Back to Home

ATM Forum Message

Forums: Atm · Astrophotography · Blackholes · Blackholes2 · CCD · Celestron · Domes · Education
Eyepieces · Meade · Misc. · God and Science · SETI · Software · UFO · XEphem
RSS Button

Home | Discussion Forums | Amateur Telescope Making | Post
Login

Be the first pioneers to continue the Astronomy Discussions at our new Astronomy meeting place...
The Space and Astronomy Agora
RE: How Do I Build A Drive?

Forum List | Follow Ups | Post Message | Back to Thread Topics | In Response To
Posted by Robert May on March 18, 2000 21:29:00 UTC

Without metal working abilities, there isn`t all that much choice for such a small scope. Look at the German Equatorial design and you can figure out how to do the shafts with plumbing pipe and bearings of the right size (you can always shrink a hole in a bearing but you can`t make it bigger). The RA drive is a little more difficult as you need to have gears of particular sizes although you can use cogged belts if you keep them tight. The motor can be a syncronous motor or if you use a speed controller you can use other motors although the quality of tracking will be a lot worse. Getting catalogs from places like Science and Surplus, Herbach and Rademan and others will provide all kinds of parts that will help you with motors and things.
The drive will be turning over at 1rev/day so you don`t really need much power to drive the telescope. The 3W timing motor will provide enough power if the bearings are decently good.

Follow Ups:

    Login to Post
    Additional Information
    Google
     
    Web www.astronomy.net
    DayNightLine
    About Astronomy Net | Advertise on Astronomy Net | Contact & Comments | Privacy Policy
    Unless otherwise specified, web site content Copyright 1994-2024 John Huggins All Rights Reserved
    Forum posts are Copyright their authors as specified in the heading above the post.
    "dbHTML," "AstroGuide," "ASTRONOMY.NET" & "VA.NET"
    are trademarks of John Huggins