Figure 1. I built a fork mount for the 6" Cassegrain that I used for a guide scope on the 8" Cave. The fork tines were part of a cloud height detector that we found in the Orland scrap yard.
I built a fork mounting for my 6" Cassegrain that I used for the guide scope on the 8" Cave. The fork is fabricated from the tines of the a cloud height detector that Bill and I found in the Orland scrap yard. The tines were to short for the Cass. so I extended them with a weldment made from the 0.200" plate, (scraps from the 22" project), Figure 1. The base is also made from left over parts from the 22". I got a 3" bearing from the local Cat dealer. They were a great source of used bearings. Many places a happy to save things like bearings for ATMs.
I had a 6" Byres drive from another project that I used for the RA drive, Figure 2a The drive used an AC synchronous motor. I made a DC-AC converter/drive corrector from a schematic that was published in Sky & Telescope. (Do you remember having to use drive correctors?)Figure 1. I built a fork mount for the 6" Cassegrain that I used for a guide scope on the 8" Cave. The fork tines were part of a cloud height detector that we found in the Orland scrap yard.
I integrated the drive corrector in the base of the mount, Figure 2. I made a tangent arm for the dec adjustment.
Figure 2 A Byres gear is used for the RA drive. The AC motor is driven by a drive corrector that I built.
I am currently adapting the drive from the Meade ETX 60 to the
Cassegrain
mounting. I purchased the ETX 60 for $98 from Costco. I purchased the
telescope
for the drive and to use the optical tube assembly for the 22"
finder.
