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This is not the way I recommend you move your telescope.
But since I was unwilling to disasseble the telescope, we drove it up to the observatory in a truck. it took considerable
force to roll it onto the trcuk on it's Lowe's dolly! On retrospect, betwen the vibrations and risk of damaging it,
we were very luck it made it with it's collimation almost still dead on!
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Hee you can clearly see the gray squar hollow steel
sharfts the reinforced the Paramount ME. We raised the PT-III and had it settle onto the shafts, then simply unplugged
the Pier-tech III Pier. It is no longer posssible to rock the mount, whereas there was about 2-3 inches of movement
prior to making this change.
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Just a view of how we rounded the corner of the door
and managed to get the entire assembly through Vito's Pier Tech door. We has less than an inch of clearance.
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My original setup included 120 pounds of telescope
(the 16" RCOS scope and a Takahashi 106 FSQ initially). With the counterweights we had 240 pounds on the Pier-Tech
III Telescope Pier. Althought the motor could lift the weight, the construct was unstable and even a good
T-point model could not correct the mounts flexure. In fairness to Vito, I doubt anyone ever tested this mount
for long focal length autoguiding with this amount of weight, nearly exceeding the abilities even the Paramount ME.
The next image details the solution, bracing with hollow steel rods from, you guessed it, Lowe's! The idea from Mel Helm,
the mechanical genious of SRO.
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