Antonio Parisi · Mar 4, 2026, 09:04 AM
how about balancing, on the HAE when I move the scope in an unbalanced position the calibration is poor then I move it to an approximate balanced one and it changes to good ?
any info on point 1?
As much as you don’t ‘HAVE’ to balance a harmonic mount, that certainly does not mean that the performance will not benefit from being close to balanced…
Obviously, in RA, where the mount is constantly loaded as it is tracking, they are never ‘accurately’ balanced… in declination, however, you’re more likely to have a long tangent arm, especially true of larger refractors that can be as long as 1.3m~1.4m fully extended and in focus, and all their weight is in the lens elements at the front, and the focuser/camera setup in the rear… too much imbalance in either direction will cause oscillation when guide pulses occur unless the mass at each end is somewhat balanced…
For my harmonic mount, I do the ‘pencil’ balance test. Place a pencil on a flat surface, place the OTA, fully configured and roughly at its focus point on top of the pencil and move the OTA forward and backwards until it roughly balances on the pencil. This is the ‘center’ of the mass. Mark the dovetail, and then when you fit the scope to the mount, place this mark on the dovetail in the center of the mounts dovetail clamp. This will ensure you are as close to balanced as you can be… On a GEM, or any other worm driven mount, I will balance the scope in declination with a slight imbalance in favor of the rear. This can help with backlash in DEC.
As far as point 1, That’s not something I can speak on, however it is the reason that I did not buy an iOptron mmount… I wanted the HAE69EC, but every bit of information I could find said I had to connect to the mount either via WIFI or the hand-controller… This, I did not like…
