equatorial mount gear stripped mid-exposure on a 5-minute Orion nebula shot

Happened Thursday night at 2am in my backyard, the DEC axis just gave out and ruined a perfect 5 minute exposure I was building. Anyone dealt with stripping brass gears on a Celestron AVX mount before?

2 comments

2 Comments

finleybutler11d ago

The brass gear on my AVX stripped during a 3 minute exposure of M31 back in September. I used to think these mounts were built tough enough for a few years of backyard use, but that mistake changed my mind completely. After digging into it I realized those gears are basically made of butter and cannot handle any sudden torque or binding in the DEC axis. I ended up swapping mine for a steel worm gear from a third party seller and it has been rock solid since then. Have you checked if your gear was loose or if there was any backlash adjustment that might have been off before it failed? That 5 minute shot of Orion sounds like it would have been a beauty too, real shame the mount gave out on you like that.

alicebarnes10d ago

Wait, did you say "butter"? Because that explains a lot... I mean, I thought my AVX was just a flimsy little guy who couldn't handle my clumsy setup routine, but I guess it really is true that those gears are like warm cheese. What kind of steel gear did you swap in? I've been thinking about upgrading mine after a rogue breeze knocked my tripod and the whole thing made a noise like a dying cat.