The observatory is temporarily off the air while the mount is being updated.  While waiting for gear to arrive, I’ve taken the opportunity to do a long-overdue tidy-up.

• Removed all the optical and electronic gear from the mount and pier;
• Took the mounting plate off the top of the pier, brought it indoors, cleaned it, removed old tape residue, drilled for a new pier-to-mount adapter plate, and repainted it after steel-wooling it clean and smooth.
• Cleaned years worth of junk out of the observatory, especially all the old packing material and other bits of junk that have accumulated in corners.
• Vacuumed years of dead bugs out of corners (creepy).

According to the original schedule, I should have the mount in a couple of weeks, so that should be in time to re-attach, re-calibrate, and get some good use out of it while the dark season remains.