I have a starbound (I beleive -- its the one
orion sold for a while and cost like $170.)
There are two usage problems with it....
1) When extremely close to the ground you have to
stick your legs out, and the balance point goes
forward of your butt, and it falls forward.
(the workaround is to not position it too close
to the ground.)
2) Actually moving it up and down while in the
seated position is not really doable. So I stand
up and move it, then sit down. Sometimes when moving
it in the "seated" position, I'll drop the seat a
couple inches -- most akward.
Fwiw, I think its pretty easy to demonstrate
that it _cannot_ simply fall under its own weight.
It turns out the rubbers contact and it gets stuck.
And, the more weight you add to it, the more it
tends to "stick".
I havent tried lubing it, but dew and such (in
about 5 years of use) hasnt caused it to slip. If
anything, its stickier than it needs to be (its
a bit difficult to adjust!) Oh.. and the rails on
my chair are actually very very smooth.
jeff
--- Mark Berger <mlberger@No-Spam> wrote:
> I have heard reports (from a competing product
> manufacturer) that those
> adjustable observing chairs, the kind that use
> friction to stay in
> place, can suddenly slip and let you fall to the
> ground. The cause is
> reportedly due to dew, insect repellant, etc. on the
> rails. Has this
> EVER happened to anyone or is this just advertising
> hype?
>
> I'm not too worried about hurting myself, but I
> wouldn't want an
> innocent bystander getting hurt if they wanted to
> look through my
> telescope.
>
> Mark Berger
> mlberger@No-Spam
>