Setting up the 14"

Its Big AND its heavy

In the picture at left and you can see just how big these scopes are.  That's Dave Herald (of Herald/Bobroff Astro Atlas fame) in the red shirt and myself carrying the Meade 14".  We're both just on 6' tall.

Dave was the first astronomer in Canberra to purchase the new Meade 14 and I assisted him to set it up and instructed him in it operation.  He kindly returned the favour.  My first view through Dave's scope convinced me to sell by 10" and buy a 14".

The scope was fitted with Peterson Engineering Ezy Grips making the scope comfortable to carry.

That tripod's not square

Dave has a very good eye for detail and noticed that my tripod was not square.  Rather than set it up by eye he decided we needed to do it the old fashioned way - with a tape measure and ensure the tripod feet were equidistant from each other.

About 20 minutes later we had the feet right where we wanted them.  Wedge was tightened down and Dave's eagle eyes came into action again.  He noticed that the tripod head/base was not square and had a raised edge.  Out came the file and another 20 minutes passed before we had perfect contact between the wedge and the tripod.

Taking the weight

Dave stood back whist I tightened the last mounting bolt then gingerly I let the scope go to see how the setup  took the weight.  It was rock solid.  That Mitty wedge is worth every penny I paid for it.

Now all I have to do it fit out the racks, connect the accessories then wire it all up then it's ready for it's alignment.

Scope Installed and ready to go - Today

The scope has been operating for nearly 2 years at the time of writing.  Here you can see the power on and cameras fitted.

This setup limits my horizon to approximately 34 degrees N/S and 24 degrees E/W and I must periodically trim the top off the trees and climbers that growing adjacent to the observatory.

Polar Alignment

A lot can be said for the Drift method of polar alignment.  The plots to the left and right were taken by PoleAlignMax, a free product by Larry Webber and Steve Brady.

The initial measure to left shows the result of visual polar alignment via the Drift method.  Now I should point out that rather than using an EP, I used the CCD camera and focus mode to see if the star drifted off.

The image at right was after adjustments made based on the PoleAlignMax procedure and star measurement.  I'm not going to get any better than this as the telescope mount adjustment is too course - but hey, this means my stars don't drift for hours.