DIY equatorial platform for 10" dobsonian

[Greggles (Gregory)]

Hey everyone,

After lots and lots and lots of time researching I finally started and finished my equatorial platform for my bintel 10" F10 dobsonian. I made the vertical north segment version.

Just wanted to share it with every one as it's such a great addition if you can get it done! I've got a wood working business on the side so didnt find it to difficult (maybe I should start custom making them :p). Besides all the research needed to understand the design.

Visual tracking with rough polar alignment leaves Jupiter in the field of view for 20+ minutes. Clouds came over quite quickly after testing it for first time tonight so cant comment on exact times yet .

Thinking of getting a cross hair eyepeice to do more accurate drift alignment too.

Attached are photos of the platform and a photo of omega centauri globular cluster taken with my phone through a 32mm widefield lens 2 second exposure. I managed upto 10 second exposure without star trail but way to much light polution.

Anyway hope this is interesting to some.

Cheers

Greg

[xelasnave]

Great effort.
You could probably do some short exposure photos if you feel inclinded☺...
Alex

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Well done, that is an most interesting project and one that I've been contemplating for a while, the idea of some basic tracking for the dobs. Have browsed the EQ platform threads on several ATM sites and have a basic understanding of what's involved. Would love to get some rough dimension, radii, angles etc and what you have used for the motor drive system. Either that or having it built for me, depending on costs of course.
May upscale a bit to accommodate my 12.5" as well as the 10" but mainly thinking just for the 10" at the moment. Probably need to put all the other projects on hold for a while to fit this in.

Cheers

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Just an aside, this thread should probably be in the ATM section.

[Greggles (Gregory)]

Originally Posted by Saturnine

Well done, that is an most interesting project and one that I've been contemplating for a while, the idea of some basic tracking for the dobs. Have browsed the EQ platform threads on several ATM sites and have a basic understanding of what's involved. Would love to get some rough dimension, radii, angles etc and what you have used for the motor drive system. Either that or having it built for me, depending on costs of course.
May upscale a bit to accommodate my 12.5" as well as the 10" but mainly thinking just for the 10" at the moment. Probably need to put all the other projects on hold for a while to fit this in.

Cheers

Hi Jeff,

Happy to help with any information you need. dimensions and angles are the hard part but it all comes together quite quickly once you start. Using a CAD software also helps to calculate dimensions as they all revolve around the angle determined by your latitude.

The drive shaft is 12mm solid steel rod with a bolt welded onto the end acting as a reducer to fit into the coupler of the standard EQ motor drive. This is temporary until a 12mm to 6mm flexible coupler arrives ordered from the net. Couldn't find any in Sydney. Once that arrives I will eliminate the bolt.

Cheers Greg

[Greggles (Gregory)]

Originally Posted by Saturnine

Just an aside, this thread should probably be in the ATM section.

Yeah your right, I missed that forum. Guess an admin would have to move it?