My astronomy project:
EQ mount with no meridian flip ideas

Content:

1. Introduction
2. First simple drawing of an idea
3. What mount head to use?
4. Base disc
5. Arm details
6. Twin telescope mount
7. Azimuth angle trimmer
8. Summary of the first ideas drawings

Note:
I take no responsibility for what are written here, you use the information at your own risk!

2, First simple drawing of an idea:

I have read about other project with some idea how to solve the meridian flip problem, last time in Sky & Telescope.

• Here is one who have done something similar:

• EQ6-R knee pillar - no meridian flip

Close but not exactly what I want.

All project I read about use a very long fork arm with a knee on it. A long arm can introduce weakness which I don't want. A shorter straight arm will offset the telescope relative the pier which is not good either. But I want it much more compact, then maybe in my case a better solution, at least I can fit it inside my observatory.

This is my first simple drawing of my idea with SketchUp. I can have a modified version of my EQ6 mount on top or some other mount head. With my 5" refractor I need about 0.6 meter clearance between center of DEC axis and the pier. It can be shorter if I add extra weight on front of the telescope. It's like a single arm fork but without a moving arm. I live in Sweden at +59 degrees latitude. The high latitude make the off-axis point come closer to the pier, about 0.3 meter in my case.

Just have to move the observatory house aside to center on the telescope's new position. My pier is low and the headroom in the observatory is enough I think to hold the arm above.

One good thing with this construction is that I can have two telescopes without counter balance weights. One telescope on each side of the arm. Maybe a 5" refractor and a 10" Newton, about 25 kilograms. Not very much more then the 5" refractor with counter balance weights alone.

I will do a better drawing when I know what mount head to use and have more details.