Quite right, this is about making a laser star finder for a telescope, not bringing down missiles.
For the laser I've come up with an idea to use modified wooden clothes pegs (for the spring) with a wingnut that lets the pegs open or close, a simple setup with four pegs and two screws + wingnuts will provide about +- 5 degrees of adjustment for the laser on two axes, which hopefully should be enough.
I've also been thinking of an arrangement for adjusting the aim of binoculars which are paired with the refractor on a separate parallelogram mount which I'm building. They're only 10x50s and I think a row of pegs will have enough spring force in them for making an adjustable platform for aligning the binoculars with the refractor.
The refractor is an 80mm Celestron, weighing just under 2kg. I have in mind a push-pull arrangement with 1/4" round head bolts, washers and springs at one end of the refractor, with the other held reasonably firmly so it has a little angular freedom but otherwise stays put.
Main scope is a 200mm f6 Dob and in yet another scope configuration I am considering mounting the refractor on the tube of that, yes I want to use a diagonal, I built the dob myself and the tube is a plywood box so there's ample room to mount something. Like any decent Dob it's pretty stable.
In case the above is confusing, here are the things I'm mounting:
I have a 200mm Dob, an 80mm refractor, and 10x50 binoculars.
The Dob is separate to the others, but I'm toying with the idea of putting the refractor onto the side of my Dob. Why? Because I can.
I also have a parallellogram mount which holds the refractor and the binoculars. They're mounted with a parallel bar that links the two so the binoculars act as a viewfinder for the refractor. I'm thinking about mechanisms for adjusting the aim of the binoculars. The most elegant one I've thought of so far uses wooden pegs and a bolt plus wingnut on one axis and a simple pivot on the other which can be tightened and made firm.
The parallellogram mount is great fun to use, even though it's still in need of some tweaks. It is however really big and heavy and takes time to set up. I built a simple alt-az mount for the refractor which will soon be made into a convertible design that flips between an alt-az mode and a fork equatorial. As I won't have the binoculars I need a viewfinder, and I figured a green laser pointer was about the cheapest and simplest "viewfinder" one could use, as long as it can be collimated with the main scope. (And that is what this thread is about!)
Sorry it's confusing, but I enjoy having multiple mount options for using my two scopes depending on the type of viewing I plan on doing, and whether I can be bothered setting up the complex mount or just want to take a lightweight refractor outside to look at the moon for a bit. I'm also planning on rebuilding a split-ring equatorial mount for my Newtonian, but that's for another thread.
If anyone has any cool ideas, do let me know.
Travis
