Homemade Eyepiece Tray
On my 5 May report I mentioned designing an eyepiece tray for the LX200 telescope. On the 7 May report I showed a cardboard mockup of my design. I finally completed the actual tray on Saturday, 22 May.
Over the last couple of weeks, I purchased the pieces to make the eyepiece tray. Costs: $2 for bolts, washers, and nuts; $5 for the four metal strips (4” x 1/2”) to mount the tray; and $6 for the wood piece (1/4" thick). The wood was cut down to size (13" x 4-1/2") for the tray.
The photo at the top of the page shows the wood for the tray, the 4 metal strips, and the template I made from my cardboard mockup.
I checked the positioning of the tray on the tripod and decided to cut off the corners to allow the tray to be mounted closer to the tripod spreader bar (for more stability). This also reduced the amount of the tray that extends beyond the tripod legs. I then shifted the position of the 1-1/4" eyepiece holes (on the template) by 1/2" to provide more space between the far right holes and the edge of the tray. Now that I was happy with the final design, I cut the holes in the wood for the eyepieces.
As I was working on the tray, I realized that the last time I had done such a project was in my 8th grade woodworking shop class! And my project all those years ago was a case for the eyepieces for my Edmund Scientific 3" telescope. (I still have the telescope but the case is long gone.)
Once the holes were cut, I sanded the wood to smooth out the edges. I then held the tray to the tripod and marked the location for the holes for the metal strips. Once those holes were drilled, I attached the metal strips. There is a strip on the bottom as well as on the top of the tray.
I then mounted the eyepiece tray to the spreader bar. The metal strips go above and below the spreader bar. The mounted tray looks like this:
With my eyepieces in the tray, the tray is very secure. It looks like this:
And there is still room for the AutoStar II to be held (by Velcro) on the tripod leg:
The position of the tray is such that it is not in the way when walking around the telescope:
I am very pleased with the results of my design. It will make swapping eyepieces so much easier than with the hard-to-reach spreader bar tray. The design is simple and requires no modifications to the tripod. The tray can be easily removed and re-used once I get a pier.
I look forward to my next session in the observatory when I can use my new eyepiece tray.
I made a revision of my eyepiece tray to accommodate an additional 2" eyepiece. Details are on my 27 November 2013 report.
Eyepiece tray design Copyright © 2010 Michael L. Weasner. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, May 23, 2010