My telescope mount just died in the middle of a clear night at Cherry Springs

I was out at Cherry Springs State Park last Saturday night finally getting good conditions for stacking Andromeda galaxy photos. After about 45 minutes my mount just stopped tracking and started making this grinding noise that scared off every deer within a mile. Turns out the worm gear stripped on my Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro, probably from all the dust and grit that built up over the winter. Anyone else had a mount failure ruin a perfect imaging night like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordan9031mo ago

Oh man, I know that grinding sound all too well - same thing happened to my EQ6-R last spring right as I was dialing in my first good Orion shot. Try pulling the worm gear assembly out and giving it a good clean with isopropyl, then relube with Super Lube, that fixed the grit issue for me.

grace_gonzalez461mo ago

My 2019 EQ6-R has done that same grinding noise twice now and I just let it run. It always stopped after a few minutes and the tracking was fine. I'm not convinced it's worth tearing into the gear assembly if it's just a temporary noise. Sometimes these mounts just need to work through a little extra friction after sitting for a while. I'd say try power cycling it first before you start taking things apart and making more work for yourself.