Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost In Space
Ok so I'm looking at making my own equatorial mount, and I'm in the brainstorming stage...
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Hi Blake,
"been there-done that" see...
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...t=19420&page=2
message #32
and I suppose I have some insite.
I can say that taking on such a project is a huge undertaking in (mostly) time and effort. Only you can decide if you wish to invest that time and effort into building a mount. Or is it better to invest the time in say a second job and use those $$$ to purchase the mount of your dreams.
For me, it was something I had to do - and I'm very happy with it as it performs the astronomy tasks that I currently ask of it. But it's not perfect (it has a wicked PE) and it is restricting a type of astronomy tasks that I want to explore in the future, so I'm currently contemplating an upgrade to the drive method to allow longer exposures which means more work - sigh... or I might purchase something to do this new task. It's unresolved at the moment...
Another aspect is - how do you put a value on the finished mount - for insurance purposes? There is no receipt that you will have for a purchased mount that you can wave at an assessor. So in the end you have something that does have a value (your time and effort) but no monetary value. Does that worry you?
Anyway, IMHO there are some physological aspects to consider first and foremost, before worring about steppers "V" servos, ect ect - and only you can answer those questions...
Other than that, I'm happy to help...