Heath Robinson strikes again!!

[Carole]

Fed up with needing 3 hands to polar align as I've no red LED night in my polar scope (one to put a torch over the polar scope and two to adjust latitude and Azimuth controls), I decided to try a bit of DIY.

1 old bulldog clip (clips over the counterweight bar)
1 wire coathanger cut up
bit of Epoxi resin
1 red LED light from the £1 shop
bit of sellotape

Already had the Epoxi resin so total cost £1

It was not 100% improvement, but did make it slightly easier to polar align.

NOT SURE WHETHER THIS SHOULD BE IN TECHNICAL OR SKUNKWORKS!!!

[MarkS]

NOT SURE WHETHER THIS SHOULD BE IN TECHNICAL OR SKUNKWORKS!!!

Are you going to send it up 20 miles on a balloon?  If so, it should definitely be Skunkworks ...

[Carole]

I just thought that Skunk being an unpleasant smelling creature sounded a more fitting description for my not very technical contraption.   

[PhilB]

Nice idea and you'd be surprised as to just how close your arrangement is to the manufacturer supplied solution used in my mount which is simply an LED that leans into the alignment 'scope aperture.

[Carole]

I'd be interested to see that Phil, any chance of posting a picture.  Might see how I can improve it.

Carole

[doug]

Aaahhhh....... E poxy resin.

If you get it on your fingers................ do they go spotty???????????? 

[PhilB]

That's not an easy picture to take, Carole. But as luck would have it, I have that very mount in pieces at present so here goes!



The  LED is under the Dec axis but you should be able to see how it just sits in the middle of the alignment 'scope aperture. it doesn't seem to get in the way but it is set to give a very low amount of illumination. If you want to try it, it shouldn't be too difficult to duplicate on the outside of your mount. 

[Carole]

Thanks for doing that Phil but can't quite see what is happening in the polarscope.  Is there a small arm sticking across the opening?

Carole

[PhilB]

If you look at the eight o'clock position you will see two lines in the alignment 'scope aperture. These are the connecting wires for the LED which is bent down so that it shines directly into the polarscope. That's it really, but it doesn't come across well in the picture. Your setup is similar except it's on the outside of the mount and the illumination is at an angle and not directly on the polarscopes optical axis.