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This project was fun. I own a meade 2045D Telescope and made a really nice maple tripod stand for it years ago. Well in all the moving and relocating, I misplaced it. Me and wife like to look at the heavens when the time allows. So this is where the idea from this wedge came. I wanted something easy to use, mobile, looks cool, and works on just about any size telescope. (just incase I want to upgrade and go bigger). The base is made out of veneer plywood from lowes. The arms are made out of oak. Ordered the knobs, t-nuts, and nylon ball bearings from Amazon. The tripod is any basic construction tripod. All in all it cost me about $60.00 in material. The hardest part was figuring out the sliding arms. I had to make these custom. I like them but wish they were out of a nicer metal that does not need paint. It will adjust from 0 degrees to a full 90. I can polar align this scope pretty darn close to accurate for photo astronomy. The telescope mounts with just one screw on the bottom and I have plenty of room for the slo mo controls that plug into the base. The neatest thing is the center of gravity over the base of the scope that is in relationship tripod center. With the predrilled holes I can mount just about any size scope on here.
I didn't glue anything up so I could play with it.
Please comment, like and share.

Bill

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Comments

· Registered
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186 Posts
Very kewl. This is my wifes dream scope.
 

· In Loving Memory
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10,409 Posts
Great idea & practical one Bill.
 

· In Loving Memory
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5,826 Posts
Bill, I built a wooden telescope way back in high school so this is an interesting project to me. You have done a beautiful job on this project and it's very creative mechanism. Congratulations.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 
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