Complete Folly or Not

[PKay]

Hi ALL

Thoughts appreciated here.
I have a 12" Lightbridge taking up space in the shed.

I have imagined that with a few mods (total carnage) I could possibly mount the scope onto the EQ6-R mount.

See the sketch.

I estimate weight reduction to well within the capability of the mount by turning the metal tubes into colanders...

I'm sure others have attempted this, but there might be pitfalls I haven't considered, like momentum and threat of personal injury including death...

[glend]

A couple of points, structural stiffness is imperative in any EQ mounted scope, and the stated capacity of that mount is not the imaging capacity (which is generally accepted as being 2/3 to 3/4 of the stated visual capacity). Timber cradles will likely flex, unless built as composite braced structures. Good luck.

[multiweb]

As already pointed out your EQ6 will struggle. Also removing material from the tube will introduce flex, especially around the focuser. Overall a very bad idea and a world of trouble IMHO. If you wanted to still go this way and save some weight I'd get a complete CF tube for stiffness but event then your mount won't take the moment of inertia give the length of the OTA.

[PKay]

OK...complete folly

Thanx

Next question (thread) will be about better FOV (that is what I am after).

[doppler]

It can be done, I have a solid tube 10" f4.7 dob riding quite happily on a Heq5 pro mount, the truss tube would be harder to balance but weight shouldn't be an issue if you can keep your tripod stable. Wind is the real enemy with big telescope tubes. Here's an old thread.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=97717