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| I have always had an interest in space and stars etc I guess it came from my father having a small scope and being in the age of seeing people on the moon as a small boy. Chance came up of some optics for a 12.5" F7 scope The Dobson style scope was selected and construction began Initally the scope was manually moved, but with lots of little ones wanting a look it was too easily bumped. I have just completed the motorisation March 04 and Jupiter looks great and little ones can even move the scope to keep it on track |
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| The Head End The Spotter Scope is off a US army Tank 7x 50mm |
| The Mirror Cell Not setup correctly But it gives an idea or the concept |
| The Drives The Motors come from inexpensive 12v battery drills The Worm is threaded rod Pinion is a lump of cutting board plastic that was set up in the lathe. An M10 tap in the chuck pulled the cutting board around and cut the teeth. About six passes were necessary The Bearing are those found in Rollerbaldes The Horizontal bearing is a Lazy Susan design with rollerblade bearings and setup just like the one under your microwave turntable The Knobs either rotate or pull in/out to dis-engage the drive |
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| Controller Yes its one of the bodies from the battery drills Both speed controllers are in the one hand set As its battery powered its portable and easily recharged. being 12 V it will also run off a car battery The lamp is run at low voltage so as to keep your night vision. |
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