Telescope Tripod Support for Perfect Polar Alignment
Description
German Equatorial Mounts (GEM's) need to be polar aligned in order to track deep sky objects (DSO's). Setting up a GEM scope that is polar aligned can take 15 to 30 minutes or longer. This is time taken away from the fun part of DSO viewing or photography. I set up my telescope in the front yard at about the same place each viewing session. I have to set up in the grass since I don't have a paved area in a convenient place that has a clear view of Polaris. Over the period of a year, I did this dozens of times but no matter how careful I was, I was still spending lots of time with polar alignment because of ground uneveness and not being able to precisely locate my tripod. I solved this problem by first marking the location of my tripod legs with flags after a viewing session. Then during the day, I dug a 1.5 foot deep hole at each of the marked locations. In each hole I placed some gravel and a PVC pipe. I cut the PVC pipe so that the top of the pipe was even with the ground and roughly level with the other pipes. I then placed a PVC cap on each pipe to create a level surface for my telescope tripod. I then filled in the dirt around the PVC pipes for support. This provided a rigid surface for my telescope and as long as I didn't change the leg lengths, I could set up my mount with minimal polar adjustments each night. But I didn't stop there. I designed a 3D printed cap for the North leg with a hole in it to constrain the leg in horizontal motion. I then designed a 3D printed cap to fit over the side PVC support that aligns with the North leg. This constrains the rotation of the tripod. The remaining PVC cap doesn't need a 3D printed part since the telescope is now fully constrained. Now I can set up my telescope on these locating features each night without having to do a polar alignment. I have marked the leg lengths on my tripod so that if I do change leg length, I can quickly get back to my home position. My setup time is just for carrying my mount outside and plugging in wires. Much more fun than before!
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