[Satchmo]

Originally Posted by AstroJunk

Peter Read at SDM now uses an alternative (and seemingly very good design) that can be seen on this photo: http://www.sdmtelescopes.com.au/imag...005/SDM5_7.jpg

These SDM upper clamps are from Astrosytems:

http://www.astrosystems.biz/utlltl.htm

Unfortunately they break the ideal rule that the truss rods be tied directly together as possible to the cage.. If you haven't done up the clamp real tight you can see that leaning on one pole will cause the other to swing around the clamp axis, multiply that X 4 truss connection pairs and the situation is bad for collimation. However do up the clamps nice and tight and you can get away with it.

Mark