Setting up EQ platform...

[Kokatha man]

Never sure where you should put some of the posts sometimes, so put it in here; if anyone wants to comment or take it in their own direction I guess that's fine, it may uncover something for me or others.

After all the hassles and #@**! of customs and freight "agencies" - perhaps that should read "profiteers" - I finally got my Round Table Platform from Brian Reed: these are the new motor versions featuring a crystal frequency locked drive motor. Brian believes these to give an even better performance for his EQ platforms that already have a highly regarded reputation.

Yesterday, as well as handling all the things that fill a day regardless of AA; I managed to make three locating/aligning rings for the "feet" of the platform (essentially 3 CD ply rings with profiled edges and a central hole that snuggly accepts the platform's round, adjustable feet.) This meant that today I had to lay a smooth sheet onto my observation deck (covering the reed decking) to facilitate the eventual affixing to said deck of these locating rings.

Bright moon tonight, but no impediment to drift aligning the EQ platform: but boy is it somewhat different to the HEQ5 Pro mount - no fine alt/az adjustment screws here Boris!

Although east and west and north/south are easily ascertained, I still managed to get myself in knots with my "vernier" adjustments of the platform - and resorted to that old maxim of "stop trying to rationalize the adjustments needed and just adjust, note whether it's correcting the drift(s) and compensate on the hoof so to speak"- the "vernier" adjustments for E-W drift being me manually twisting/rotating the platform base! (with the 3 locating rings I had made in place on each platform foot)

North-South drift was a little more refined: raising and lowering the rear (northern) adjustable foot of the EQ base!

My intention was to "nail" the drift alignment (ha-ha) and then, drill and driver at hand, screw the platform feet's locating rings to the deck for subsequent fast set-ups. I'm interested in taking wide-angle images of the skies to create a mosaic of the constellations for a project I'm developing - not using a scope, just employing the platform as a camera mount (see "Emu on the march" thread.)

I'm really not sure how well these EQ platforms can be aligned, but I'm going to "push the envelope" before I permanently affix my locaters to the deck; tonight was somewhat ambitious re my hopes of getting it done; though it was the wind that created my major impediment. That and the realization that I am going to have to improve my dob's motion re "friction/stickion" as well as develop the ideas I espoused in the dob slo-mo control thread. Have already plotted a course of action in my mind with these two issues!

Called it a night after accurately marking the position of the platform locating rings with the best alignment I could achieve tonight - I'll wait for a calm night, jeez these gully winds can be a pain in the butt down here!

As I said, I'm unsure how well I can set the alignment of the platform; I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else has wrestled with this objective.

From a rough assessment of the accuracy, calculating the I/R ep's true field of view at 24', I was able to limit the drift to approx 20 arc seconds over 5 minutes E-W, with no north-south movement discernable. Hoping to improve on this figure next time, but would be interested to hear what others who have done this think. (the type of imaging I intend to do would most probably handle this accuracy: yes/no?)

Cheers, Darryl.

[Kokatha man]

Got up early for a wander around the yard; a think about maybe going out fishing, and an early morning squint at the IIS forum.

Read some old drift align accuracy threads and then -DOH!!!!!

After all that kerfuffling around battling the wind last night; it struck me in one of those flashes of sanity I seem to be having with ever-decreasing frequency as senility creeps slowly nearer!!!

I hadn't checked/adjusted the tracking speed of the motor before all my frenekking around with RA drift!?!

Talk about a drongo - I'll blame Brian Reed (he's not here to defend himself - he did tell me that he doesn't get to go on forums much lately!)

The platform arrived a couple of weeks later than expected (not counting customs/freight shennanigans) because Brian couldn't do a tracking rate test 'cos of the weather over there - I reckon that with all my impatience over waiting for it to arrive, the bit about him setting the rate burnt itself into my feable brain to the point where I developed some sort of subconscious belief that this was an immutable element to the platform's character: sort of like the woodstain finish and stainless fixtures!

That's my story anyway, and I'm sticking to it!!!

I'm going back to bed now, I bet I'll lay awake thinking about setting the rate and re-calibrating: that and developing further the ideas that prevented much sleep after I first went to bed early this morning - ie, not fixing the locating/aligning rings I made to the ob deck floor; but rather going the whole hog and making a portable low-profile base for the EQ platform to sit on that has azimuth fine adjustment built into it (one circular piece with the EQ platform feet locating rings set in it, able to rotate upon another piece that has ground legs - with screw adjustment for discrete rotational movement of the "top" with regard to the ground leg section - as in the az adjustment of the HEQ5)

Cheers, Darryl.

[iceman (Mike)]

What size platform did you get? What size dob are you putting on it?

[Kokatha man]

Hi Mike - yeah, I know, I'm the kinda fella that can see what's happening up the road whilst tripping over my own shoelaces..!

Meaning I got the "baby" for dobs for up to 12.5" - silly me, even though I've only got a 10" dob it'd (have been) prudent to get one of the larger sizes, seeing as how the price increases are minimal imho.

But I console myself with the fact that Brian reckons the payload of this one is 100 pounds : my dob weighs just under 52 & a half pounds and a 12" weighs 71.5 pounds (OTA and dob base) - maybe if the aperture fever wins I can get one of these touted new GSO 16" jobs, stripped down with a custom base, to come in under the hundred pound mark!?!

Dunno, but they really are a well-made unit Mike, as I recall you telling me quite some time ago - Brian reckons the tracking speed is much more stable with the new motors he uses: I've just got to remember to check it!!!( as per my last thread posting remarks!)

Cheers, Darryl.

[Kokatha man]

Just thought, rather than post my experiences with customs and freight agents for my EQ platform in this thread, I'd draw attention to my 2nd posting in Benno's "GoTo's and dobs" thread, in the "Beginners" section of the IIS forum; wherein my tale is told.....

Cheers, Darryl.

[dannat (Daniel)]

daryl, have you got a pic of it - might be good for a look

things will always seem better second try -