Hi everyone—I’m late to the party on this thread, but I see that it is still active. Great work by all, and I’ve enjoyed learning what you have been trying.
I’ve been hard at work on trying to make the plan from the OP work for my Apertura 10” Dob. Sadly, my base is slightly too large for the original plans posted here and my groundboard feet sit about 2cm centimeters outside the template on the north axis. I’ve been scouring also through the www.reinervogel.net website referenced in the beginning, to try and work out how to make this project fit for my Dob, and trying to figure in Centre of Gravity (COG) calculations and his original measurements to see how to “stretch” this template to fit and be accurate and stable.
When designing according to Vogel’s original instructions, I am getting my South axis calculated to be underneath my Dob groundboard. Knowing my groundboard is larger, and guessing my COG is lower than the OP template—perhaps this makes sense. But I have not seen anyone else here with this issue and am not certain how this would affect balance and tracking.
I have thought of 3 options overall:
1)Extend the North axis base by several centimeters on both ends and build the rest of the template according to the OP plans. Again—no idea how this would affect balance and tracking
2)Use my calculations from Vogel’s original plans that puts my South axis underneath my Dob and hope that works. Also—no idea if this is safe or effective.
3)Reach out to the community here and get help. I believe this will be my best bet. I am hopeful that someone will be able to provide further direction before I put saw to wood. Below I am including some of the parameters and measurements that I have been gathering, and I hope that will be enough to give someone who is experienced what they need to point me in the right direction.
Measurements:
Outer distance from one groundboard foot to a second groundboard foot: 465mm
Optical Tube Centre of Gravity to ground: 600mm (assumes this is from centre of the altitude axis pivots)
Rocker Box Centre of Gravity to ground: 150mm
Optical Tube weight: 18.63kg
Rocker Box weight: 13.63kg
Distance from azimuth bearing to outer side of groundboard foot: 267mm
Calculated COG of assembled telescope: 388mm to ground
Height of ground feet: 22mm
My latitude is 53.5 degrees, in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
Many thanks to anyone who can provide me with direction and support!
Thanks,
Graeme LaRue