TheSkySearchers

finally my mount is here!

It has been a long wait!, 5-6 months!,i'm sure lucas mesu had spent attention to detail and made the tolerances very well! i think he even tested it.

so at the start of the year my eq8 died after sitting outside for a month while i was overseas which is now fixed anyway (the bearings seized up) and i was looking for an improvement and came across mesu optics ,here in australia astronomy can be rather pricey for certain items and can be hard to get for special products ,so after conversing with testgear over at af who happens to have the v1 model and enjoys it,i was soon convinced to buy one!

$9.7 k was the total cost inc tax/delivery, which is pretty reasonable for 100 kg capacity compared to what can be obtained in aus.

most of it is stainless ,pretty sure the mechanical internal side is aswell and extremely light,it's friction driven so very low pe,it is a lot more portable than a eq8,i just need to make a bend knee pilar but having a hard time finding 200 nb pipe for general public purchase, most businesses sell it per 6-12 meters... so it will be awhile before i get it running....

https://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/mo ... mount-200/
http://www.mesu-optics.nl/home_en.html

enjoy the clouds!, well full moon is coming anyway!

Nah im not jealous at all :twitch:
Will be interesting to see how it will perform when you get the setup assembled.

I have it assembled now , need some thin felt to line the inside of my counter weights so I don't scratch the cw bar

A fine looking mount, good luck with it

That looks like a great piece of technology, congrats, enjoy it!

You're now living the dream, congrats.

Cheers,
JT

ok! , my bend knee pillar is coming along, convinced the boss to let me manufacture it at work after hours.

a bit of on the fly design , the overall height might be a bit short, atm it's about 1m to 1.1m high over all and the counter weight bar is about 900 mm long from the center of the ra pivot and the mount head will gain some more clearance, i can always gain some height with the adjustable table feet as well which are 20mm x 200 long. some addons i might do; spin up some knobs for the feet and some wide disc shape knobs for the polar alignment bolts on the lathe that way i don't have to use a shifter..

Looking good! Best of luck with both the mount and the pier!

That is coming along nicely

I just checked the top of the Ra of my current setup with the eq8, I got 1250mm from the ground, i have off cut so I guess I'll re weld some tube back on, shouldn't be too much of a problem, pretty important to have a comfortable height to mount your gear and the extra height can add more imaging time over the fence line

Does the Mesu have no Alt/Az controls? I suppose not, I just see a disc with some bolts on it. Just wondering why you added polar alignment bolts, I think I just answered my question, was I right?

Yeah, the first model had a pretty complex alt az polar adjustment, the v2 version is more simpler but improved elsewhere with encoders and motors, clutch, brake ectt., it's essentialy a alt az mount that you put on a wedge, my bend knee pillar is at 27.6 deg and the adjustment bolts should get me to polar alignment,I've requested to use 4 bolts to have x and y adjustments for drift alignment instead of the supplied 3 bolt setup, that way I can accurately adjust the x and y directions "alt az" independently.

Dude, you have some serious skilz! Don't forget to give your boss one or two pretty framed DSO pictures so you can keep using your workplace for the greater good!

Cheers,
JT

Really nice setup Yobbo.

Are you in Brisbane LP shooting NB or out under dark skies?

Joe

spent another 3 hrs on it tonight, i re added the 200 mm off cut and welded it up and trimmed of 50 mm ( about 1250 - 1300 mm to the top of the dec saddle, pretty happy with the height. took awhile to work out the angle of the legs because the center of gravity has changed, the 120 deg per post dosn't work to well, i just divided my pipe up in 120 deg and then offset the legs a further 30 mm in each side, i may change this, i could work out the center point but i don't want to draw layouts for it and i'm not so good at cad.

now working out how long i want my legs and then fabricate the 25nb tube leg bracing. there will be 2 per leg that run from the bottom end of the legs to the bottom of the pier/pillar in a triangle fashion.

OzEclipse wrote: ↑Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:07 pm Really nice setup Yobbo.

Are you in Brisbane LP shooting NB or out under dark skies?

Joe

I'm 15-20 mins from the city at bortle 6, almost only shoot narrowband, apart from some bright objects and planetary work. even my nb suffers a bit, really in the need for some 3nm but i don't think anyone sells that kind of stuff in australia. it's already an arm and a leg before customs get a free payment.

ok, i spent another 2 and 1/2 hours on it again, i found a general center of gravity which i laid out with my chalk line string.think i'm about 7 and 1/2 hrs in on the job, still have to cut out service panels with hinges for the electronics so everything sits inside the pillar, if i can fit a shifter in one of the access panels then i might do a joiner plate so i can split the pillar in half to help with transport as the 200nb pipe is 25kg per meter.

i've spent most of the night working on the adjustment leg bolts , i've added a kick on the support legs and drilled a pass through hole to have a more sleek look to the adjustment areas.

Spent another 3 and 1/2 hrs on the mount pier tonight, worked on the support bracing, sqaushed the ends and drilled some holes on the 25nb pipe and then made up some mounting cleats and bolted it together.taking me awhile, don't have any drawings to work form just a rough sketch.

+ 2.5hrs, worked on the electronics door and zip tie mounting rack for the psu,s servo board and cables. I was going to make a hinged door but couldn't find any paino hinges at work, I just opted for the 4 corners bolt on design, simply butt weld some corner tabs for mounting holes and then tack the door on and drill some holes and cut it apart again, that way the door lines up correctly later.

Another 2 hrs! haha. Done! Just need to pick up some paint on the weekend. Just a bit of self Journey posting.

Hmm what paint. I wounder if I can get some sparkle with black mixed up!