Re: Kilian's mount: Parts are getting purchased.

Chuck Grant (grant@aretha.llnl.gov)
Thu, 27 Apr 95 02:18:40 -0700

It is my understanding that If you make your mount parts out of aluminum instead of steel, they will be about 3 times more elastic. So you have to make them thicker to get the same stiffness, and you end up not really gaining any weight advantage for the same strength.

A hollow steel tube the same weight and diameter as a solid aluminum shaft is probably stiffer.

I would worry about flex of that 3/8 aluminum plate, but then again maybe your telescope size and weight and your application requirements do not make this critical.

I am not a mechanical engineer, and I have never built a German equatorial mount so you probably want to check these things out for yourself. But I was very impressed by Textereou's chapter on mechanical considerations for German equatorial mounts. I would stick with the conventional wisdom of using the thick, heavy steel parts.