During Saturday's star party I noticed ball bearings were dropping out of the polar axle bearing. Bruce says it's repairable but did not say how long it would take. First we have to dismantle and then remove the OTA. Then we'll pull the mount off and move it to Bruce's for repair. On the up side, we can be glad that this happened with the temporary (light weight aluminum) tube in place as it will be relatively easy to remove. Had this happened after the much heavier original steel Clark tube was installed there'd be a lot more work for all involved. Believe me, with Saturn up there begging to be viewed through a fair sized refractor I am anxious to see repairs completed. But, as Bruce said we don't want to rush lest the problem repeat later with the Clark tube. I'll be running updates in News as warranted. pw On 14 May 2007, at 08:40, Chuck Hards wrote:

Patrick, we got a notice from Bruce that Andy was down for repairs. Something about a damaged polar axle.

Can you shed any light on the situation and give us an estimated time for repair completion?