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Useful bracketry


Tweedledee

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Most telescopes seem to be left handed, ie. finder on the left :huh:


 


I bet not many people have ever considered that :chin_scratch2:


 


Well, I can only properly use my left eye at the telescope, so I have great difficulty using a finder on the left of the scope because the main scope and eyepiece is where the rest of my (big) head needs to go :screwloose:


 


The problem is that I can't close my left eye without closing both eyes, but I can close my right eye leaving the left eye open. Just something weird with my eyelid muscles. You wouldn't know it, I don't have odd looking skewed eyes or anything :blink: . In daytime using normal vision my right eye sees a little better than my left, but after looking through telescopes for over 40 years with my left eye, it is far better trained for astronomy than my right eye, and sees sharper and fainter objects through the eyepiece. So today, I engineered a bit of bracketry to help remedy this problem and allow me to have various options for mounting finders. In normal use I won't be loading it up like this, but I now have various options to make it more comfortable and easier for me to use.


 


Now, where did I put that other finder?


 


ST120 on steroids!  :D ...


 


20150730_163532.jpg


 


20150730_163357.jpg


 


20150730_163436.jpg


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There's still room for one more as well. There's no excuse for not finding anything now Pete. :)


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Four finders   :facepalm:

 

What is the camera one?

I think I have at least 3 other finders besides those and one more in transit from the US :facepalm:

 

The camera is a Stellacam 3 Deep Sky Integrating Video camera.

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There's still room for one more as well. There's no excuse for not finding anything now Pete. :)

I forgot, it has goto as well :o

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That's some rig you've got there Pete. Loving the mount. I'll bet you've got to be doing some revs before the valves bounce!


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That's some rig you've got there Pete. Loving the mount. I'll bet you've got to be doing some revs before the valves bounce!

Cheers Alan.

 

It is mounted on Land Rover valve springs (a spring inside a spring) which allow smooth and easy levelling adjustment for the goto. Underneath are wing nuts pulling on the three 10mm bolts. The springs are extremely strong and the whole structure is rock solid. Definitely no bounce unless I jump on top of it! ;)

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Thanks for showing your Car Reg - i can now speed thru camera's knowing you will get the tickets - just need to picture of you for the cardboard cut out of the driver   :evil:


 


Love the rig by the way  :rockon:


 


p.s. you could use a eye patch then you wouldn't need to close you eye - right or left


Edited by stash
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I trust you have left room for a Telrad Pete!

Your rig reminds me of the days when scooters had a dozen mirrors or so on them!😀

But I have heard you were a Harley Davidson man ... 😃

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Thanks for showing your Car Reg - i can now speed thru camera's knowing you will get the tickets - just need to picture of you for the cardboard cut out of the driver   :evil:

 

Love the rig by the way  :rockon:

 

p.s. you could use a eye patch then you wouldn't need to close you eye - right or left

Doubt they'd fall for that one :)

Good idea Clive. I have tried an eye patch, but tend to lose them. It still doesn't change the fact that at the telescope, I'm much better using my left eye and have no problem just closing my right eye.

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Doubt they'd fall for that one :) -

Good idea Clive. I have tried an eye patch, but tend to lose them. It still doesn't change the fact that at the telescope, I'm much better using my left eye and have no problem just closing my right eye.

Its been done - if they cant recognise the driver it goes back to the owner of the vehicle who then has to prove where he/she was at the time.

 

I am informed , think it was Doc,that closing one eye strains the muscles/shape of the other eye(or something like that!) - yep keep losing mine - perhaps I need one of your brackets attached to my head to attach the eye patch   :D

 

How are you finding the tracking now you have a sturdy mount (the  one sold is c*** as you said)?

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Its been done - if they cant recognise the driver it goes back to the owner of the vehicle who then has to prove where he/she was at the time.

 

I am informed , think it was Doc,that closing one eye strains the muscles/shape of the other eye(or something like that!) - yep keep losing mine - perhaps I need one of your brackets attached to my head to attach the eye patch   :D

 

How are you finding the tracking now you have a sturdy mount (the  one sold is c*** as you said)?

I don't do many driving lessons in Lincolnshire and keep a detailed diary of everywhere I go for my job ;)

 

Maybe I'll have another go with an eye patch, it could help :thumbsup:

 

Haven't used the goto much yet, but the tracking is plenty good enough for visual. My manual AZ4 is tougher than the goto and saves the electronic setup and wiring.

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I trust you have left room for a Telrad Pete!

Your rig reminds me of the days when scooters had a dozen mirrors or so on them!😀

But I have heard you were a Harley Davidson man ... 😃

I have room to mix and match now, and try out different finders :)

 

Two cylinder Harleys? No chance. This was mine back in the day, maybe you notice an underlying trend :D ...

Hondaengine.jpg

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Was that the CBX1000? A mate of mine had a tuned one and was a steward at race meets. His party trick was to burn out the back tyre  :facepalm: which the bike did with ease.


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Novel bracket there Pete.


 


I found the same with my ED80 for balance reasons when using a finder guider so I just rotate the scope in the rings so the finder bracket is on the right. OK the focuser knobs are on top but that doesnt take much getting used to.


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Was that the CBX1000? A mate of mine had a tuned one and was a steward at race meets. His party trick was to burn out the back tyre  :facepalm: which the bike did with ease.

Yes, that is the one.

 

I preferred to make my tyres last, so my party trick was not using the front wheel :facepalm: which the bike did with ease.

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Novel bracket there Pete.

 

I found the same with my ED80 for balance reasons when using a finder guider so I just rotate the scope in the rings so the finder bracket is on the right. OK the focuser knobs are on top but that doesnt take much getting used to.

Cheers Phil.

 

I did try that, but it always felt and looked a bit awkward.

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Yes, that is the one.

I preferred to make my tyres last, so my party trick was not using the front wheel :facepalm: which the bike did with ease.

This thing wheelies off the throttle in 5th :P I had it road registered too, limited at 70mph by gear ratio but only weighed 99kg and was putting out 60 hp!

image.jpg1_zpsyk7lqopo.jpg

Edited by M__
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Did a bit more DIY bracketry today.

When I got the AZ4 mount secondhand, it came without a pan and tilt handle, and the hole in the mount for the handle had threads which were all chewed up and useless. I bought a new handle cheap from Astroboot, and made another little bracket to fit it onto the finder bracket I made the other week which sandwiches between the ST120 dovetail and the tube clamps. The bracketry is all 5mm thick x 40mm wide steel bar, so is nice and strong without adding too much weight (I have eyepieces for that :D). The new small bracket is bent to give a perfect angle to the pan and tilt handle. It works a treat, and in my opinion, does the job even better than the original SW handle, and won't be subject to cross threading as it is not attached to the softish alloy of the mount.

I also fitted my new (secondhand) 8x50 correct image straight through illuminated finder to the ST120 today. The finder was an absolute bargain aquisition from the US, only £76 including shipping, VAT and customs fees, and it only took 12 days to get here! In the daylight view, there are a few specks of dust visible on the graticule. If they are a problem at night, I will take it apart and carefully dust it off.

The finder feels good and very easy to look through, and I have it on the right hand side of the scope where I like it, for my preference of using my left eye. I'm very pleased with this ES finder, it is much nicer to use than the Orion 9x50 I have, probably because it has a proper eyepiece with a decent sized eye lens and of course it has the correct image. With this finder it is best to adjust the focus of the graticule by screwing the eyepiece in or out and locking it in position first, and then adjust the main focus on a distant object by screwing the objective in or out and locking it. If you do it the other way round, as I did at first, the object focus changes as you focus the graticule, so you end up focusing on the object twice.

 

Using the Baader Q-Turret means that the eyepieces won't come to focus with the 2" diagonal, so I had to fish out my old 1.25" diagonal to shorten the optical path.

 

I now have quite a bit of DIY metalwork on this and the dob, and intend to have it all blast cleaned and powder coated when it is completed.

I'm very pleased with this grab n'go setup now. :) ...

 

20150809_154504.jpg
 

20150809_154533.jpg

 

20150809_150531.jpg

 

20150809_151635.jpg

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Looking good Pete especially that Delos  ;)  :lol:

 

Seeing pictures online of the Delos, you don't realise just how big it is compared to ordinary 1.25" eyepieces.  It certainly dominates that Q-Turret :) .

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The Clicklock is brilliant, much better and tighter than a couple of tiny thumbscrews. :thumbsup:


 


Find yer own pillar :P


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