Has anyone succesfully damped the forks on a wedge mounted SCT, mines a C8, and if so how. Mine seem to excessively vibrate after touching and in the wind gusts.
I don't have a wedge (Other than a home-made job) but it seems it could benefit from some shock absorbers. It will create a bit of friction if connected to the drive but it may work.
Something like the ones used in cars opening and closing the engine lid. I was playing around with these sometime ago when dealing with my EQ Platform and I was considering using these on my new wedge project if needed.
Malcolm, i am not sure that type of damping would work, i think the static friction would create more issues than it would solve. Also the actual physical vibration travel is so small, made smaller by the steep angle that the damper itself would be mounted, that the damper may never get into action. The flexure of the rod and mounts would take up the vibration before it got to the friction piston. I am leaning more towards mass damping similar to how they balance high performance archery bows. If done correctly it may even assist in removing some, a very small amount, of the moment created by the OTA at the end of a long lever arm i.e. the fork.
Poita. my tripod is the standard Celestron tripod/C8 Wedge assembly, which i have braced in a four point brace. See drawing.
I would really like to buy a good eq mount, an eq6 or better, but i am short the redies so i am struggling with the wedge till i can afford a decent one.
