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Securing an Inclinometer in an Alt-Az Setup - How have you tackled this?


DeepSkyMan

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Hi there, have recently acquired an Alt-Az mount:

and am contemplating attaching an inclinometer as a means of getting in the ball-park of an object in terms of Altitude.  Most decent inclinometers on the market use a magnet for attachment, unfortunately there is a distinct lack of ferrous metal  in my kit, the only element apart from screws with magnetic capability is the Vixen counter-weight.  Interested to find out how other people might have tackled this situation.  Encoders and DSCs not an option at this moment in time, although will look to go down this route sometime in the future however at this point would probably look to swap out the Sabre for something like an AYO Digi II.

Kind Regards

Paul J.

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Hmmm... I had contemplated this approach, however I have an aversion for corrupting such a pretty looking OTA with 'yucky' adhesive:thinking: .  On the otherhand, since the dovetail clamp is a 'drop in' it just occurred to me that I could use this solution on the dovetail bar:).  Or... perhaps on the rear cell.

Paul.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just an idea, but is there any way to secure and use a mobile phone?  You can get free apps with inclinometers in them on an android mobile.  Reading this thread makes me think I will take a close look at my Dob mount tomorrow.  I noticed that had some form of scale on it the other night

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Could you just attach a strip adhesive tape along the part of the altitude axis which moves, and an arrow on the static part and then print or write on the strip which moves the angles, from 0 to 90 degrees, in say 5 degree incriments. There is probably a template online you could resize as needed.

james

 

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Paul,

I have a Skywatcher Skymax 127, which comes with an ALT scale and 2 Celestron mounts (Skyprodigy & Cosmos) which have similar OTA attachment designs, but no scales.

I measured the Skymax scale with a tape-measure, and then used MS Paint to create a simple scale. I did some sample prints on A4 paper and adjusted the printer scaling until I had the correct length. I then used sticky film to attach the scale to the fixed part of the mount and added a "Typex" mark, on the moving part, to point at the scale. I covered both scale and mark with a thin layer of clear varnish (car touch-up paint outer coat, with brush in lid, works well).

Geoff

 

 

 

P1030689R.jpg

0 to 90 degree scale.zip

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Thank you everybody for your feedback.  Pretty much decided that I am going to have a small dovetail clamp devised that can attach to the end of the dovetail bar then attach a ferrous strip to this which will accept the magnets of the inclinometer.  The intention is that the clamp will incorporate a handle to allow fine adjustment in Altitude and Azimuth, along the lines of the T-Rex Alt-Az mount.  Not sure yet how this will work in practice, but I believe it to be worth a bash :-)

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