Sapp8b

The mount shown in the section above is actually for Jim's refractor. He had temporarily mounted the cassegrain on it, but has now finished his new single-arm fork mount.

This new mount is again a work of art, made mostly of his own aluminum castings, and turned on his homemade lathe. Semi-truck bearings are used to support the polar shaft, with ball or roller bearings in several other places. Large knurled knobs are everywhere, so setup and adjustment is easy without tools. Velcro is used for access to panels, so there are no small screws to lose in the dark. The clock drive cover is held on with lots of the small screws used on the focuser to lock eyepieces in place, so there is a handy supply in case you lose one.

There are many beautiful touches on this mount, such as the number alignment on the declination setting circle. The numbers are inverted for the southern hemisphere, so you can tell if you are above or below the equator (not always easy on the sky). The attention to detail is incredible.

The fork assembly can be removed and other devices such as cameras or other telescopes can be mounted on the disk at the top of the polar shaft.

This telescope won 1st place in the ATM Walkaround at the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society's Rocky Mountain Star Stare, 1999.