MOUNT

My telescope does not have tracking, as it was originally designed as a simple point and look telescope. This means that any object I put in the eyepiece soon leaves the field of view, this is especially problematic when viewing on high magnification. There are options for Dobsonian owners, one of the most popular is to build a simple equatorial mount for your scope to sit on. Though this system is not suited well for astrophotography it can be done and in fact I have seen some quite remarkable images taken using this system. As with most things, the detail is in the accuracy of the build and the alignment.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The mount is placed on a flat surface and leveled. It then has its southern pivot pointing south and the rear centred through the N-S line. The scope then sits on the top rocker which in turn swings the required direction through the aid of a small geared motor. Friction of the shaft to wedge is enough to rock the top plate, especially when the scope is balanced correctly. The wedges that sit on the output shaft need to be the same inclination as the users latitude. In my case im at 51 degrees. The length of the wedges means that I get around 20 minutes of observing until the system needs resetting. Adjusting the motor speed with the potentiometer will get you to a point where the object you’re viewing will stay in the eyepiece. Its not perfect but for this type of scope and viewing it’s good enough !

One advantage of this mount is that the scope can be slewed up/down left & right and the were ever you end up looking its still tracking.