Simple Apertura AD10 mods

While waiting for the full moon to go away and clouds to clear, I did a couple of quick mods on my Apertura AD10.  First, to display my mad sewing skills (yeah right), I made a cover for the bottom end of the scope.  As I currently store the scope in the garage, and the mirror cell is open at the edges, this will keep any dust and spiders out.

I first took a strip of 3/8" elastic and cut a length that would stretch slightly to fit around the tube.  Not tight, just enough to hold it on.  I sewed the ends of the strip together to make a loop.  Next, I cut a 16" disk from the back of an old t-shirt.  I attached the elastic strip to it at one edge with a few stitches, then at the opposite edge.  Then I attached it at the edge halfway between the first two.  I kept repeating this, adding a few stitches halfway between the previous, until I had the elastic attached every 1/2" or so.  By doing this, the elastic and fabric have room to move and stretch.

The other mod was to replace the collimation springs.  This is one of the mods that would have been included if I had purchased the "Tweaker's Dream Package" with my AD10, but it can be done very simply and much cheaper.  I haven't had my scope out enough to know the difference, but I've read many suggestions on the net to do this mod.  I purchased my springs from McMaster-Carr, part number 1986K117.  This is a 0.5" long by 0.5" wide stainless steel spring.  You can see the stock spring on the right and the new spring on the left in this picture.

The new springs are significantly stiffer than the old ones.  Replacing the springs is a trivial process.  First loosen all three locking knobs.  Then remove one of the collimation knobs, pull out the spring, slip in the new one, and reinstall the colliimation knob.  Repeat for the other two collimation knobs.  Be sure to only do one spring at a time.  When you're done, tighten all three collimation knobs then perform a normal collimation on the scope.  

One last thing I did was adjust the balance of my scope.  I originally installed the altitude bearings when the manual stated.  I've found that even with the 30mm 2" eyepiece, it's still tail-heavy and wants to swing straight up.  To stop this, I had to really tighten the grips on the altitude bearings, which made it more difficult to move smoothly.  I have now adjusted the bearing positions by loosening the mounting screws and sliding the bearings about 1/2" towards the bottom end of the scope.  This seems to be a good compromise in the balance of the scope.