Mesu 200 MKII No Flip Mount

[SamAndrew]

I acquired a new Mesu 200 MkII recently but didn't buy a mount to go with it. I'd say the MkII is essential an Alt-Az mount as it comes with no equitorial adjustment mechanism built it. Your choice is to mount it on a wedge on a tripod or traditional pier (like you would do with a fork mount), or buy a custom bent pier for your lattitude. Neither of these would fit in my compact observatory, so I decided to buid my own.

I played with a few designs and settled on this one. Esentially a large wedge with a short pier, instead of the traditional long pier and equitorial wedge. The plan was to build it in 5mm steel, except for the round disc at the top which I chose to be 10mm to match the thickness of the base of the Mesu. The wedge supplied with the mount only used 3mm steel between the plates, so 5mm should be adequate, and I don't intend to get any where near the 100kg payload limit any time soon.

 

[SamAndrew]

Ordered the steel a few weeks ago and was surprised it turned up very quickly given the lock down.

Excuse the garden rubbish in the background, haven't had a collection in about 2 months now!

I would normally turn to my brother or a friend who are both qualified welders but because of the lock down I thought it was a good opportunity to give it a go (no close ups of the welding  )

Work in progress, but nearly there. Some more welding to do and then some tidying up before painting. At the moment, the wedge acts like a sping board! But that should be resolved once I add the brace to suppot it.

I feel this is design and construction is quite in keeping with the look and feel of the Mesu  

Nearly ready for some testing!

Edited May 28, 2020 by SamAndrew

[fireballxl5]

Interesting design there. How compact is your observatory? If that was in my observatory (approx 9x9 feet) I'd be concerned about tripping over the wedge in the dark!

Hope it works out well for you.

CS, Andy

[JamesF]

I've seen worse welding, to be fair.  Mostly when I've done it

James

[SamAndrew]

8 hours ago, fireballxl5 said:

Interesting design there. How compact is your observatory? If that was in my observatory (approx 9x9 feet) I'd be concerned about tripping over the wedge in the dark!

Hope it works out well for you.

CS, Andy

Not much chance of tripping over it, I can't even get in it! you can see it below; it's more of a case for the whole setup than an observatory. The Mesu won't fit however as the counter weight bar is so long so I'm now working on a new design for that as well. Too many projects on the go.

 

[SamAndrew]

Pier is ready to be tested. Paint is a little rough, could use another coat. I changed the bracing a bit - decided to add a spine undeneat the angled sheet to increase stifness. Seems to have done the trick.

Very keen to test the guiding but i haven't got a suitable guide camera at home at the moment - should have that sorted next weekend.

Test fitted the Esprit 100 and a Quattro 8s. Balances with a single counterweight and the whole thing was stable - got another 2 weights on the way, so i won't have to have it hanging off the end like it is at the moment.

Material ordered for the new observatory to house it - just finalising the design; will probably start a new thread on that soon