Design recap (perspective...I'm a beginner who wants to explore astronomy on a modest budget).
My design requirement was a parallelogram structure that considerably steadied the bins for extended viewing, but didn’t necessarily have to support the weight of the bins independently, but were to be used in conjunction with human hands…a steady-cam. The mount had to allow multi-axis movement in order to be practical from a user perspective and require minimum modification to suit my purposes. The base had to preferably be a clamp design for attaching to multiple surfaces.
With my design requirements in mind, I searched eBay for a product that matched my criteria as closely as possible.
What I found was a clamp base designed parallelogram desk light stand that had multi axis movement, metal construction, the appropriate length and minimum modifications to suit the tripod mount of the bins.
With a purchase price of $19.95 (AUD) + shipping, the mount arrived and was immediately subjected to surgery.
· Electrical cord cut and removed
· Lamp removed
· Two holes were drilled in the binocular tripod mount and 2 mounting bolts & nuts fitted to secure the tripod mount to the lamp mounting plate…perfect
Surprisingly, the mount does carry the independent weight of the bins in a vertical extended position and I certainly didn’t expect that.
Multi-axis movement is achieved through the 360 degree horizontal rotation of the swivel clamp base and bin swivel tripod base, as well as 180 degree vertical rotation of the swivel mount on the binocular end of the parallelogram arm.
This renders the mount quite maneuverable for star-hopping in terms of panning and up and down movement.
So far I have invested $180 AUD ($150 on new Celestron Skywatcher 25x70 bins) in my astronomy pursuits which included the $30 on the binocular steady-cam.
The bin steady-cam is easy to store and transport, set-up and use. The stabilization I have achieved is considerable compared to handheld, whilst not totally motionless as it still has input and reliance on human hands, it is a major step forward in improving my satisfaction from this rather interesting hobby.
Whilst not for everyone as we all have different means and requirements, I am happy with the process itself and the binocular steady-cam project outcome.
I have submitted a project article with pictures to the forum adminisitrator for publishing.
Cheers…Gaz.
I see it's your first post.
sounds good to me!
