SV: ATM Alt Balance and Eyepieces

["Nils Olof Carlin" <nilsolof.carlin@telia.com>]

Doug,

><You didn't mention the size of your scope>
>It's a 12.5" f/6

Two more things Gary didn't mention:

Increase the diameter of the trunnions.

Make an eyepiece revolver, with the heavy Nagler on the scope all the time - the lighter, 
shorter focus ep-s can be changed. I once made a sliding focuser board that could be 
pushed to get either the Nagler or a 1.25" focuser in place. It did work after a fashion, 
but I dropped the idea before I had worked out all the bugs.

A non-electric way (I just made a pilot experiment, successful enough to warrant further 
developement):

Take a piece of string (shoestring if your budget constraints require ;-) and tie the one 
end to the center of one of your trunnions. Then tie a piece of wood to the other end, 
with the wood a little above the ground at the end the string was tied to - the other end 
will rest on the ground. Step on the piece of wood, change the eyepieces, step off a
gain.

Nils Olof