New Legs for Dudders

Some months ago now, the team decided that Duddley (A.K.A The Charterhouse Telescope) needed to have his motors rebuilt. There have been significant setbacks during this process, mainly the motors coming back and not fitting back on the mount, and then when the RA was placed on the second time, the motor was in the wrong place!   

However, with some amount of perseverance, quite a lot of swearing, and a lot of head scratching, we are finally there!

Well.......almost. The RA drive is worlds better than it ever has been. It moves the scope extremely smoothly, and appears to track almost perfectly (there is lots more testing before I can say that for certain) and it seems to drive across the sky with the Go-To very nicely.
The downside is that we now seem to be having issues with the DEC drive not moving properly. We believe we know what the issue is, and are working to resolve it. The DEC drive isn't so critical and will not prevent us doing some long duration testing, which will be coming up in the weeks to come.

Word about the project is now spreading and there are many people interested in its work. I recently hosted an information stand at a WMA event and had long discussion with BBC's Will Gater (the guest speaker) who is something of an exoplanet expert. He has heard a lot of the Charterhouse Telescope, and will hopefully be visiting in the near future.