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Dob Platform, cheap, cheap, cheap!
Hello People,
New to your forum, and big 'scopes. So i thought i would give you all a good chuckle by sharing some pics of a dob platform i'm knocking up. I spent all my money on a 12" lightbridge and some imaging gear, and while WA(iting) for it all to get here, i've got too much time on my hands.
Most of the stuff i used started its life as a motorised sat. dish mount, including the actuator. It is a 24v-36v Geosat jobby which has remarkable rigidity in its operation, i guess a prerequisite for moving 2m dishs' in the home of the Freo doctor.
Really simple concept, used longest 'practical' levers and the 12" of actuator travel to get a total angle travel of 15 degrees. The electronics hanging off the back, provide crude stepping. A PWM gives motor step 'speed' and the other bit is just a timer, a 0.1sec impulse every 1.5sec's. Roughly gives me 2300 steps in the hour.
When the scope arrives, i can fit a platform to the square tube then need only minimal fixing of the standard lightbridge mount, just a lift on, lift off setup.
I hope that this 'thing' will be good enough for grabbing AVI's, and the freedom of being able to wait for the best seeing while 'setup'.(for that hour anyway) It resets in about a minute and a half.
I would like to recommend the crazy emotion, or the little fella rolling around laughing!
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