g__day
28-10-2006, 12:31 PM
Well I thought I'd show a few shots of my home made pier now that I've added gussets and checked the floor is perfectly level.
The mount is rock solid now and even when bumped real, real hard vibrations die of very quickly. Leaning on the pier hard barely moves stars in the C9.25. Doing a manual focus produces a slight movement of teh main OTA - but about 1/8 of what it used to be.
I also added the shot of the Meade moto focuser with a BinTel 2" Quartz SCT diagonal. This effectly means I don't have to touch the tube now when viewing. I checked with BinTel and they new JMI motor focuser adapter does allow you to connect the Meade motofocuser via USB to a laptop.
Must say for anyone whose ever desired to buy or build a pier - its very worthwhile and they do make viewing a lot more fun and set-up is now remove the lens covers and enter the date and time from the PCs Windows screen, selecting last alignment.
* * *
Next step motorise the dome and slew it to the mounts movements - then remote control the lot from inside the house!
The mount is rock solid now and even when bumped real, real hard vibrations die of very quickly. Leaning on the pier hard barely moves stars in the C9.25. Doing a manual focus produces a slight movement of teh main OTA - but about 1/8 of what it used to be.
I also added the shot of the Meade moto focuser with a BinTel 2" Quartz SCT diagonal. This effectly means I don't have to touch the tube now when viewing. I checked with BinTel and they new JMI motor focuser adapter does allow you to connect the Meade motofocuser via USB to a laptop.
Must say for anyone whose ever desired to buy or build a pier - its very worthwhile and they do make viewing a lot more fun and set-up is now remove the lens covers and enter the date and time from the PCs Windows screen, selecting last alignment.
* * *
Next step motorise the dome and slew it to the mounts movements - then remote control the lot from inside the house!