Drive system help

[Doc Holiday]

Thanks again for your help.

This is fantastic.

Cheers Matt

in the books Amateur Telescope making by scientific american published Albert G. Ingalls 1961 copyright there is a section in the book that is published using an whined up alarm clock
just change out the spring for heftier one the book makes it sound good and supposedly can be used all the way up to a 12 inch equitorial german mount

now i have a hard back copy of this book volume from the 60's i just picked up an old tele from craigslist cant afford the new tele's so i will work with this one
it came with lots of extras and a motor just trying to figure where the gears and motor sets up on the balancer alone i think ways over 100 pounds very heavy estimate i have pics on another thread here
you should check it out but try and get the books from ingalls check out the drives differences they have alot there to look at

this is my craigslist scope freebie been cleaning her up hand sanding and what not
thought i would pass on some of this info im learning of the bigger scopes now i always worked with the little ones now i have a big one

TeleScope Pics The Clean Up (12).JPG

[Doc Holiday]

ohhhh i forgot to mention i found a little more history on this the German Equitorial Mount used the axles from i guess a rack and pinnon from old world war 2 surplus
from history ive read machine a couple blocks get some bearings and you should be able to create the mount you want i hope this helped some in your quest for your big tele

[tsutrina@gmail.com]

I just purchased my first telescope, Astronomers Without Borders' One Sky 130mm reflector with an Dobsonian alt-azimuth mount. As a mechanical engineer I always look for improvements. To that end I have looked into equatorial mounts and drives for a beginner. The two best pieces of information on drives I have found are: "Telescope Mountings for Amateur Builders" by H. Boyd Brydon from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada through NASA Astrophysics Data Systems (seems to be a 50's document) and "Human Powered Clock Drive" by Zac August 26, 2001 a Astronomy Net Article. So I looked at high gear ratios reducers as expensive and worm drives also not much better and not capable of reaching the needed reduction in one step when driven by toy gear motors and a DC drive. Stepper motor is the next area that I looked at but does not eliminate a high ratio speed reducer. But appears to the approach of choice, but a stepper motor by definition steps, tick-tock like an escape of a mechanical clock. So I would like to know what is the maximum step size or time period between steps? There is one path remaining, a piezo electric or ultrasonic type friction drive used by auto-focus camera lenses. Solenoid coil has been used to drive ultrasonic horns. The could create a direct drive to point the telescope at a fixed point in space.