PORTABLE TELESCOPE STAND

Sat, Jan 31, 2004, 3:56pm [email protected] (brocpuffs) asks:
Them Mars landers settin' you off, JOAT?

Actually that one hadn't even crossed my mind. No, when I saw the
picture in the back of the vehicle, first thought in my mind was how it
resembled those old coastal defense guns. They were in a pit, on a
lift, and could pop up to shoot, then sink back down, be reloaded out of
sight, then pop back up to shoot again. From there, the imagination
started getting wild. LOL

JOAT
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
- Pete Maccarrone

Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT
Web Page Update 31 Jan 2004.
Some tunes I like.
http://community-2.webtv.net/Jakofalltrades/SOMETUNESILIKE/

Sun, Feb 1, 2004, 10:06pm (EST+5) [email protected] (Bob=A0Schmall)
says:
Beautiful craftsmanship and a neat idea, but I don't know how this is an
improvement over the usual tripod and wedge that the manufacturer
offers. Both of them are just as portable and a lot less bulky. Cool
piece of woodworking, though.

Could be steadier than a tripod. Definitely looks cooler.

JOAT
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
- Pete Maccarrone

Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT
Web Page Update 31 Jan 2004.
Some tunes I like.
http://community-2.webtv.net/Jakofalltrades/SOMETUNESILIKE/

"Bob Schmall" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> "T." <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> Sun, Feb 1, 2004, 10:06pm (EST+5) [email protected] (Bob Schmall)
> says:
> Beautiful craftsmanship and a neat idea, but I don't know how this is an
> improvement over the usual tripod and wedge that the manufacturer
> offers. Both of them are just as portable and a lot less bulky. Cool
> piece of woodworking, though.
>
> Could be steadier than a tripod. ...

I don't think so.

>
> Yeah, it does look cooler. The tripods supplied by the manufacturers of that
> type of scope are extremely stable and light--nothing at all like photo
> tripods.

Having used the standard tripod and wedge I can say that there would
be an advantage to something you could just roll along to where you'll
be observing
and then unfold it.

However off the top of my head I see three problems with this design.

1) Small wheels. If you are observing somewhere far from your car or
house then bigger wheels will help you to roll easier especially over
rough ground. Usually observing from near your own car presents the
problem of also being close enough to traffic to be botherd by the
headlights. It takes about 15 minutes for your pupils to adapt to
darkeness, but less than a minute to adapt to brightness so that a
brief glance into someon's headlights will blow your night vision
for several minutes.

2) Once set up, it appears to be supported on the wheels which will
necesssarily be unsteady.

3) The base of the fork mounting is catelever out on a thin plate
which is not going to help much IRT vibration.

--

FF

a pain to set up and use.

"T." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Sun, Feb 1, 2004, 10:06pm (EST+5) [email protected] (Bob Schmall)
says:
Beautiful craftsmanship and a neat idea, but I don't know how this is an
improvement over the usual tripod and wedge that the manufacturer
offers. Both of them are just as portable and a lot less bulky. Cool
piece of woodworking, though.

Could be steadier than a tripod. Definitely looks cooler.

Yeah, it does look cooler. The tripods supplied by the manufacturers of that
type of scope are extremely stable and light--nothing at all like photo
tripods. In this case mass doesn't necessarily mean stability, since the
scope isn't doing any work other than driving itself at one rpd, which is so
slow that it is hard to detect. The primary goal of the mount then is to
support the 30 pound scope without vibration, and the stock tripods are
engineered to do this quite well. However, for a woodworker it's a pretty
neat project. Thanks for finding it, JOAT.