Titan upgrade

 In the summer of 2023, I started work on mounting a large, heavy aerographic lens with focal length of 1200mm F6.  The lens alone is 40-50 lbs.  The rings add extra weight and difficulty to lift it into place.  

During the Calstar 2023, the system was mounted on a Losmandy G11.  It was bouncy and most images from that exercise were not usable for anything other than experiments.

Here's how it looked on the field.

Note the guide scope nestled inside the riser.  Also note the three 21 lbs counterweights.  The aluminum shield is required not for dew control more as a lens hood.

Shortly after Calstar in 2023, I looked to get a stronger mount for the system.  Losmandy no longer makes the Titan as a complete RA/DEC.  Instead, they only offer the RA upgrade where the DEC assembly of a G11 is used.  

Since the GM8 RA bearing replacement was a failed effort, I had a spare DEC shaft.  

Upgrade path was set: I got the G11-8 parts to allow the mounting of the GM8 DEC onto a G11 RA.  Then ordered the Titan RA to accept the displaced G11 DEC.  By December of 2023 I had all the bits to make the new assemblies.

Put them together in the shed, finally put the Titan on the backyard tripod in January.

With the 12 inch mini-pier extension that's required to keep me from crawling on the ground when viewing the ground glass plus the extra height of the Titan the new dovetail position is at my eye level.

This means that putting the parts together required a new way to approach lifting.

I knew that the required arm strength of lifting the whole lens and ring assembly is more than my own capability especially with the increased height.  Maybe in earlier times I could have done it.  No longer possible now.

After studying the situation in the backyard during preparation for Calstar 2024, I decided to break it into components.  Separating the lens from the rings makes these easier to lift in place.  Still not going to be able to lift the lens into place.  

Solution was to stack the cargo boxes beside the mount, slide the counterweights up the shaft so that it was top-heavy.  This allows the rings to rest on top of the stack of cargo boxes.  I only needed to lift the lens as a bear-hug to my own chest-height to put into the rings.  The boxes carry the weight of the lens until the counterweights are slid down the shaft, putting the system into balance, allowing it to be swung into the counterweight down CWD starting position.

In the above picture, see that the stack of three cargo boxes is not the lifting height used.  I had another box to get to the right position.  The three boxes seen here is the proper height to put a laptop for standing use.  The two small tables are actually closer to the camera and on the raised soil of the garden bed.  They appear much taller than they are.

This worked in the backyard and it worked at Calstar 2024.  Also worked with taking it apart at Calstar 2024.  I have not re-assembled it in the backyard again.  I will need to do this to work on the guiding issues.

At Calstar 2024 I did not use the mini-pier extension.  See the photo below as it was set up on the heavy Losmandy tripod.  Note the height of just two cargo boxes.  Lifting the lens into place required a stack of 4 boxes.