Dewobbleizer - bets on it working?

[Ags]

It turns out that my ES Twilight mount is pretty good at wobbling. I think that the issue lies in the dovetail arm, which consists of 2 relatively thin parallel struts that seem to twist at the slightest force.

My latest experiment is to  bolt on 2 plywood plates to absorb the flexing. Of course it's gone cloudy so first light will have to wait. I wonder if it will work?

[michael8554]

Hi Agnes

That should make a difference, but I would make the nearest plate longer, with a semicircle cut out of the righthand end, so that it extends to the meaty casting.

Michael

[Peter Drew]

Better than 50/50 chance I would think.  

[Ags]

Subjectively the scope feels firmer to touch, but I will have to wait for the Portuguese smoke and Saharan dust to blow over before I can try it out on a real target, it's a red sun over here today (and this was probably the problem last night too...). Unless the difference is very dramatic, it is hard to tease out the real effect from the placebo effect.

Michael, if this works at all, I will make a version 2 with the wooden plates lengthened further as you suggest with a 5th bolt added.

Also, I can up with a better name for the device - it's a WMD, a Wobble Moderation Device.  

 

[Ags]

I've just come in from an extended observation of Altair, and my partner and I agree there is some improvement. There is still the same amount of give after a bump, but things seem to settle down faster and at high-ish mags the view feels much more solid. In fact I feel confident that I could push past my current max mag of 6.7mm (110x) to around 150x. I need a few more sessions to be certain though...

[michael8554]

8 hours ago, Ags said:

Also, I can up with a better name for the device - it's a WMD, a Wobble Moderation Device.

"Today We are taking steps to ensure that The Netherlands will never, and I mean never, aquires a nuclear weapon, starting with a ban on plywood"