Getting the CGE Pro ready for First Light

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Hi Folks!

Still cloudy and cold here, but I've spent the day profitably getting the Pro ready for first light - perhaps Tuesday if the weather gods cooperate (I've already sacrificed the rubber chicken on the patio... ). I decided that this would be a good day to get the tripod ready for first light, and that has taken the entire afternoon. It is no trivial matter to mount a 7-ft long scope at proper observing height on a rolling dolly! This isn't a matter of tweaking that tripod leg half a smidge between having a go at the eyepiece! The long tube and large German mount makes minimum and maximum eyepiece height a real issue. We've have the too-short tripod / too low for comfort at Zenith problem for years. The Pro is both tall enough, and solid enough for the job of mounting this magnificent refractor.

A bit of reflection with the tripod dolly also brought a problem to light - the steel frame of the dolly would scratch the heck out of those pretty orange feet on my tripod! (Orange anodized tripod feet??? Really, Celestron? ) Still, being the owner of said magical orange booties - I must try to keep them looking nice! I'd also though about vibration suppression - obviously standard Vibration Suppression Pads will not work here! A-Ha! Time for a DIY masterpiece!

Out to the garage for some drip-irrigation tubing - the kind that is made of thick-wall, high density open-cell foam (the water is meant to seep through). I cut a piece to fit, and trimmed it so that it was very neat and looked nice. Stretching the tubing out with the blunt end of the scissors helped no end.

By the way, no lads & ladies, I did NOT trim plastic tubing on Mrs. Astra's coffee table! (A scurrilous rumor - I assure you.... and even if it was just on the corner where the dog had already chewed off the varnish, that would be dispicable behavior! Who would do such a thing???? Not I! )

Photos below (including guilty, varnish-chewing dog for scale...)

Dan

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Next up, how to make sure the tubing stayed put, and give it additional vibration-absorbing ability? GE Silicone calk - that's how! And after those awful rumors about my DIY-in-the-house habits, you will notice that these photos are now out on the concrete back by the bins (where my DIY activities no doubt belong!)

Filling the tubing with silicone is like filling pasta with cheese! Re-install the tubing around the metal edge, wipe away the excess and voila! - low cost, non-maring, vibration suppression rings are now added to my tripod dolly!

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Now to put vibration suppressing pads under the bottom point of the tripod. Solution? Cut up an old rubber-backed nylon door mat. I made it into three little pads about 3cm wide.

Next, back them with - what else? - GE silicone, and apply. I used the scratch marks from the first tripod / dolly fitting to know where they needed to go. Perhaps farther in than you might think.

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Next up, (after a suitable delay to cure the silicone a bit) it is time to test fit the dolly and the tripod together. There is much measuring, lifting, (heave, pant-pant, sweat, grunt... ), then re-adjust the dolly legs and try again. After about 40 minutes - we go the tripod on the dolly and the dolly all secured and tightened up.

Next we put the electronics pier and EQ fork up on the tripod head and bolt it home - then check the tripod legs again to make sure they are secure! (they slipped the first night and scared everyone!) The slots where the EQ head attaches to the latitude fork is now almost 6-feet off the ground. Clearly, setting this up is no longer a one-man show - not with a 22kg head to lift up and hang there!

Photo of assembled mount with DIY observing chair. (there's plans for that on SGL HERE.)

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Mounting the big 7-foot Apomax tube isn't as hard as it seems! First of all, the last 18" are accounted for in the focuser and the dew shield - so you only have to swing up 70-inches or so (~1.7m) and 21 kg of OTA!

Mounting it by placing it on the saddle while in the CW-down, rings-up position is the only one-man mount possible. Friends call this "tossing the Cabir!" With the Pro and the Apomax, this would mean placing the tube on the saddle at least 6-feet off the ground (lowest possible mount position - I did this when I test mounted it yesterday) - but with the mount in the position you see here, the saddle and rings are more than 7-feet off the ground!

But the Pro has a hard-stop position for the mount (it cannot easily free rotate and go "Smash!" into a tripod leg when a SCT scope is mounted...). I use this to place the rings sideways as shown, which makes it easy for a two-man mount.

Last photos are of fully assembled mount with happy astronomer and little dog for scale.

Next project? DIY Glow-in-the-Dark Vibration suppression pads for the anchor points on the tripod dolly and engraved scales on the tripod legs for easier leveling and setup away from home.

Enjoy,

Dan

[Andy79]

That is such a neat idea and very useful i can imagine!

Excellent!