So this is a modification I did to my telescope recently. Basically I added an inclinometer and a compass to it so that I can use the stellarium app on my phone to find just about any object I want in the night sky.
The compass was made using an epilog laser cutter at MakeIt Labs (my local makerspace) and basically this is what I did.
- Put masking tape on the telescope base.
- Laser engraved a compass onto it.
- Painted with spray paint primer over the base.
- Removed the masking tape.
- Used acetone to wipe off the excess paint while it was still wet. This is necessary because the masking tape had some issues being lasered.
- Bought a magnetic inclinometer here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004T807?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
- Folded a piece of acrlyic to act as a pointer in order to keep track of which way is north.
- Then I screwed the pointer to the bottom of the base with two screws while making sure there was plenty of wiggle room to adjust it to face north if I needed to.
In order to aim it you have to know which way is north. The easiest way to do that is to align the telescope with the north star. Then you have to know what the coordinates are of what you are trying to find. That can be done with the Stellarium Planetarium app for iPhone and Android.
This is the compass I had designed for this.
Enjoy!
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