Periodic Wobble

SO the issue this time wasn't my previous fix; one of the bolts that holds the RA drive worm gear block to the main body stripped. Or rather, the hole tapped into the body stripped, not the bolt-that would have been too easy to fix, of course. So, more drilling and tapping for oversize bolts. I have to say, the aluminum that the main body was cast from is not what anyone would mistake for real metal...scary.

 

Obviously, this was not a trivial little thing; notice that the Dancing Galaxy is moving quite a lot more than its own diameter. More Mambo #5 than Astrophotography 101. I'm shooting some new frames now to see how the fix worked; it's one thing to have a dial indicator say it's right; it's altogether another thing to actually get the pics. Stay tuned...