Home Built English Equatorial

[JPearson]

Hi all, for many years now I wanted to build a more permanent mount for my skywatcher 200p, and I finally got up the inclination and ideas to do so. My design plan went through a lot of variations of course, there was a lot of "should i make it this tall?" or "is this gonna be strong enough?" and so forth, however I persevered and first light was tonight. for the support of the polar axis I sunk two 6X6 posts, one 10 feet and the other about 5 1/2 feet long, my friend Zach was a great help, seemed to enjoy playing with the post hole digger. Then with my dad's assistance I built the yoke out of 2X6 boards, the yoke is about 5 1/2 feet long, it could have been slightly shorter but the polar axis is kept shorter this way. The polar axis consists of 3/4 inch threaded rod, bolted to the yoke and sitting in a piece of steel tube in the lower pier, the upper end passes through a movable wood block so that the polar alignment may be adjusted. All told the mount cost me about $100 Canadian to build, it has some minor vibration issues and will need a few other adjustments to get it finished up but I am most pleased with how it turned out overall. I eventually plan to motorize the polar axis for viewing and imaging, hopefully the image of the build uploads with the post, Clear skies everyone.

Jordy

[JPearson]

Not sure why the picture is upside down, I apologize for that.

[kalasinman]

At first I thought you must be from Australia. To stiffen, I would suggest to cut triangles of 3/8" plyvood (obviously right trianles) with about 5" on the legs. Use carpenters glue and wood screws.  Do this across all the but joints. Male sure the structure is held square during the process.-Jack

[Stu]

Image now sorted.

Looks great :-), I look forward to seeing your mount develop. It's a very interesting design

Stu

[callump]

A classic design, and not much used these days, which is a pity. It has many advantages for the DIYer, and being doubly inboard inherently stable.

Main disadvantage being not very portable, and no access to the pole. But for a permanent site, can be pretty ideal.

Callum

[ChrisLX200]

A very stable design, a bit tricky to Polar Align though

ChrisH

[philj]

Thats really good Jordy. These are very stable and easy to balance mounts also you can just drop the scope into the frame as you would a dob.

[Peter Drew]

Nice one Jordy. If you remove the black side bearings fro the ota you would have enough room to replace them with a square box. This could have the upper section as a lid which would allow the OTA to be easily removed, slid back and forth for balancing and rotation of the tube for low E-W object viewing. 

[steppenwolf]

I love it - a very traditional design and fine for a fixed location. I have no doubt that you will iron out any wrinkles and have some great observing sessions with it.