20 year old mount has gone digital-Argo Navis

[tornado33]

Hi all
Thanks very kindly to Paul (Photoncollector) who has sold me his Argo Navis digital telescope computer. Most importantly, as he has the same mount as mine, the old Astro Optical Supplies "Sampson" GEM, he has cleverly designed a custom mate encoder and gearing attachment to both the DEC and RA axes of the mount. As you can see theres a white gear wheel for each axis, so its geard down for even better encoder resolution.

I guess theres not that many Sampson mounts out there, but if anyone has and wants to put an Argo Navis on it, contact Paul (Photoncollector), he had the gears custom made and knows how it was all set up. he did a stirling job designing the attachments, they gently press the gears together so no backlash.
Scott

[spudrick]

Looks Good Scott.
Lucky me i have the Sampson and i have the Lumicon Sky Vector so i will have to contact Paul for the details. Did you make the brackets yourself?

[Striker (Tony)]

You have to love the images coming from that scope...it sure doesn't look the part but it does the job real well.

Full credit to you Scott.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Now we'll see pics of all sorts of faint fuzzies

Excellent addition Scott.

Originally Posted by Striker

it sure doesn't look the part but it does the job real well.

You can't tell a book by its cover, only by it's mirrors

[alan meehan (Alan)]

great scott,next you,ll want to paint the scope well done mate.

[tornado33]

Thanks all
No I didnt make the brackets, thats all Pauls design too. All I did was just bolt them onto my mount. Just had to drill one hole in the RA bracket because my RA drive is an older model than Pauls.

Yes the scopes had a long life, Im sorry I didnt leave the metal tube unpainted, that way it wouldnt look so bad lol.
Mine you, the mirrors are supreme, the Primary is full thickness Pyrex, Mark Sutching made, and it has a perfect Chi Qin Co electron gun overcoated coating
Scott

[h0ughy (David)]

look out here is trouble! nice one Scott, and Paul!

[Orion]

Nice to see some photos of it Scott, looks really good and Paul has done a nice job with the gears.

[GrahamL]

What an great looking scope .

[gbeal]

Great news Scott, now if only we can get it so you can use an auto-guider, then you won't have to manually guide.

[gary]

Originally Posted by tornado33

Hi all
Thanks very kindly to Paul (Photoncollector) who has sold me his Argo Navis digital telescope computer. Most importantly, as he has the same mount as mine, the old Astro Optical Supplies "Sampson" GEM, he has cleverly designed a custom mate encoder and gearing attachment to both the DEC and RA axes of the mount. As you can see theres a white gear wheel for each axis, so its geard down for even better encoder resolution.

I guess theres not that many Sampson mounts out there, but if anyone has and wants to put an Argo Navis on it, contact Paul (Photoncollector), he had the gears custom made and knows how it was all set up. he did a stirling job designing the attachments, they gently press the gears together so no backlash.
Scott

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the post and the pictures which showcase what a sterling job
Paul has done for the encoder mount hardware.

What effective resolution does the gearing provide for the encoders?

We love to see old scopes like this given a new lease of life with an Argo Navis.

Thanks again for the post.

All the best for 2007!

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au

[PhotonCollector (Paul)]

Hi Gary and Scott,

The main encoder gears are 90mm diameter with 178 teeth fitted to both the R.A. and Dec. axis and are locked into position with 3 grub screws at 120° spacing.

The smaller 30mm diameter gears fitted to the optical encoders have 58 teeth and a single grub screw to lock them into position.

Altogether this provides 25,141 steps per revolution of the telescope which equates to a telescope pointing accuracy of 0.8 arc minutes ( I think! correct me if I am wrong).

A big thank you to Wildcard Innovations for making my life so much easier for many years through the use of the Argo Navis.

Back in the old Cookbook CB245 LDC days with my 8" scope, the Argo Navis landed deep sky objects on my CCD sensor repeatedly.

Thanks Gary, Thanks Mai
Hope you all have a great new year and I look forward to seeing you at Lostock.

[gary]

Originally Posted by PhotonCollector

A big thank you to Wildcard Innovations for making my life so much easier for many years through the use of the Argo Navis.

Back in the old Cookbook CB245 LDC days with my 8" scope, the Argo Navis landed deep sky objects on my CCD sensor repeatedly.

Thanks Gary, Thanks Mai
Hope you all have a great new year and I look forward to seeing you at Lostock.

Thanks Paul for the details and for your kind comments. We look forward to seeing
you again at Lostock in a few weeks time.

Happy Near Year and we wish you all the best for a great 2007.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au