Mr H in Yorkshire

Good to know, my son is seriously into solar, so this will be a good pressie.

Speaking as someone who was a New Member only a couple of months back I can say this is a fun and info packed place to enjoy. North Yorkshire, definitely God's Country.

Cheers

If you needed to start from a known horizontal you could just fix a short spirit level, or just the bubble tube, alongside the unit. That way you would not need to mechanically adjust the inclinometer, merely zero it. Don't forget they have an error which is somewhat greater than the reading 'resolution'.

Duh, I've just noticed I am a Member now!

The numbers I could work out, but I'd like to know when does a New Member become a Member. Surely that's discrimination! (Sense of humour can be lost without seeing the grin so that's light hearted just in case).

Rehabilitating an old trailer and bolting on some plywood is not that different from your undertaking. Alas I have to take the blame for any welding but it's mostly hidden. Building the binochair doesn't faze me - been there... as they say. I will definitely stick to using a bike wheel for the base drive, it works really well but I am musing on the best way to have a fast and slow speed range in the drives, a compromise in my Mk1 is that the movements are a fraction too fast to centre a target easily, but any slower and a significant slew would be glacial. I might look into using steppers, they won't have to be massively powerful because I have found that adhering to careful balancing yields dividends. 

Building the binoscope, now that will be a task. I've just confirmed the focal lengths of the objectives - first sun here for over a fortnight. They are 152 and 154 mm so a pretty perfect match. I want to keep the eyepieces stationary so I plan to have the the objectives moveable, some precision linear bearing called for here!

It was only when I looked at the photos that realised how much the cut down trailer looked like a chariot, so I have decided to call it 'Project Auriga', how corny is that?

Hi Mike, I thought I'd show you what I've been doing to a trailer, I think you are one of the few who would understand the work involved. My overall project is to mount a motorised binochair on a 'chariot', the chair embodying the same innovations as my Mk1, detailed here https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/404244-motorised-binochair-design-for-100mm-binoculars/?_fromLogout=1

The photos show:

The rusty chassis as acquired - it had to be dug out of the farmers field.

Chassis reduced to chariot form, all excess metalwork cut off and then refurbished.

Levellers - I have enclosed the threaded part entirely within a sleeve, they are worked with a square-drive handle.

Levellers attached to chassis, they hide behind the wheels.

Woodwork, this will comprise a platform and the drop-down tailboard which holds the road lights and when dropped, a step. The metalwork supports the circle depicted by the wheel rim.

The binochair on board. Mk2 will be much more robust and incorporate many features not present on the Mk1.

I have much work to do, probably a years worth because the chariot was the easy part, the chair is the next most complicated and the binos will comprise 6" f/5 optics (a pair of Jaegers 6" achros got from SurplusShed many years ago. 

3 hours ago, Louis D said:

binocular collimation methodology or technique that doesn't rely on an expensive, precision optical test bench?

I came across this a while back.  https://sites.google.com/site/rafaelchamoncobos5/home/setup-with-mirror or this on SGL

Another one, based on the weather forecast you start something on your equipment that will take two days at least to complete. The following two nights the sky is crystal clear and steady, thereafter follows a fortnight of cloud.

Hi Mike, I am currently working on my trailer too and I wondered about the detail of your levellers. The photos don't show what is under each leveller bracket so does the rod pass through the collar and the nuts are used to secure it, or is there a threaded portion in the collar too? I imagine the latter.  Cheers

Hi Mike, I had a question about the levellers, but you seem to have lost interest. Are you alright, I've read you have some health issues?

North Norfolk eh? For a minute I thought you were describing laws for Yorkshire. I understand there was an aurora recently, missed that too.

It may not be possible for you for whatever reason, but I once had a similar problem and was able to replace the crosshairs with actual spider silk. I marked 90 degree intervals on the metal rim to guide the placement and as I remember, used shellac to fix the threads on the rim. It actually worked too.

I tend mostly to use large binos (100mm objectives) - my binochair is equipped  with encoders (from Astro-Gadgets in Ukraine) which work with PC and Android tablets. Given the chair is motorised I'm 'drive-to'. I also have Ioptron cube pro and Minitower for use with 6" MaK and PST. I do like the speed that these systems enable target finding but I am NOT an imager.

How soon will it be before SatelliteGazersLounge goes live to the world? Accessible at every former dark site courtesy of the thousands of satellites that have displaced the stars. And will the pursuit be readily taken up by the AP community? I dare say some savvy entrepreneur is commissioning the high speed mounts and software even now. 

With a few thousand dollars worth of scope in tow and nothing locking over the top face of the azimuth base presumably the ground you move over is both flat and smooth. How far do you generally move the beast?

It just occurred to me to ask about a ladder, can you stow one somehow on the cart?

I was talking with my son about his 12" dob which he currently moves in two bits. This is a lumber and a risk to the scope. I said I could make him a cart but he'd prefer to keep the scope on the ground so I think I could design one that held the scope 'underneath' so it could be easily lowered to the ground and be splittable so it could be removed. Laziness is the real mother of invention.

4 hours ago, Swoop1 said:

A micro Astrocaravan? Can't wait to see the build thread for that baby!

I picked up the trailer remains yesterday, ridiculously over-engineered for its size - the framing is all 1 1/2" angle, 1/4" thick! Anyway I've already cut off all the surplus, shortened the chassis by about 2' and now I can lift it onto a workbench for some bits to weld. I'll post a couple of pics if you're interested. It will probably look like the petrified dead gunner in 'Alien' most of the time but with a lightweight cabin for winter use. Winter experience with my recently completed motorised binochair has been a painful lesson.

Mike that cart looks the bees knees, certainly a great improvement on the Mk 1, just bigger wheels alone would have been a significant upgrade, but the new design is cracking.  The detachable tow bar will certainly make it easy if a jockey wheel proves worthwhile, even something like a bolt-on caravan accessory one would do. 

2 hours ago, Mike Q said:

No i won't be standing on the cart.

Hi Mike, always pleased to get into a discussion, people who make their own stuff are getting scarce. I actually put more time into making than looking I'm somewhat ashamed to say. Regarding manually moving it, because of the rearward location of the wheels you are constrained to leverage a considerable weight. You ought to do a test with a dummy scope weight, before you check in to the physio! Maybe you could consider a jockey wheel built onto the tow bar, that should be relatively easy and in one of your pics you had a couple of spares. As I said, I will be making something not too far removed from this myself - just collected the trailer, I have all the optics and my binochair project has proved (to me at least) that I have a successful working concept. I mentioned  to my daughter about my trailer mounted binoscope, she cruelly suggested just building it on to a mobility scooter - in anticipation. Maybe I'll do a feasibility study! All the best with your construction.

An impressively substantial cart! As a constructor myself I know that the devil is in the details. With a wooden platform and attached levellers I presume you will be standing on the platform to observe.  Will you stiffen the platform to maintain flatness so that it does not deflect as you move? I ask partly because it appears in the picture that the rear inner cross piece upper is bent downwards slightly which would allow movement? That may be extrapolating too far from a picture so it's a question, not a criticism. A further minor safety point, I would have made the leveller handles removable or somehow flush to avoid the trip hazard in the black of night.

Thinking outside the box, did you ever consider making an even larger cart, large enough to make it a mobile enclosure to keep the wind off you and the scope?

I am about to do something similar in that I have just got an ancient small trailer chassis and plan to attach a more substantial version of my motorised binochair with a much larger binocular (DIY 6" f/5). I was dreaming about putting a cabin of sorts around the chair to keep the icy winds at bay (and end up looking like a WW2 tail-end charlie).

https://sites.google.com/site/knowleastro/

That is Knowle Astronomical Society, they appear to be very local. I'm sure they would be keen to help you.

7 hours ago, Space Oddities said:

This is only the beginning, I'm afraid...

And that's just the bird watching rig, you should see the  AP setup.

9 hours ago, saac said:

The effects of over tourism are not restricted to the wild places

There is an extension of that issue too, that has to do simply with crowding rather than accommodation and which arises from development. We used to enjoy visiting York regularly but for many years now have avoided it except in winter. Even in some of the widest streets one is literally jostling elbow to elbow. The tourism scene in York is partly responsible, but so is the scale of satellite development, 1000's of houses at a time that is happening. I have friends who live there who will not step out of doors at the weekend.

I have an ancient Intes Mk 65, 6" Maksutov. Doesn't get used too often but it is superb as a planetary scope. It's reasonably light, easily lift one-handed so certainly portable. I imagine its modern equivalent is pretty pricy but occasional Maks of this ilk turn up for sale.

Jansky was the scientist, his 'scope' had no name, it looked like a fairground ride with wires, But who knew before that about radio waves from space? Need 3 eh, in that case Palomar 200inch and Gaia.