Quote:
Originally Posted by alistairsam
Thanks Brent, did you use bearings in the rotating UTA guide?
do the rotating and stationary wooden rings sit directly on each other or is there a spacer/washer in between?
how do you lock it in place?
with your dslr in the focuser, did you have the need to add a counterweight at the opposite side of the UTA?
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Rotating UTA just sits on non tear plastic sheet (like teflon) glued to lower ring, top ring is just bare ( varnished and sanded smooth ). It is quite firm to turn on purpose, only moved when I need to get a better visual access. At present firm enough to not need locking but woud not be hard to arrange. A simple clamping setup possibly.
Again I emphasise the fact that construction and assembly was accurate enough to keep the rings etc all extremely flat so it just slid smoothly with no undulations in either surface. A bit of silicon spray has helped as well. Also keep it as simple as possible, the more bits involved the greater the chance of error. I'm an engineer by trade and a dedicated DIY guy, I create solutions.
Now held down with three small steel clips 'borrowed' off some chucked out office equipment. They literally just hang over the upper surface of the lowest rotating ring and are notched and fixed into the lower non rotating ring to run against the edge. Compression packers underneath to allow some adjustment and slight movement. Not an elegant solution but very effective and light. Again I don't want this thing to spin round like a carousel.
Currently the scope is bottom heavy on purpose and the camera will put it pretty close to balanced. Easy enough to add a sliding counter weight if required. Currently there is some extra lead attached centrally on the side to compensate for the slightly heavier lower assembly. It's on the side struts because it works evenly over the range of dec movement.
Any extras, finder\guide scope, RDF etc all mount to the central cage so have minimal effect on the balance and put no extra strain on the two extremity assemblies. Once I build the SkySlab Observatory it will be almost permanently on the EQ6 and I can refine balance and other options.
If you want some closeup pics of any particular areas let me know