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Aztech setting circles V2

GordonCopestake

By GordonCopestake
in DIY Astronomer

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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Well after a little playing around this morning I've made myself a new version of the setting circles I'm going to use with my Ambermile Aztech mount. CC has very generously agreed to printing me a graduated strip, but after this morning i fear I've wasted his time (sorry CC).

I thought that the Aztech was made from 4" steel bar, which i assumed was 101.6 millimeters in diameter. Using 2(pi)r to calculate the circumference gives me 319.1858136 mm. I rounded this up to 320mm as i guessed that 0.9mm wouldn't make too much difference in a wide field scope.

I printed out a (diagonal!) strip of paper 320mm long with 360 graduations on it for the degrees. When i came to tape this around my mount i discovered that the mount isn't 320mm round. Close though!

To finish the system off i taped an arrow to the moving part of the mount to give an indicator. The paper strip isn't attached to the mount and spins freely. The idea is to point the scope at a known object, Polaris say. Then look up the Alt Az co-ordinates of the object and set the Az circle to the known Az co-ordinates of the target. The Az is then set and aligned.

Any object i wish to target i just need to look up the alt az co-ordinates and move my scope manually to those co-ordinates. I'm using an inclinometer for the Alt as it's more accurate than a paper circle and it means my tripod doesn't have to be exactly level.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that there are NOT 345 degrees in a circle (slaps forehead)

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Macavity

Macavity

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This was such a good idea, I thought it should be aknowledged - And stolen. :) With my AZ3, I mounted a large protractor on an annular "table" around the azimuthal axis and bought a Digital level on Ebay to measure the altitude. Fairly expensive - I wasn't going to invest £100 plus, but not too unreasonable AND works very well. (for now, anyway). Perhaps "overtaken by (your) events", but Thanks Gordon. :D

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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Not easily unfortunately Phil. Theres no central hole and the radial holes are purely cosmetic. The pendulum idea is a good one though and i need to have a think about it. I have the inclinometer and it attaches happily to my UTA next to my red dot finder. It's the az circle that will take the time though, getting a large enough diameter circle sorted and marked up

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