Attic Room Observatroy Modifications

[Dippus]

Hi all , this project is a continuation / modification of Pluto's older post.

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,22619.0.html.

After a chat with Pluto about his extend-a-mount he was having a few niggles with it , so it was time to set about modifying the mount. He had 2 primary problems with it.

1. He was finding it difficult to level the mount head.

2. Screwing the mount head to the base plate was troublesome to say the least , as the existing screwed bar went through the entire length of the pipe. He needed to reach a bit far holding the head with one hand and screwing the rod with the other , so we came up with this quite common solution.

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Now he only has to reach in between the screwed bar to attach the mount / the mount can be leveled using the nuts on the screws. Also we are happier using the supplied celestron head to attach the mount.

On the older post we didn't really explain how the mount was ACTUALLY BUILT. A few questions were posed so i will , with the aid of pictures try to explain the workings a bit more clearly.

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Basically you grab the 'lifting bar' turning it slightly to avoid the cut out in the 'holding plate'. Pull it up, the 'inner tube' slides inside the 'outer tube' to the cutouts in the 'holding plate' and drop the lifting bar into one of the cutouts.

Now at this point the mount is a tad wobbily. So the outer tube has being tapped with two 6mm holes , 6mm 'locking screws' are screwed into the 'outer tube' passing through onto the 'inner tube' thus pushing the two tubes together , works a treat. See Pic Below.

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What about all that weight bearing down ? The 'holding plate' is essentially welded onto the outer tube so all the weight bearing is done from here and the cutouts in the plate are notched so that the lifting bar will hold the same orientation however many times the bar is lifted / put down. See Pic Below.

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Anyhow the mount is now "hopefully" done and dusted. Hope my explaiation was pretty straight forward.

A couple of done pics. Oh yeah Pluto got a side by side bar aswell , that helps ALOT.

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At home with the nice side by side bar.

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My brain hurts now.

Cheers

Mark

[gary1968]

That looks the biz mate. Dont you get bother with thermal currents from the house roof? I would consider something like this but would have to get a velux roof light fitted first.

Gary

[meade-jnr]

nice, not a far walk for a nice cuppa' .

[Sam]

That looks very impressive Mark! I bet there's not too many obstructions from the roof!

[beamish]

That explains a lot Mark, I'm am now very tempted to try it in the future. Looks great ! How difficult was the velux mod ? ie replacing the glass . Is it water-tight ? My main worry would be the high westerly winds that the south facing roof has to contend with from time to time, would the replacement "window" cope ?

Thanks for posting.

Karlo

[Pluto]

Hi All modifying the velux window wasn't the default to do,guessing i think it took me and Mark or should i say more mark then me

just over an hour to do. the window has been in since sep/oct last year and (hasn't leaked as yet)

now living in the pennines right on top of the hill we get some serious weather up here,just last week we had severe gale storm hitting 60/70 m.p.h. no problems what so ever. Price wise i think it cost just over £30 pounds to mod it, the velux cost around £250, the hard hitting is getting it installed it cost me £600 pounds but that was removing the exciting small velux and replacing it on the other side.

over all its been worth it.

[beamish]

Looks great Pluto definitely bookmarked !

[Pluto]

Beamish If you need closer Pic's of the window then let us know

i will email them to you.

[beamish]

Ooooh yes please.

I'll send a pm.

[Psychobilly]

Only recently joined the forum so finding my way round the older threads and posts...

Awesome project

Billy...

[centroid]

What a nice piece of engineering, and very innovative too.

Well done!!

Dave

[AstroTiger]

some lovely pics, but i would again be worried about the warm air from the house, and again, the restricted field of view.

Saything that though its about all the houses do i suppose the extended horizon is a good trade off?

Could you do the same to the other side of the roof and give urself a greater angular view?

[Pluto]

At the moment heat isn't a concern,being the tallest building around here the view to north,east and west are perfect south is limited,as for the other side of the roof it's a no go,

north and east will be very limited.