GAUNT 1885'ish Equatorial Mount

[lhansen]

This Gaunt mount was one of the first commercial made equatorial mounts in australia. Made by Gaunt of Melbourne, it was designed to carry a 4" refractor. However, since then it has seen better days and needs to attention, a previous owner mangled the brass setting circles. Im not sure if this version came with slow motion controls - but if it did they have also been removed

The head and pier are included. There is an awful lot of brass under that black paint. Fully restored it would be a magnificent mount for the collector or user of antique astronomical gear.

Collectively the mount and pier would weigh in excess of 100kg (all that brass and iron) so pickup is the only viable option.

$800 or best offer for a piece of Australian astronomical history

[anj026]

Hi Lars

Could you please tell us the diameter of the shafts?
Are the bearings simple bushes? :question:

[brian nordstrom]

:question: 6+ feet tall ? or Lars is it only the EQ Head ? :).:question::question::question:
Brian ( the Boilermaker )

[brian nordstrom]

:eyepop: Woaw Andy your question got in 1 miniute before mine , cool .
Any way my 2nd Question was the Axis shafts 's diameter as well . they look it least 1 inch ( 25.4mm ) in Dia. with Pillow block bearings ? . sturdy as .
Made oif steel .
Brian ( the Boilermaker ) .

[lhansen]

The gaunt comes in 2 pieces:

Very heavy wrought iron (?) pier, with built in leveling at the base. Height of pier is 104cm, weight - very very heavy 60kg from memory

Equatorial head, with 1.25 " shafts in both dec and RA. Bubble level to level head on pier. Height to top of equatorial head when mounted on pier is approx 150cm. Weight is probably around 40 kg. Many of the brass pieces have been painted over in flat black. I believe the astronomical society of Victoria have one of these complete restored (someone corrects me if I have it wrong)

The bearing surfaces are just simple bushes.

[Poita]

I come to the blue mountains every few weeks from Mudgee, and Penrith once a month or so, and could be persuaded to pick this up and drop it off if anyone was thinking of buying it and couldn't make the trip to Bathurst.

[lhansen]

Thank you Peter, you are a scholar and a gentleman. This is not a mount you want to consign to transport companies. Bringing the pier up from Melbourne via TNT was $300 alone.

[lhansen]

Still for sale and taking up room in the observatory.

[lhansen]

Will consider trades for other astro gear