Listening to the Voices in My Head

Less than 1 day after I emailed Seagate about the barely over a year old drive failing, I got a response.

Dear Sandra,

Thank you for contacting Seagate Support.

I'm sorry to hear about the inconvenience you are having. Please run Seagate diagnostic tool, Seatools to determine the health of the hard drive

If there are any error found after the diagnostic test, kindly return the drive to us for warranty return.


To create a Return please kindly follow the procedure below to create an RMA before you return the hard drive to our collection center. Seagate will arrange for a replacement to be delivered back to the address you provide.

*Note: We are unable to deliver to PO Box addresses.

They provided a link for the diagnostic tool, and instructions on how to create a return 'should there be a fault'.

I have been hunting for a new eq-mount, emailing several companies, only to get jerked around, or being subjected to "passing the buck", only to have 4 (errr) make that 5 people now replying to my query after I have settled on one particular one.  Wonder if I should get them in a pricing war.... nah.

I have been having a problem with the EQ mount on my 'scope.  If I lower it any lower than 30 degrees, it will suddenly flop and drop forward.  I have caught it before it has impacted on the tripod, but this should not be happening.

I emailed the seller, and he forwarded it to the manufacturer.  I have carefully examined the latitude control knob, and what I see is this: the gear teeth on the part that is gripped by the latitude knob aren't quite right. At  0 degrees, they should be pretty much equal front and back, but they aren't. They extend way the hell up the back, and nothing visible in the front.

But even though I sent photograph to the manufacturer, I have been told this: We have received your mails also the mails transferred from Optrons Germany. We are studying the reasons now in the factory. We will try our best to give you a positive reply within this week.

This damned thing is still under warranty, so I don't know why they are hemming and hawing. A week?  I know I wanted to get an EQ3 or EQ5, but not this soon, but with the way they are dicking me around, I might just do it now, and when I get the new mount, buy some rings, get a bar made for between them, and turn the old alt azm into a polar alignment. It's lightweight enough not to need the counter weight.

The other thing is at least right now everything I want to view/photograph are at least 45 degrees from the horizon, but it's still chapping my ass.