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Rob Willett
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 606
Loc: London, UK.
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I had an idea about driving the various Alt-Az mounts such as the Giro II/III and WO Ez-Touch.
I'm sure somebody has thought about this and why it's a bad idea, so fire away 
I have a Giro II mount and really like it, easy to setup, no polar alignment, no levelling, takes massive amounts of weight and zero problems.
I was thinking about astrophotography and how the Chief Financial Officer has decided, for some obscure reason (lack of money?) that I'm not allowed to buy anything else. I then wondered if the Giro II could be adapted to do photography.
So my logic was: - Make a wedge for the Giro II. Clearly it needs to be where I am, 56 and a bit North
- You need to be able to lock the Alt axis on the Giro
- You need to be able to drive the body of the Giro at an appropriate speed.
- Use a webcam to take lots of frames and throw away the rubbish ones (all of them?)
Making a wedge is easy enough, locking the Alt axis is easy as well, driving the body of the Giro is a little more tricky, but belts and stepper motors come to mind. Though also a little friction wheel (skateboard?) might also do for testing the idea out.
I'm not trivialising the effort, and I need to polar align, etc etc, but a) will this work? and b) Has anybody done this before?
What am I missing? or is this one of those ideas that should be tried out?
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Thanks,
Rob
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gatorengineer
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/28/05
Posts: 725
Loc: Hellertown, PA
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See Dob Driver from Tech2000......
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16" & 20" Dobs
4" Triplet Refractor
10" LX200R OTA
8"F20 Dall Kirkham
12.5" F3.5 Newt
CGE
Lots of binos---
Nikon 8x30, 10x35, Prostars,10W/18 x 70 astrolux; 10x50 Fujis. Collectors items 12x60 BLC, 10x80 Flaks, Gas Masks, US Mark 28, 30, 41, 43's
Telescopes Past - 8" Stf Mak, C8, Meade LX10-10", SN8, TAL150K, Orion 150MC, Jason 60mm refractor, ATM 6" F8, WO 110FLT, 92mm Off Axis Newt, Nikon 20x120 bino's, 15x110 Boarderguards, Kuhne Flaks
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Luigi
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/03/07
Posts: 1960
Loc: Massachusetts
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The Ioptron Tower is a new, driven Alt-Az with ratings similar to the GiroII or WO mounts. Check out the threads in the mounts forum.
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17.5" f/5 Discovery Truss
IM715 7" f/15 MCT, Eon-120ED
Lunt 60mm single etalon HA
CG5A coffee grinder, Orion Skyview Alt-AZ
35,19,15 Pans.9 Nag. Meade 24.5 4kSWA, 4.7 5kUWA.
BO-TMB 7mm planetary.
Zeiss Diascope 85
Zeiss, Leica, Canon IS, Fujinon, Nikon binos
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Rob Willett
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 606
Loc: London, UK.
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Sadly this requires money which is not forthcoming from the CFO.
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Thanks,
Rob
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Rob Willett
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 606
Loc: London, UK.
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Luigi,
Thanks for this, but the point is I already have a Giro II and want to utilise that rather than buying any more kit (which I can't).
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Thanks,
Rob
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Michael Miles
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/11/05
Posts: 603
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Do you have a holocaust cloak and a wheelbarrow?
What other resources do you have? Free stepper motors, belts and gears? Metal machining tools? Friends with metal machining tools?
Webcam mated to what type of optics?
I think it might be possible, but it depends on how much performance and precision you expect from the mod.
Michael
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LXD-75 w/
Stellarvue 102ED
Hardin 10" Newt
Antares 8" Newt
Meade AR-5
Meade N-6
Celestron 102mm refractor
Canon 300D, Meade DSI guiding
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scout72
sage
Reged: 05/12/08
Posts: 216
Loc: SF Bay Area
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You mean something like this:
You can buy this setup from Teton Telescopes- or use this as inspiration to build your drive - a couple of motors and gear plates and some big ole hoseclamps and you are good to go!
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Scout72 is my 1972 International Scout 4x4
Some Scopes, Some Binocs, and Some Mounts,
and a much shorter signature
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Rob Willett
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 606
Loc: London, UK.
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Michael,
Got four high quality stepper motors plus a number of cheaper motors. I can write the software and build stepper motor circuits using PIC controllers.
Lathes I don't have, mores the pity.
Webcams are plentiful, and I can mate them from a Borg 76mm through to a Brandon 94mm or TMB 100mm. I also have a home made 80mm short field refractor which is 'almost' finished.
My thinking was a friction belt around the Giro, I can control the stepper motor down to microsteps. I'm at work at the moment and can't remember the angular resolution of the motors.
My thinking is that I 'plan' for slop and use the webcam and Registax to average it out.
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Thanks,
Rob
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Rob Willett
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 606
Loc: London, UK.
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I already have this on my Giro II
It's the Wildcard Innovations mounting kit for their digital setting circles, this is a push-to system, not a motorised system which I was after.
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Thanks,
Rob
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