Gemini G41 Observatory+ has finally arrived

BTW Seanie, I love the new avatar :lol:

Elmo ROCKS! :lol:

Thanks lads. Hope to spend a bit of time at the weekend at it and getting some holes drilled in the adapter plate on the mount. From an initial look at the issue, I think I might get away without needing to change the adapter plates on my mount, which should save some time and money.

BTW, like the avatar Seanie!

Hope to spend a bit of time at the weekend at it

Surely you'll be at Whirlpool pining for your new toy...

Here's a pic of the mount in the observatory with the 12" LX200 SCT and Pentax 75 SDHF. Many thanks to Johnno for helping me out this monring in terms of wiring up a suitable power supply. Much appreciated!

In terms of weight, there's 27kg of counterweigfht there. the mount weights 25kg, the LX200 weighs 16kg and the Pentax weighs another 1 or 2.

In terms of dampening time, I reckon it's about 1-1.5 sec. I tapped the scope a couple of times and each time the vibration dies down very quickly.

Now, where the heck are the clear skies we had this morning??

Regards,

she's a beauty !! Is it balanced using that amount of counter weights?

Those three large counterweights balance the declination axis nicely.
I also needed to add a small extra counterweight to balance the RA axis - it's the flat disc just underneath the top of the SCT OTA. I'm looking at ways of getting a dew shield though so may not need this long term.
FWIW, I'm glad I built the extension onto the observatory. Wouldn't have had room for this setup along with a table, chair, myself and the PC in there.
I know the 4 bolts and suspended plate look flimsy in the photo, but in reality it's pretty sturdy. However, I might be doing away with it altogether as it happens and fixing the height of the mount. One of the advantages of this mount is that any position can be set as the "Park" position. So, I can Park the scope in such a way so as to minimise the height of the gear in the observatory allowing the roof to roll back. So, if I can find the optimum position which minimises the height of the setup, measure the clearance between scope/mount and roof, I can set an exact height on the pier.