The loss, my 90mm refractor. Had been safely (or so I thought) stored in my attic. Long story short it has become useless as storage conditions in the attic are uncontrolled (278 yr old house no attic fan or ventilation) and the heat has destroyed it.

The gain, it came with an EQ mount, with slow motion hand controls for it. The tripod was a wooden two piece per leg design that wasn't very stable at all but the EQ mount itself is a very solidly constructed unit. As I was taking the stuff out to the trash it dawned on me that I might be able to modify the mount and use it as a platform for astrophotography. I took the unit apart and cleaned an lubricated it. Then I took a scrap piece of oak and drilled a 1/4'' dia. hole in the center, I drove a 1/4''x20 dowel screw in it and mounted this in place of where the scope was mounted.

Here is a picture of the set up ( I just noticed thats my new 10'' dob in the backround)

I'm going to make a sturdy platform to mount this on and then use it as a "barn door'' or ''scotch'' mount if you will.

The question, the part I'm not sure of is when I'm using this to take pictures do I make the adjustments on the RA control the same as with the scotch mount i.e 1/4 turn per 15 sec. ?

The earth turns at 15"/sec. If you know how much (angle) one turn of the RA knob equals, that will answer your question. You may have to make some measurements by making several turns of the knob, then dividing to get the angle per turn.

Looks like a nice "barn door", or at least, relatively low cost type tracker. Too bad the scope couldn't stand the heat.

Robert

I checked the mount and the dial on the RA adjustment indicator is marked off in 24 equal segments with each segment having 3 incriments within them. I measured the movement of the RA and it moves exactly 1 segment per turn. Does this mean that one turn equals an apparent movement of the sky for a one hour period, or am I totally off and lost?  When I had the scope I never paid any attention to the Dec. or RA I just pointed the scope and looked. Your patience and pity are greatly appreciated.

If it is marked in 24 increments that would be equal to one 24 hour revolution of the clock. I think you are on track with your assumption. Another thing you could try is counting the teeth on the RA gear. Then take that number and divide it by 1440 (minutes in a day) and that will tell you the RPM you have to maintain on the worm gear to track. It looks like a stock generic EQ-1 type mount and there are motor drives for them from Orion. One even has an adjustable speed for fine tuning. 

Variable speed Drive

JJ 

Thank goodness you didn't trash the mount!  Sounds like a very workable salvage job that still has many years of use ahead of it.  A long while ago I picked up a 60mm refractor from a friend for $10.  The optics were too far gone to be of use but with some cleaning and a similar bit of woodwork it has worked as a very nice and steady mount for my C-90. 

Sorry to hear about your optics though.

L

Thanks for the input guys. I just can't bring myself to throw something out if it can be used for something else. I guess I've always been a practicer of the "green thing".