Motorised Binochair design for 100mm binoculars

[munirocks]

That's great; you've managed to actually build what many of us were thinking. 

For simplicity I'd ditch the azimuth motor and footrest and just move in azimuth powered by my feet on the ground, or would this cause balance problems because your legs would no longer counter-balance your head and binocs?

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

@munirocks So sorry, for some reason I did not see your post.

Yes the balance is important and is preserved by the footrest, and the more open but fixed angle of the knees is actually quite a lot more comfortable that without a rest, I did try both setups. Without the alt drive attached to the seat I could actually move the chair in alt simply by lifting or lowering my legs!

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

13 hours ago, John said:

No problem if that can be done

I have handed the disentanglement job over to Stu, I really think the Starchair deserves it's own place, especially if progress reports are to be added in future. It is an amazing piece of work - and I think I can speak with authority on that. The inventor's fate is a bit of a mystery but there are snippets that suggest he suffered ill health. What would you do about maintenance or repair on yours?

In the meantime, I wonder if you have a manual for the beast or otherwise know what the drive rates are in AZ and Alt, and how they are controlled. Are the drives continuously variable from star tracking upwards to fast slewing? I ask because I am currently working on a more sophisticated version of my 4-bar binochair and I have now completed the Az drive. By chaining a 12v electric drill and an extra ex-drill gear box I have speeds from 1 full revolution in 80 seconds (more fairground than astronomy) down to 0.25 degrees per second which will be good for centring  targets in the 2.2degree FOV of my intended 150mm 35x binoscope. I will post all this in due course.

[Stu]

StarChair comments now split off into a separate discussion thread for clarity.