The long awaited and much antipicated arrival of my EQ platform has finally come!
My platform was custom made for -33.4S (+/- 5 deg) by Brian Reed of
Round Table Platforms in the USA. Brian was very friendly and great to deal with. It's a magnificently crafted piece of work, it looks absolutely fantastic.
The platform is quite reasonable in price. Shipping to Australia isn't very reasonable as it turns out, but unfortunately, if you can't make your own or find someone locally to make one for you, paying the shipping costs is the only option.
It can be powered via 8 AA batteries, or a 12v battery pack with an auto plug. It has an auto-cutoff when it reaches the end of it's slide, and you just drag it back to starting position to go again. It tracks for about 50 minutes. It has fine speed adjustment, too.
Of course Murphy has struck, it's cloudy tonight so I can't give it first light - but as you can imagine i've turned on inside and it works great.
Thanks very much to Brian for a great looking platform, I'd definitely recommend Brian to anyone who doesn't want to buy a GEQ for their newt, but who still wants the convenience of the dob with tracking.
Anyway here's some pics!