EQ6/NEQ6/EQ6 Pro StellarTune™

Service 60™ EQ6 - £289.00  No belt drive upgrade. This Service is for mounts that have already had a Stellartune or Stellardrive. Mounts are checked over then ultrasonically cleaned and both axis re-lubricated to eliminate stiction. We replace worm gear bearings, adjust and then load test to customers specified payload and to reduce drive-train backlash.
6 Months RTB Warranty


StellarTune™ EQ6 - £579.00*  New Rowan Belt Kit fitted plus Hybrid-Ceramic bearings, other components optimised/re-lubricated to reduce internal friction even further. Fit StellarDrive™-RX Axis bearing set. Polished RA Crown. Case reprofiled where required to provide better clearance for belt drive pulleys where needed. SIDAC-36M Rig Tested. 1 Year RTB Warranty. * Only £469.00 if Rowan Belt Kit already installed/supplied.

Please call 02392 570283 or email Dave for more info. - dave@darkframe.co.uk


Equatorial mounts by nature are precision made products. However, due to mass production and to keep the prices lower, they are often not fettled to the best of their ability due to the variances in each mount. Various improvements can be made to transform the performance of your mount from what is a median production build this will save you the need to upgrade to a more expensive mount, providing you are happy with the payload you have.

EQ mounts are subject to being outside and often in the damp, so renewing the grease is often a first port of call, using a better type of grease more suited to our climate can help reduce friction. This means the motors can drive the mount a lot more accurately both unguided and guided compared to a stock mount.

Also, with much more care in adjusting the worm-gears and motor drive train, they can often be made to run smoother and quieter, which also benefits better tracking and periodic error reduction. 


Mounts need servicing and can also be tuned like any mechanical device. No-one as yet has designed a maintenance free mount!

What's the difference between a Service and a Tune and a Repair?

Our Mount Servicing is effectively to bring your tired mount back to a factory fresh setup with backlash adjustment and using standard greases and oils. However, if there is any damage, or wear, then new components may be required at extra time and cost to put right. Like a car, you cannot tune a sick motor, so we evaluate every mount before we attempt to tune it. 

Our Hypertuned mounts are better than new, with more response and less friction than a factory mount. This equates to better guided and tracking performance, as proven by our customers PHD2 guide data and their amazing images! Not only are nearly all mounts independently tested by our customers, they paid to find out how good they are. The guide logs we get back from them have helped us produce what is the most cost-effective and reliably performing mount that gives an EQ8 a run for its money!

Check out how your mount compares in our performance charts.

Our tuning methodology provides a more detailed approach, using higher performance lubricants that help the mount perform better, which have been tested extensively over several years. 
We also clean up the castings and can upgrade the worm-gear bearings for a better drive response.


We also upgrade the main DEC and RA axis bearings as standard, to either StellarDrive™-RX oe FX treated bearings. We also load test the mount and take soundform profiles, as well as stripdown/rebuild photos and video as part of our tune-up record.

EQ mounts need checking seasonally depending on use, but most mounts we service are usually 3 years old or more. By 5+ years every mount we have come across has amassed considerable backlash and other issues associated with age, such as greases drying out or becoming contaminated, so losing their lubrication and dampening qualities. With the work we do, your mount should be fine for three years or more, and we warranty them for one.  New tuned mounts should be fine for 5 years. The condition of our 2 year old Reference Mounts support this timescale after a recent Build Type upgrade to v6.3.x (Bonneville).

Please note - Product specifications may change without notice as this is a custom build for every mount.