Two-Axis Balancing Is Key To Low-Friction Rotation Needed For Tracking
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The Super Half Hitch implements two-axis balancing without the use of counterweights. Instead, the Super Half Hitch uses the weight of the telescope itself to counterbalance the off-axis loads created by the star diagonal, eyepiece, finder, bino-viewer and other accessories by shifting the telescope attachment point up-and-down as well as fore-and-aft. A machined track on the Half Hitch's saddle plate provides the up-down adjustment, and the dovetail plate makes fore-aft adjustment easy. Together, these adjustments allow the mass of the telescope and saddle to be centered on the altitude axis so that the scope is stable when pointed to any elevation and does no work against gravity when rotating essential characteristics for a tracking mount and highly desirable for manual control, as well.
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Why Adding Friction Doesn't Solve Balance Some claim that if you add enough friction into the altitude axis of a mount, then you do not have to balance your telescope. This is a bad idea for at least five reasons:
As an example of how high friction works against the observer, consider trying to make a controlled movement of a scope with the eyepiece end of the optical tube extending twenty inches from the axis of rotation. Suppose you want to shift the telescope direction by five arc-minutes a bit more than five times the apparent diameter of Jupiter. The end of the telescope tube must be "nudged" by only .03 inch a completely impossible increment to control given the unavoidable physical effects described above!
No amount of apparent "smoothness" during longer sweeps can overcome the jerking effects for small centering and tracking adjustments. A mount which resists shifts in balance is a mount that resists turning! Thats the physics. Even mounts with slow-motion controls but no provisions for full balancing must apply friction through clutches or clamps to overcome unbalanced loads and suffer to some degree from the above problems. The Super Half Hitch eliminates these problems by making complete two-axis balancing easy and by employing true low-friction bearings to make turning forces predictable, intuitive, and controllable. |
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The Balance Trimmer is used to easily zero-out the differences in eyepiece weights. It has two-axis effect for keeping the balance perfect. The small trim weight is NOT a counterweight for the entire off-axis load but only nulls the differences in eyepiece weights. |
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