Rivets done...Dome nuts done...Az done...it has 10º either side of centre. Now waiting for a clear night so I can get the 6" f12 Refractor on it for a trial run. The only big thing to do is pour a concrete foundation. Other bits are a a small redo of the connections to the stepper motors, make a Polar Scope (not really needed as I can't see the pole from my location) add a couple of wood panels on the pier for RA and Dec hand controller, Argo Navis unit, ipad with skywire and a 12V power splitter. When it works as I want it then...pull it apart and paint.
Thanks Brian. Now got the thing up in the backyard...it was blue skies when I started with a promise of a clear night...and I'm not working
Ummmm its big...bigger than I thought. At least I can do straight through viewing without any trouble at all
This is the first time with the Refractor on top, I hope it works as well as before with the lighter shorter Reflector...
This is an f12 150mm refractor which is a bit over 2 metres long with Dewshield and it looks small up there....just a bit of a feeling of... oh dear what have I done!
Looks awesome Matt...but gee, I can't keep my eyes off the Byers drive there...those beautiful gold gear teeth really interested to hear how it tracks
Congratulations on a great project, impressive.
Mike
Thanks Colin and Mike...it ain't finished yet. About 2 years ago when I started this project I put an ad for a Byers drive and got the response from someone..can't remember who...that once you have a Byers Drive you keep it so better get a new one, which was great advice. Only wished I had bought two, a 7" one for the Dec, but at that stage it was a tangent on the Dec I was wanting Yes Mike the Byers gear is a thing of beauty and so far in tests very smooth...soon I'll have the mount on concrete base and get it polar aligned, then I'll find out how it tracks.
A dome is on the list Bojan...a hand built dome perhaps. Seen it done over on CN. Have seen Bloodhounds dome too... defiantly possible, all in good time.
The pier is in Dug a 600x600x400 hole and filled it with concrete mixed by hand. The base has 4 M10 bolts extending down with big washers for staying power. A couple of coats of etch primer and 3 of satin black all from spray cans. Happily it stayed level enough, and is facing true south so I hope for minimal Az adjustment. Three wood panels are on with Copper handles, cause I thought that would look really good...and it does. I made Brass cradles for the motor controller and Nexus unit.
Now to pull apart the EQ head and give it the same treatment.
Here is a bit more....hard to know how to paint this thing so I started with the RA part..stripped it down carefully putting bolts into marked containers, etch primed it, 2 coats and 3 of satin black which dries to a magnificent smooth finish.
Matt...let me know...will be up and running real soon.
Alex...... The Gaunt looks small next to the 2" PB...going to have to find a name for it...weather in Melbourne...can it get worse than the past year? Probably...yes.
One pic of the RA box. At least the weather has been kind for painting.
Matt, I thought I'd be OK wearing one of those Hi Vis jackets....no? Actually a renovation Yard, like Steptoes here in Melbourne, might have what I want.
Lee, A slipclutch is in the photo below. The central part is bolted to the shaft and the slipping part is controled by the bolts and springs which press a teflon lined plate onto the bigger outer part with the teeth on it. There is a point when there is enough friction applied, via the springs and bolts, for the worm with motor attached to rotate the gear and scope at sideral rate. When you want to move the scope by hand that is possible too while the motor is still engaged....sounds harder than it is. A Tangent arm has a couple of parts, one attached to the telescope and the other bolted to the mount. The mount part needs to have a lock/unlock clamp of some description so you can move the scope in Declination and lock it in place. The design I used on the Gaunt has a threaded rod that has limited travel of 20º either side of a central position.
The Tangent is an old way of telscope control when gears were expensive and hard to make with accuracy. I still might just add a worm and gear on the Dec axis instead as it is possible to turn it into a GoTo mount with the right electrics. My idea is Argo Navis as the digital setting circles (DSC's) so GoTo isn't really needed, just tracking with a bit of slow slewing to centre objects.
Advantages of slipclutch...no noisy motors, other than that I dunno.
Advantages of Tangent....no motors at all, cheap to build, more threaded brass rod and gears visible and I love the control rods hanging off the end of a scope, in this case an 8" f10 R50 Refractor coming out from Istar next year.
I could have just gone out and bought an EQ8 or something like that but I'd rather build my own....
Matt. I am impressed by your mount its quite an inspiration one. Just a small request can let me know how your Argo Navis as the digital setting circles (DSC's) on the mount goes. I am too, opting out of GoTo and my 10" drive is on the way from BYERS's to venture into a home made mount. I like the idea too, of a tangent DEC control. Michael (Warrnambool, Victoria)
That's one spectacular mount Matt.
Still portable if you have a one tonne ute
Will the scope be mounted as needed or permenantely?
May have to book in for a squizz sometime....
Bo
When not in use and it looks fine (not heavy rain that is) I cover the scope with a couple of tarps tied down and hope for the best I did manage to leave the scope out covered one night last year...so I thought...wake up in the night to hear rain falling and not worry about it as the scope was covered, but not tied down....woops. Of course wind had blown the tarp off and the mount and scope had been rained on for a few hours. No damage done to anything.... lucky me. At least the electric parts, hand controller Nexus etc was indoors. Now I tie the tarps down It takes about 10 minutes to mount the scope when its off the mount, not hard once I worked out how to do it.
One mod is to the Dec axis which was very 'rubbery' I added a 6mm plate bolted down with 11 bolts and machine screws and now it doesn't flex at all.
After a few months of stuffing around with sliding weights and adding an 8x50 Sky Watcher straight through finder, I needed a second finder, it is now complete. My solution to the East heavy problem is a 500g brass sliding weight at the focuser end...slid it down when the scope is on the East side to maintain gear mesh on the RA.
I have settled on an 80mm f7.5 achro with a TS 2" field flattener on a 2" GSO dielectric diagonal as the wide field scope, which gives 4º TFOV with a Pan 35 showing pinpoint stars to the very edge...an improvment over having the last 20% suffering Field Curvature.
The Byers gear tracks smoothly and now having found the perfect balance I can change from a TEC turret to a Pan 41 to WO Binos with the scope not moving, other than tracking.
Even though I built this scope and mount there was still a learning curve to use it.
Solid as a rock and moves like a well oiled machine
AWEbloodySOME !!!!.
Thanks Brian. Now got the thing up in the backyard...it was blue skies when I started with a promise of a clear night...and I'm not working 
really interested to hear how it tracks 
..
