Equatorial Mount construction

[prasadka]

Hi

If I wanted to get an HEQ5 mount made in India, are there any specifications that may be available?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Prasad

[Jamie]

I am pretty sure that the only place to get those specs would be the manufacturers

and i am sure they would be copy writen anyways.

Would it not just be easier and cheaper to have a new one imported????

Even buy one second hand and import it.

Its got to be less hastle...

[prasadka]

Hi

The problem is the weight. I am allowed only 30 kilos while travelling back home. The HEQ5 mount alone weighs 12 kilos. I can surely get the tripod and counter weights in India- no problems. I will probably be required to buy an 8" OTA as well. So my limited 30 kilo weight might prove a handicap..!

However I thought these mounts are standard, and the mathematics should be fairly easy to work out..!

Cheers,

Prasad

[The Warthog]

I may be misunderstanding something here, but why not ship it to yourself?

[prasadka]

Shipping to India costs an arm and a leg, plus some times the customs people can be a bit miffed if they realised i am bringing in technical stuff. importing such stuff to India can prove quite pricey.. bah.. so much for globalization and stuff going on in India..

Cheers

Prasad

[mikkey99]

Why an HEQ5?

why not get a local engineer to knock you up an Alt/Az on a wedge

Does the same thing and is easier to design

mike

[beamish]

Can you get some one to ship it to you in bits separately ?

Karlo

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

You could show this to a local engineer and get something similar made up.

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?topic=15398.0

This mount is a total no frills thing so you can see how it works. Its also a very good mount as well.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[prasadka]

mmmm.. very impressive.. I can give it a go.. but people may ask for dimensions..

Cheers,

Prasad

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

You don't need dimensions. The main axis has to be adjustable to point at Polaris, the other axis is at 90 degrees to it. Size wise it just needs to be strong enough to carry whatever 'scope you want to put on it. The bearings and shafts are standard off the shelf items in most cities so it should be quite straightforward for any engineering company to build.

The awkward bit is the worm drive which has to be able to rotate the RA axis once per day to track the target.

Good luck.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[prasadka]

Hi KK,

That sounds easy, but

The awkward bit is the worm drive which has to be able to rotate the RA axis once per day to track the target.

This seems confusing. I thought tracking needs to be continuous at sidereal rate!

Cheers,

Prasad

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Yep. It goes all the way round once per day, just like the sun. Everything in the sky appears to go round once per day, or very nearly, so to track things your mount will need the facililty to rotate at the same rate to make the target appear to stay still in your eyepiece.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[saturn5]

Mmm,its all very well to say you dont need sizes but if whoever is making your mount has no knowledge of telescopes then he will need some sort of blueprint to work from,what he thinks might do probably wont do just because he doesnt know what is required.

Being a cnc miller/turner programmer-operator i have been asked to make components that i have no idea of their purpose,"just make it to the drawing" and you can't go wrong is what the bosses say,so if possible prasadka make some sort of drawing with dimensions,it does make things easier to the manufacturer especially if he is making something he has no knowledge about.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

OK, maybe the easy way would be to suggest that the mount is for solar powering something. It has to track across the sky at the same rate as the sun and be adjustable for how high the sun is on each day. I suspect anybody could get their head round that one, unless they've never seen the sun.

An EQ mount is not a sophisticated piece of kit, nor should it be, it just follows the sky stuff as it stays where its been for ever while the earth goes round and round with the mount sat on it.

Fitting goto is a whole new issue though.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[saturn5]

OK.lets say its a piece of cake to make,lets talk price.

There is a fair bit of work involved manufacturing a mount similar to the one in your link.its not something you can knock up in a couple of hours,turning ,milling,welding,fabrication and set up time,it all adds up and tradesmen so not come a cheap hourly rate,(thats why my boss is a millionaire)would you make a decent saving on a "home made" one or would you be just as well to buy one which would look better anyway.

Its different if you are making something yourself as a "homer" because your not paying for your own time.

Sorry if i'm stating the obvious,just trying to point out it may not be as cheap to make as you think,unless you have a mate who works in a machine shop and can do it on the "quiet",no what i mean,nudge nudge,wink,wink,say no more

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I know what you mean about the hourly rate mate, but this guy lives in India where the hourly rates are not quiite so onerous. The bit I visited had daily rates which were less than UK hourly rates, a taxi costs a quid - for the whole day, and suchlike. The labour is not likely to be as significant as we might think.

The RA axis is likely to come off a FWD car hub originally, with the drive fitted onto the splines and the Dec. axis stuff bolted on where the wheel used to go, you get my drift?

BTW, heres a glimpse of the contraption I made for tracking http://www.gas.uk.net/contraption/

Kaptain Klevtsov

[prasadka]

Hi KK,

Thanks for your notes..

Taxis costing a quid for a the whole day is no longer true.. It costs about 15 quid for the whole day now , plus I have a cousin who has contacts with engineering firms in India.. BTW, which part of India have oyu visited?Goa..?

Cheers,

Prasad

[WillEyedOney]

Couple of homemade equatorial mounts here http://www.geocities.com/ejjbee/

[barkis]

Prasad, you could buy yourself a book showing of construction of various types of mounts. Look for a mount suitable for your needs, and I am sure an engineer would have no difficulty in building it for you.

As KK has said, the main parameters are very simple ones. The polar axis has to be adjustable to allow it to be set correctly. That copuld be an independant adjustment, or the mount as a whole moved to accurately align with your latitude in your location.

The declination axis, the one that your scope is attached to, must be exactly 90 degrees to the polar axis. There are loads of designs to choose from, but most will depend on the type of OTA you buy, ie Newtonian, Refractor, Schmidt Cass.

Here are some from a book I posted on SGL a while ago. These are simple but effective mounts.

These are not pretty, but they don't have to be, a mounting is just a means to an end. Anyway, it's some food for thought for you.

Ron.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Hi KK,

Thanks for your notes..

Taxis costing a quid for a the whole day is no longer true.. It costs about 15 quid for the whole day now , plus I have a cousin who has contacts with engineering firms in India.. BTW, which part of India have oyu visited?Goa..?

Cheers,

Prasad

I was working in a steel works in Surat. It's in the corner of the "notch" on the west coast. Nasty smelly place with no beer or meat to eat. It almost killed me as I lost about 1kg per day from my none too lumpy body.

Kaptain Klevtsov