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Starman27
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/29/06
Posts: 578
Loc: Illinois, Iowa
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Finally we got it on the wedge and I was able to bolt it down.
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Enjoy the dark,
Herman
Meade
14 LX200 GPS SMT
12 LX200 GPS
7 LX200 Maksutov
ETX 125
TAK FS128 NSV
Sky 90II
Lunt LS60ThaDS BF1200
Canon 5D Mark II
Illinois
Iowa
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Starman27
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/29/06
Posts: 578
Loc: Illinois, Iowa
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Ready for action. The TAK now has it's partner. I hope I haven't destroyed the weather prospect for Northern Illinois.
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Enjoy the dark,
Herman
Meade
14 LX200 GPS SMT
12 LX200 GPS
7 LX200 Maksutov
ETX 125
TAK FS128 NSV
Sky 90II
Lunt LS60ThaDS BF1200
Canon 5D Mark II
Illinois
Iowa
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Chris Schroeder
Postmaster
Reged: 12/11/04
Posts: 6563
Loc: N.E. WI Sky Glow
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I really like you pier design Herman. If you could, would you make any changes to the design?
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Chris
Mallincam Color Hyper Plus
10" DSH with SC DSC, CPC 800 XLT
M110 Doublet ED, AT 102Achro, ZS80FD 10th Anniv, ZS66SD, PST
CG5-AGT, EZ-Touch, Voyager
POD XL3 http://POD.SchroederCity.com
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Starman27
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/29/06
Posts: 578
Loc: Illinois, Iowa
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Chris,
Thanks for your comment.
I think that I would make the base a little larger to allow more space for lwrger (higher) gussets. I would make the exterior pier walls thicker. Also, I could have had the inside and outside piers have a tighter fit. However, I saved money by using available scrap when possible and the inner pier is leveled easier wirh the space between the walls. The piers are flexible and have been adapted over the last 20 years w/o significant cost.
Both the TAK pier and the SCT pier have the same basic design strategy. The TAK pier has a overcap now replacing the original interior pier and height spacers. The overcap seems to work better for a base pier this high. It held an LX750 and an LX200 wedge easily. So that is aan improvement that worked out. I considered it for the lower pier. I think that might be another improvement if you want to give up the ability to alter the hieght when you replace scopes.
Over the years the TAK pier has carried a Cave 10 inch F16 Classical Cass, a Meade 178 ED on a LXD 750, a Meade 7 inch LX200 MAK and finally the TAK FS128 on the MI250.
The Other pier has carried a 1991 Orange tube C11 wedge and fork mount on it's own internal pier hieght adjusted with internal spacers, 12 inch LX200 Classic and GPS with a new internal pier and finally the 14 inch LX200 GPS with the internal pier shortened.
This has turned out to be a good flexible long term solution for me. I also need to say that the blacksmith in Wasco has been a great partner in working through design issues.
--------------------
Enjoy the dark,
Herman
Meade
14 LX200 GPS SMT
12 LX200 GPS
7 LX200 Maksutov
ETX 125
TAK FS128 NSV
Sky 90II
Lunt LS60ThaDS BF1200
Canon 5D Mark II
Illinois
Iowa
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John Wunderlin
Vendor - Spike-a Focusing Mask
Reged: 10/01/04
Posts: 699
Loc: Mineral Point, Wi
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Quote:
Ready for action. The TAK now has it's partner. I hope I haven't destroyed the weather prospect for Northern Illinois.
So that's what happened! Bled over into Southern Wisconsin apparently.
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John Wunderlin
Vendor - Spike-a Bahtinov Focusing Mask
Empire Ranch Observatory
Iowa County Astronomers
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Starman27
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/29/06
Posts: 578
Loc: Illinois, Iowa
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Sorry John.
--------------------
Enjoy the dark,
Herman
Meade
14 LX200 GPS SMT
12 LX200 GPS
7 LX200 Maksutov
ETX 125
TAK FS128 NSV
Sky 90II
Lunt LS60ThaDS BF1200
Canon 5D Mark II
Illinois
Iowa
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Digital Don
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 1287
Loc: Manteno
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Pretty slick! The ingenuity of amateur astronomers never ceases to amaze me.
Don
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Starman27
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/29/06
Posts: 578
Loc: Illinois, Iowa
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Thanks Don.
I agree,amateur astonomers are highly creative problem solvers.
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Enjoy the dark,
Herman
Meade
14 LX200 GPS SMT
12 LX200 GPS
7 LX200 Maksutov
ETX 125
TAK FS128 NSV
Sky 90II
Lunt LS60ThaDS BF1200
Canon 5D Mark II
Illinois
Iowa
|
Starman27
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/29/06
Posts: 578
Loc: Illinois, Iowa
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First Light Update:
I found about two hours of clear but reall poor skies last night and tried out the newly mounted 14 inch. So far so good. The telescope shows very little vibration when being handled or touched like manual focussing. The wind really wasn't able to impact it in its position and the sky view is better than expected. It is behaving as good or better than my 12 inch concrete pier mounted telscope in Iowa.
The thing is a real beast and I will need to remove my comuter table and repace it with something smaller. Looks like I may be able to get out again Monday night for a longer test.
--------------------
Enjoy the dark,
Herman
Meade
14 LX200 GPS SMT
12 LX200 GPS
7 LX200 Maksutov
ETX 125
TAK FS128 NSV
Sky 90II
Lunt LS60ThaDS BF1200
Canon 5D Mark II
Illinois
Iowa
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