Sunday, September 19, 2010

Single arm fork mount for astronomy

About a year ago I got back into telescope mount making for a brief period. An old friend needed a mount for a homemade refractor. Given my past experience with Gemini Instruments, lets just say I couldn't pass up the opportunity

The basic mechanical features are:
-Dual tangent drive system(preloaded with air piston)
-1" hardened stainless steel shafts
-Radial bearings for all major axes
-Aluminum and brass construction
-Dovetail weight adjustment for altitude axis

The machine time was around 40hours, with $200 in materials.

Here is a step by step pictorial representation of the mount: