On completing a 4" refractor, made up of leftover pieces found in my store box, I wanted to mount it with easy adjustment so I could align it with the 12" Naysmith Cass upon which it sits.
I made a frame with two "V" shapes to take the telescope.The "V" closest to the focusser is a bit larger and has struts drilled to take two 6mm rods, capped with acorn nuts on one side and with butterfly nuts locked in on the other end.. The telescope has a couple of pieces glued onto the tube which contact with the top "V" and stop it sliding down. It is then clamped onto the "V"'s using bands, cut out of old car inner tubes, and a roof rack bungee. The tube does not touch the "V" closest to the focuser but rests on the rounded heads of the acorn nuts.
This is ample to hold the scope in at any angle and the adjustment is very fast, a couple of turns on the butterfly nuts on the 6mm shafts. This system is rather like the two adjusting screws and one spring viewfinder setup with the spring replaced by the elastic components. It works well and and image of Omega Centauri takes on Saturday night is posted on "Deep Space" forum proves the rigidity. The system works well and is easy to make. I am proceeding to mount my viewfinder in a similar fashion.
I am not too good at explaining in words but the pics will help. If you have any questions, I shall be happy to answer them.
I Know Martin very well. He was and I am founder members of the Cedeberg Observatory in 1988. He has a great setup and does a lot of good outreach. Great guy!
Clear skies
Last edited by scopemankit; 09-02-2011 at 02:54 AM.
Reason: punctuation
Have to start a thread on "Useful things to do with Bungees Astronomically" I've got one that adds some 'weight' as the DOB gets to lower angles and prevents it dropping from about 40 degrees down.
