EQ Platform HELP!!

[spaceboy]

I had a thought on the south bearing/pivot. Do you happen to know if it is important in these VNS designs to have the actual pivot point (ie. the point at which the bolt touches the shoe) at the same height as the top of the north rollers ?

My gut feeling is that it would, but I can't think why ! lol

Yes you run it parallel in height. I went with the method that I did as it is easy enough to swap out the VNS segments for a different altitude and the southern bearing is slackened of and adjusted to suit. A recent comment had me thinking it may be a good point to make about the dimensions of this particular EQP design. I was lucky to have hindsight in the construction of the EQP in that I fitted a steel plate shroud around the sides of the EQ2 motor as this dose protrude a little from the front of the platform. The motor is a little exposed to being tripped over until you get acquainted to the dimensions so some form of protection will have to be considered. This tends to only be when viewing objects higher in the sky and the angle of the OTA means you are physically closer to the scope but I have actually found I trip over the power lead to the motor more so than I do the motor or southern bearing but it's just something to bear in mind if anyone is considering a similar design.

Hi Spaceboy,

looks good. well done. hope it works out Ok.

Cu John

It is a god send to my observing John enabling me to use a dob at high magnifications on planets. Recently the skies over the PSP allowed me to use x300 for several minutes on Jupiter which would have other wise seen a flurry of nudges to keep it in a blurry view.

[lquinlan]

I made the necessary tweak to my south 'bearing'. All bearing surfaces are at the same height now.

Every night for the past 5 days or so I've been itching to test it out.

Tonight, I could just make out Jupiter between the clouds so that was good enough for a first test.

After levelling the EQP, and a 'very' rough polar alignment (point it visual north) I located my dob on the platform, got jupiter in FOV, turned on the motor and set the speed fine adjust to the middle of it's range.

To my amazement, after a minute or so of observing, Jupiter hadn't moved. It stayed in my FOV. It really is a strange (but satisfying) feeling after a couple of months of dob nudging.

So I pushed my luck and switched to my 5mm EP, which took a couple of minutes, and what do you know - after a shaky re-focus (next project: motor focuser) it was still there in FOV! This mag allowed me to dial in the speed adjustment. I also played with the speed to push the object left or right and finally turned off the motor completely. Big smiles !

I'm very happy to add my name to the EQP appreciation & preachers club. I could not encourage the competent DIY'er enough to build one of these platforms for themselves. I would not say it was 'easy' to build but a little patience and attention to detail will be rewarded. It really does add another dimension to your observing.

Personally, it will make my webcam planetary imaging so much easier. No more multiple FOV passes to get perfect focus before I can even start capturing. Plus, the capturing itself will be made so much easier. Only now is it worth progressing with the LX mod on my webcam. I should stand a chance with some basic DSO imaging.

I'm sure there will be a few tweaks to make to the platform over the coming weeks but it was a very promising start to my EQP observing. Plus I need to give it a finish coat of some kind (mine is still bare WBP plywood at the mo).

Thanks for your tips spaceboy. I'll also be posting a personal thanks on 'reinervogel.net' where I got my plans too.

Happy observing!

Lee

[lquinlan]

Forgot to add:

Yes, I used a very similar design for the motor cage. Though mine is made from the same 12mm ply as the base of the platform. My motor orientation is the same as yours.

I found that the red light on the motor actually helped me to avoid it. As I'm just using the 9V battery as power source for now (no dew heaters etc yet), there are no wires for me to trip over - thankfully

Lee

[spaceboy]

Sounds great Lee. I was hoping to capture Jupiter's opposition with the dob and EQP but the clouds were in the way Make sure you post some pics here and some advice on how it was made

[lquinlan]

Sure.....

I had difficulty getting 4-5 mm sheet aluminium stock locally so decided to use 12mm plywood VNS segments with aluminium bearing surfaces for now. I was keen to get something working

My slave VNS bearing is also a 'make-do-for-now' design. It needs to be a bit wider really to cope with the VNS path but it works fine.

My latitude is actually 51.4 but I used the 52 template provided in the plans on 'reinervogel.net' to get going. When I eventually get the sheet aluminium, I'll use the exact template I've made, using the calculation method posted on the same site.

I'm happy to treat this platform as my prototype. The beauty of the VNS design is that you don't have to rip the whole thing apart to make improvements. It's pretty modular.

I have not put any finish coat on the plywood yet. I want to do a few more observing sessions and get any tweaking out of the way before I decide on that.

[Moonshane]

really very nice. I think I'll make one of these for my 16". I made a Poncet design for my 6" f11 which works really well.

http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/127311-equatorial-platform-dobsonian-telescopes.html

[spaceboy]

Great job Lquinlan. I bet that ply will come up real nice with a couple coats of Yacht varnish. I would have also thought the ply VNS segments to be more than capable with the sheet aluminum bearing the friction. You may find the 52' segments work fine as there will always be a slight drift using an EQP as perfect polar alignment is impossible to achieve.

[George!]

Seems so simple the way you make it so quick, but how hard is it to make with the help of my Dad? The cost also?

Many Thanks,

[spaceboy]

Most of the DIY EQP's I have seen on the net cost between £70-£120 to construct but you have to take into consideration that this doesn't include the cost of tools if you do not already have them. Most of the drawings required to construct a platform are available in the links in this thread. I have always been hands on so cannot really relate to those peps out there who can even put a shelf up but for those who do know which end of a screwdriver to use will find an EQP easy enough to make.