Quote:
Originally Posted by Satchmo
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I had a look at their "equatorial platforms". An interesting concept but they don't make the telescope into an equatorial mount. As far as I can make from the pictures they are a device to take care of field rotation on a alt/azm mount, will only be suitable for a particular location and will still need suitable drive and guiding facilities.
If you have a nice SDM or Obsession that has cost you a mint it is a practical way to use the scope for photography. But most people looking for ways to take photographs with their dobsonians are looking at the cheaper mass produced dobsonians.
As for being pessemistic about cost. Making a device from a kit or plans may be relatively cheap but designing and building from scratch is not. Try it sometime and record your time, materials, tools etc. I have designed and built many one off projects.
To give you some idea my present project is to get the Radio astronomy dish at Wiruna operational. I have had two weekends at Wiruna and need two more, travel and time at commercial rates about $2000 a trip. Work at home refurbishing parts 20 hrs at $150/hr. Investment in electronic equipment (S/H and new) and parts $3500. This effort is only a small part of the overall project. I wonder why the original project was put in the too hard box a few years ago?
Incidently you may have seen in the news the problems with the Navy's two special landing ships. I did the original investigation and quotation for the projected modifications to the communications system. We did not get the job (politics) but the firm that got the job wanted our drawings (free). Look at the mess they are in now.
Barry