Remodelled Parallelogram mount and New Binoculars.

[BAZ]

I recently bought a pair of Helios Stellar II 25x100 Binoculars. These are beasts and weigh in at 3.8 kg, so the old mount needed a bit of a make over to make them more user friendly.

For a start, it needed bigger counterbalance weights, it now sports 15kg. I also wanted to make it more field portable, so I changed the configuration of the weights, these now mount from the side and as such are easier to remove and replace when in the field. I can leave the weight holder clamped in place and will only now need to move this if the balance changes.

It also now sits on the Skywatcher tripod, again to make it easier to transport. At some point, I intend to mount my mobile phone next to the binoculars so that I can use Astrohopper as a point to system, that's a WIP at the moment  though.

I had a quick play tonight and it all seems  to work as it should, I am not sure about the weight bearing capacity of the tripod, but the weight goes down through the centre of it and it remains very stable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 2023 by BAZ

[Bottletopburly]

Beats using a sweeping brush as a rest 🤣 looks good 👍 

[+Streetbob]

It’s looking good. Hope to see it at a dark site sometime. By the way I hope the balance weight is tight or your cat will get a sore head 😀

[+Bino-viewer]

ingenious bit of engineering there Martyn....👍🏼

[BAZ]

10 hours ago, Streetbob said:

or your cat will get a sore head

It still wouldn't shift! When you want them they aren't even in the garden, start doing something and they are under your feet.  😄

[Smithysteve]

Looks very solid and stable. Good job Martyn - 🔭👍

[+bryand]

That seems an excessive amount of countweight for the optics. 

OK if it works, go with it, but you could look at trimming the weight/friction down a bit.

[BAZ]

You could be right Bryan, This hasn't been used for years and was on it's way out, but it got a reprieve and I needed to get it to a usable state to mount the new Bino's. I may well look at reducing the length of the arms which in effect will require less weight. It might be kinder to the tripod.