BULLETIN! Some News from RTMC 2012...
We took an oak-and-brass project to RTMC this year and won a Merit Award! Please checkback at our Blog page for a soon-to-be-posted report about "The Dickens," a McCreary Mount variation executed in "Steampunk" style!
Sub-Arc-Second Tracking Smoothness for About $200?
Believe it or not, you can afford to have a mount better suited to serious astrophotography than ones you might buy from AstroPhysics or Takahashi - and you can build it yourself with simple tools! (NOTE: For the latest news, be sure to visit our Blog page.)
The McCreary Mount takes a novel approach to problems such as periodic error, bearing irregularities, and polar alignment -- mechanical difficulties that have until now plagued equatorial mounts. Instead of trying to correct them with complex hardware or software schemes, the McCreary Mount simply and completely eliminates the most common sources of mechanical error, producing incomparably smooth tracking.
Well-understood engineering "first principles" that have been overlooked in virtually all earlier equatorial designs are judiciously applied in this original concept, which is disclosed in considerable detail here -- but be careful! Don't be fooled by the deceptive simplicity of the design! It is this very simplicity that results in the invention's great strength.
New observatories will benefit from the McCreary Mount, and serious amateur astrophotographers are certain to find the design not only cost-effective, but unprecedentedly precise.
Excellent home-made versions can be readily constructed with simple tools, materials, and skills, at incredibly low costs (the prototype was built for less than $200!).
To encourage its widest possible development and use, Dann is releasing the McCreary Mount into the public domain.
It is Dann's prayer that many amateur astrophotographers (and those who view their photographs) will see to an ever greater extent the magnificent creativity that God has displayed through Jesus Christ in the heavens.
