UPDATE--Fixed Wedge-- Complete

[Dippus]

Hi all.

I have been thinking about replacing my old meade wedge with something more substantial. So while pulling out an old machine at work i came across this-

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Ohh thats MINE !!! So had a little think about how to go about this . To start with ive always wondered what is the correct home position of a scope on a wedge.... Is it This ?

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Or This??

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Anyway after a bit of grinding/ plasma cutting / welding ,got these few bits . They look a bit shabby at the moment but rigid is the keyword.

Materials.

Free 200mm x 200mm 8mm gauge Box Section

Main Plate 200mm square 12mm gauge plate.

4 x 16mm screwed bar ( laying around the shop floor ).

Blank Flange .

Wedge angle 53. ish degrees

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Will post more when the job is done.

Cheers

Mark

[Paxo]

Mark,

The home position is the one shown in the third photo, less strain on the mount over longer periods. The first is efectively your polar aligning position. If memory serves me right, the mount is programmed with south and 0 declination for its home position.

Looks like a substantial piece of steelwork. I have the AE wedge and deluxe pier, that is another very substantal piece of steelwork. Looking forward to seeing the end results.

Steve..

[Milamber]

I think you will find the second pic is technically the home position. The third pic is the park position...

Arthur

[Paxo]

Sorry, didn't read the thread properly, I thought mark was asking for the park position, you are quite correct Athur.

Steve..

[Paxo]

Sorry, didn't read the thread properly, I thought mark was asking for the park position (hence my comments about strain on the mount), you are quite correct Athur, and I mus read things more carefully.

Steve..

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I don't think its going to blow away, should be excellent.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[Dippus]

Thanks for clarifying the home and park positions of my scope . Got my head scratching with that because whenever i tell the scope to park it goes back to the celestial HOME position . Maybe i have to tell the autostar where i want it to park. The meade manual is a bit vague on this.

Anyway finished up the job today .

Build time 8hrs

Cost: 8 hours of my time. :mrgreen:

Paxo. That megawedge looks a beauty , seriously solid.

Here's my quick review of the wedge i made:

Build quality : Shoddy

Rigidity : Tank

Will it work ? : Dunno yet

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Cheers

Mark

[Jeff RV]

Great wedge, but i think it may make your pier placement a little different.

Just a thought!

Jeff.

[George]

You can't beat lots of steel and triangles and stuff......tank is the word

[Dippus]

Your right there Jeff , been thinking about having to mount the wedge further back . No worries there though as the pier base is 12 inch in diameter so i can mount the wedge further to the rear. It may push the whole setup forward about 4 inches or so , but i will still have room to spare. The pier base is going to be modified to suit and hopefully things will work out ok.

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Mark

[Jeff RV]

Should certainly do the trick Mark.

Don't forget to post more pics when its finished.

Jeff.

[beamish]

Your wedge looks Xtremely solid- but can someone explain the difference tween "home" and "park" position?

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

If you want to play football, you leave "home" and go to the "park".

Kaptain Klevtsov

[centroid]

The correct 'Home Position' for an equatorially mounted LX is as the first picture, but with OTA up the other way. That is the finder scope underneath, and the weights on top.

With the scope as you have it, rotate the RA axis though 180 degrees, and you'll then be in the correct position.

The 'Park Position' is what ever you want to make it. The second picture, shows the scope in the default 'Park Position'.

Dave

[RobH]

Very solid looking job

Dave is correct re. Meade's polar home position.

The scope should be pointing north, as in your second shot, but the finder should be underneath.

Cheers

Rob