Disassembly, Tweaking, and Tuning

The Atlas AZ-EQG mount is a popular and affordable dual-mode ALT/AZ and equatorial go-to mount manufactured in China for the Taiwanese company Synta and distributed in the US by Orion Telescopes and Binoculars. A nearly identical model (in white instead of black) is distributed (outside the US, for now) under the SkyWatcher name and goes by the AZ-EQ6 model number. Another Synta model that is even more popular in the US is the Atlas EQG, an equatorial-only model that is also sold in the US and worldwide as the Skywatcher EQ6.

The wider popularity of the basic EQG and EQ6 models has resulted in a good amount of user information being shared in the astronomy community, including some well documented disassembly and tuning procedures. The information on the AZ models is a little less plentiful, so I thought it would be helpful to document some of the steps that I went through while cleaning, lubricating, and tuning my mount recently.

While the basic and the AZ- mounts have many similarities in size and weight capacity, they are quite different in their construction and the disassembly procedures for one model aren’t particularly helpful for the other. In searching through the forums I was able to find some disassembly pictures and information that was helpful to get me started, and I hopefully I can add some additional photos and insight of my own.… Read the rest