D.I.Y parallelogram mount

[wookie1965]

I and my brother are rubbish at D I Y, well woodwork in particular we cannot saw straight to save our lives. He has a pair of Revelation 20x80 binoculars on Velbon df61 tripod but with his medical condition it is causing a lot of pain in his neck could anyone give me a price and build a parallelogram for me please £200+ to buy seems a little expensive. Then i can inform him what you nice people on here say it will help him with this hobby of ours.

[ChrisG3484]

sky at night magazine has a step by step instruction on how to create one. It involves asking B&Q to cut them into shape/size for you.

[wookie1965]

sky at night magazine has a step by step instruction on how to create one. It involves asking B&Q to cut them into shape/size for you.

Once ive done this how easy is it to put together and how would we mount it on the existing tripod thanks.

[ChrisG3484]

I think the instructions may be on the sky at night website possibly? or may be worth picking up a copy of the mag to have a look.

[wookie1965]

I think the instructions may be on the sky at night website possibly? or may be worth picking up a copy of the mag to have a look.

Thank you will have a look.

[Moonshane]

One thing's for sure, although this is a fairly easy project, I think you'll realise by the end of it why people charge £200 and will consider it a bargain

[wookie1965]

we are going to have a go but we thought someone could build just the top part to fit on our existing mount maybe we could amend this one to do that does anyone know if the head detaches off the tripod (Velbon DF61) thanks.

[cotterless45]

Somewhere I've seen something like this ;

http://www.insideastronomy.com/index.php?/topic/380-binocular-balance-beam-mount-low-cost-and-home-made/

Using a tripod and a single strut. Maybe better suited to the bodger ( good to hear that I'm not the only one .)

Nick.

[moriniboy]

Look at the bottom of this page and click on the links to identify what you want then someone should be able to help with this.

http://binocularsky.com/binoc_mount.php

[wookie1965]

Thats great thanks just hope we can put one together if we can i will take a picture and put it up and that's a big (IF).

[brantuk]

You might be interested to have a look at this thread on EMS forum. There's one being developed at prototype stage right now - don't know what the end cost will be but the pics might help you decide which way you want to go.

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/topic/5892-parallel-mount-design-to-production/#entry66910

[damnut]

Revised version already on the above thread.

[wookie1965]

Revised version already on the above thread.

I have posted to the site thank you very much for this.

[ChrisG3484]

What about an adaptor to fit your bins onto a camera tripod ?

[wookie1965]

What about an adaptor to fit your bins onto a camera tripod ?

We have been looking for anything, my brother has diseased vertebrae in his back and neck in actual fact they are collapsing so leaning back is causing severe pain. He had a look through my scope and was hooked but thought would be better getting binoculars first (Celestron 20x80) then bought Velbon DF61 tripod which works great  apart from the tilting of his neck, now as you said if there was something to fit that then binoculars be ideal i have not come across anything  have you or has anybody else on here.

[ChrisG3484]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MagniVisionPro-Universal-Quality-Metal-Shaped/dp/B00AYXCHZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379361359&sr=8-1&keywords=binocular+adapter+for+tripod maybe something like that on a camera tripod that you can raise up. The camera tripod I have you can increase the height of it so there is the chance that you could get it at eye level.

[wookie1965]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Velbon-DF-61-Heavy-Aluminium-Tripod/dp/B00B1Q5R2S

This is tripod he has as you can see he can attach the binoculars to it what he needs is something that he could put this at the side of a recliner chair and have something swing over in front of his eyes so there is no tilting back of his neck .

[ChrisG3484]

ah I see what you mean, you really need something like a parallelogram then to have the swing back ability. Sorry I couldn't be much help.

[wookie1965]

ah I see what you mean, you really need something like a parallelogram then to have the swing back ability. Sorry I couldn't be much help.

OK thank you anyway much appreciated.

[moriniboy]

Just had a thought, what about something like this, depends if his difficulty is looking up or down (or both)

http://www.craigcolvin.com/astronomy/BinocularMirror.html

[Moonshane]

not much help really but why not sell the bins, buy say a 80mm startravel with the money and use this on the tripod you have? this with a red dot finder would be far better given the circumstances I feel. even with my 'normal' neck I find stargazing a pain in it for long periods.

unless you could make one of these?   http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/204

[wookie1965]

not much help really but why not sell the bins, buy say a 80mm startravel with the money and use this on the tripod you have? this with a red dot finder would be far better given the circumstances I feel. even with my 'normal' neck I find stargazing a pain in it for long periods.

unless you could make one of these?   http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/204

Moonshane thats brilliant i bet my son could do something maybe even get it to attach to existing tripod this looks a lot easier and can use his 360 degree swivel head on the end thank you.

[Moonshane]

good luck looks pretty do-able.

[wookie1965]

good luck looks pretty do-able.

Yes even my lack of woodworking skills give me cars plumbing electrics im capable but wood no, end up as fire wood this looks easy maybe even be able use a bit of steel plate. i have all sorts in shed that might do it.

[Moonshane]

good stuff. just remember that you don't have to use American coins in the counterweight - anything will do